Power-play goals hard to come by

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This article was published 03/03/2025 (213 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets may still be leading the NHL in power-play efficiency, but it’s fair to say consumer confidence is sagging when it comes to what assistant coach Davis Payne had hoped would be a “recession-proof” unit.

Score a 5-on-4 goal? Apparently not in this current economic climate.

The Jets are stuck in a 0-for-16 rut that spans their last six games. You have to go back to Neal Pionk’s second-period blast against the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 4 — that’s now a full calendar month — to find the last time Winnipeg punished an opponent for its on-ice sins.

Naturally, the recent trend was a hot topic on Monday as Payne, the architect of the power play, spoke with media following his team’s optional practice.

“We look at it as part of a process on how we’re operating. There’s a lot of different things that start with fundamental keys for us,” Payne explained.

“Do we have the right mindset going out there? And, if so, what is the level of execution? Teams kill differently in certain situations, so we have to be ready for that and have our adjustments ready to go. At the same time, even when the puck was going in the net, there were parts of the process that aren’t where they need to be.”

Those warning signs have manifested themselves in the five games since the 15-day 4 Nations Face-Off break, which Payne doesn’t believe played a role in bringing momentum to a screeching halt. It’s clear the puck and player movement haven’t been as crisp.

“We look at it as part of a process on how we’re operating. There’s a lot of different things that start with fundamental keys for us.”–Davis Payne

“A lot of teams have come out of it and done well, and other teams it’s different pieces of their game, not just the power play, that are sort of misfiring,” he said. “That’s the challenge this time of year, because it’s tough hockey out there.”

Funny enough, Payne didn’t like how the PP looked in wins last week over St. Louis (0-for-2), San Jose (0-for-2) and Ottawa (0-for-4 including two minutes of 5-on-3) last week but was encouraged by what he saw in the losses against Nashville (0-for-4 including 1:54 of 5-on-3) and Philadelphia (0-for-2) that have since followed.

“We can work with what we’ve seen the last two,” he said.

“It’s baseball season, so are we having good at bats? The last two games we’ve had good at bats. We’ve hit the ball at their defence. They’ve made the plays and they’ve got outs. Next time we’ll hit it to the open grass if you will. Or over the fence.”

The Jets will step back up to the plate on Tuesday night as they open a four-game road trip by facing the New York Islanders, who got this downward slide started back on Feb. 7 when they went two-for-two on the penalty kill during their visit to Winnipeg in the last game before the break.

“I never put a lot of stock in puck luck,” Payne said of the suggestion the Jets just aren’t getting the bounces. Rather, it’s more about failing to make adjustments.

“Teams are trying to take away our strengths just as we try to take away their strengths,” he said.

“I never put a lot of stock in puck luck.”–Davis Payne

“If their goaltender makes some saves, or if the puck doesn’t go in, it’s about how it looks, how we’re operating and all the detail pieces that we focus on. Sometimes it’s going in, sometimes it’s not. Had they gone in we don’t have the conversation (publicly), but at the same time we’re having conversations about details, fundamentals and mindset.”

The Jets have scored one goal in each of their last two games, so a timely power-play strike or two could have extended a franchise-best 11-game winning streak into something even bigger.

Winnipeg is still clicking at 30.5 per cent on the power play this year, while the Detroit Red Wings sit second-overall at 29.6 per cent. The Jets are also the third highest-scoring team in the NHL averaging 3.49 goals-per-game, trailing only the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning in that category.

In other words, nobody will be reaching for the panic button any time soon.

“Play only elevates and gets tougher and the space out there gets less and less and guys tighten up and the games become so much more magnified every single shift,” said Jets sniper Kyle Connor, who believes the lessons his group is learning along the way will prove valuable.

“It’s only going to get harder. This is what it is right now. What’s it going to be like Game 1 of the playoffs? We’ve got to build ourselves for that and that’s what we keep reminding ourselves. And if we ever get into this stretch of a period or two, we can look back and, ‘Hey, this is how we got out of it. We put pucks to the net, we kept it simple, we stayed positive, we leaned on each other and we got through something like this.’”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg