Time for Jets to turn the heat back up

EDMONTON — The Winnipeg Jets have come a long way since they last touched down here in Edmonton back on Oct. 7 and torched the reigning Western Conference champions 6-0.

Sixty-eight games have followed, scattered across the other 31 NHL markets, since that season-opening beat-down of the Oilers which helped set the tone for what was to come. It’s been quite a journey so far, from a solid 1-0-0 start to a scintillating 47-18-4 that has them on top of the standings.

The sky might just be the limit for these Jets.

Their most recent stop in Vancouver on Tuesday included some unexpected turbulence. A 6-2 loss to the Canucks was easily one of their worst outings of the year, filled with defensive miscues and unforced errors. Winnipeg looked like a team that put its game on cruise control against a hungry, desperate opponent that was fighting for its playoff life.

We won’t hold a rare rough night against them. Bounce back with a solid effort against the Oilers here on Thursday and it’s simply a minor blip on the radar.

However, there are some areas of concern right now with the overall game that are going to need to be straightened out as the Jets head down the stretch and into what they hope will be a long playoff run.

A cold front for El Nino

There was a moment in the second period on Tuesday where Nino Niederreiter had just finished up yet another unproductive shift and, as he neared the Winnipeg bench, he lifted up his stick and briefly thought about smashing it over the boards.

It was a rare sign of frustration for the veteran Swiss forward, who plays the game hard but isn’t prone to emotional outbursts.

You have to go all the way back to Feb. 4 — a span of 14 games — since Niederreiter last found the back of the net. He has just one assist in that time, which represents one of the worst offensive droughts of his 14-year career.

His defensive game is struggling, too. Niederreiter carelessly gave the puck away in the waning seconds of the first period against Vancouver, only to see Nils Hoglander score with three seconds left to give the home team a 3-1 lead. Head coach Scott Arniel, speaking with the Free Press after the loss, called that play a “back-breaker.”

Arniel took the unusual step of breaking up Niederreiter’s normally reliable shutdown line, which includes captain Adam Lowry and winger Mason Appleton, to start the second period.

“Have to do something,” is how the head coach explained it. Brandon Tanev and Alex Iafallo moved up to play with Lowry and they produced a goal a few minutes later and looked solid the rest of the night. Niederreiter and Appleton, meanwhile, were demoted to the fourth line beside Morgan Barron and weren’t nearly as effective.

Appleton is nearly as cold as Niederreiter, with just one assist over his last 10 games, and it will be interesting to see if Arniel sticks with the re-tooled bottom six. Regardless, the Jets need more from their depth forwards, in particular Niederreiter who has eclipsed the 20-goal mark seven times in his career but has been stuck on 14 for what feels like forever this season.

Special teams struggles

Much ink has been spilled this year about Winnipeg’s potent power play, but it’s been anything but since the 4 Nations Face-Off. The Jets are clicking at just 18.2 per cent in the 13 games they’ve played since, which ranks 22nd in the league. They are just one-for-12 over the last five games.

Yes, they still lead the NHL overall on the year with a 30.7 per cent success rate. But the recent trend should be raising some alarm bells. Have other teams started to figure out what the Jets are doing? If so, they need to make adjustments to the adjustments as they’ll want the PP to be in fine form once the playoffs begin.

Forward Gabe Vilardi is really fighting it. He has just one goal in his last 12 games (which did come on the power play) and has whiffed on several glorious chances in recent games. You’d expect his puck luck to turn at some point soon — he does have seven assists over the last dozen — but the Jets need him to get going.

Vilardi has scored 12 of his 27 goals this year on the power play, but only three with the extra man have come since the calendar flipped to 2025.

Meanwhile, all of this is happening at the same time the penalty kill has become rather porous, which isn’t exactly a recipe for success. Winnipeg has killed just 74.2 per cent since the extended hockey hiatus which ranks 23rd. The Jets have given up a power-play goal in four of their last five games.

Overall, they are at 78.7 per cent on the year, which is 15th, but heading in the wrong direction as we get ever closer to a time when special teams typically take on even greater importance. Just ask the Oilers, who rode a ridiculously hot PK right into the Stanley Cup Final last year.

Playing with fire

Neal Pionk will miss a third straight game on Thursday with a lower-body injury that is said to be “week-to-week.” It’s noteworthy that he’s on this road trip and attended a comedy show last Saturday night in Seattle with Josh Morrissey and Connor Hellebuyck and was photographed wearing a walking boot.

The Jets are certainly missing him, as Colin Miller has come into the lineup and really struggled the last two games. There were also a couple scary moments against Vancouver Tuesday as Morrissey blocked a shot, came up limping and temporarily went to the room, while blue-line partner Dylan DeMelo crashed face-first into the boards and needed help.

Both players quickly returned, but with 13 regular season games remaining and general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff only adding two players at the deadline in defenceman Luke Schenn and forward Tanev, keeping everyone on the roster healthy takes on added importance.

The Jets enter play Thursday with a nine-point lead over the Dallas Stars for top spot in the Central Division and Western Conference. Finishing first is a priority — it would mean not having to face the Colorado Avalanche in the opening round and instead getting the second wild-card team — so they need to keep pushing hard.

If they can accomplish that goal sooner rather than later, some added rest and so-called “load management” could be employed for key players to ensure they are as close to 100 per cent entering the playoffs.

First up is an Oilers club that just thumped Utah by a 7-1 score on Tuesday night. They are currently in a three-way race with Vegas and Los Angeles for top spot in the Pacific Division and will likely have revenge on their mind given the way Winnipeg rudely welcomed them into the new season last fall.

It will be another good test for a Jets team that has handled brief bouts of adversity well this year. Their last real stinker, a 5-2 loss in Utah on Jan. 20, was followed up with a franchise-record 11-game winning streak.

“You’ve got to move on. Obviously, if it was more frequent, it would be more of a concern,” DeMelo said of their play in Vancouver.

“We’ll have to put a good effort next game against a really good Edmonton team. We know that and I think we can all look in the mirror and know that was a lot of self-inflicted wounds and not the style of play that we want to be. I think we’ll be able to learn a lot from that and hopefully put in a better effort in the next game.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg