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Win and they’re in.
It’s that simple for the Winnipeg Jets, who can officially punch their postseason ticket tonight if they can collect two points against the Calgary Flames. A victory would also eliminate their former Smythe Division rivals — who have beaten them in two prior meetings this season — from playoff contention.
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“Yeah, that would be nice. That’s the objective. Get that as quick as we can,” said coach Rick Bowness on Thursday morning. “But again, even after that we want to keep pushing. Listen, going into the playoffs you have to be playing your best hockey. The sooner the better we get that ‘x.’ But even after that we’re going to keep pushing here, because you’ve got to make sure you’re at your top of your game in every area going into the playoffs. So, that’s the goal.”
Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness says going into the playoffs you have to be playing your best hockey. (John Woods / The Canadian Press files)
The Jets will be looking to build off Monday’s 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings that snapped a season-high six-game winless streak.
“We’re just trying to get our team game to a point where we’re happy with it,” said defenceman Brenden Dillon.
“Everybody in here, you want to be going into the playoffs feeling good about your game personally, as a team, as a line, as a (defensive) pair. To be able to clinch tonight, you don’t want to be having to worry about other teams. We can control our own destiny. We’ve worked hard at that over the last 75 games or whatever it’s been. To be able to have a nice, celebratory end to this homestand, getting in and getting an ‘X’ beside our name would be good.”
Winnipeg will make three lineup changes. Connor Hellebuyck returns to the net in place of Laurent Brossoit, winger Tyler Toffoli returns from illness and takes the spot of Nino Niederreiter, who suffered a skate cut to his leg and is expected to miss a week, and defenceman Colin Miller replaces Nate Schmidt (healthy scratch) on the blue line.
Dustin Wolf is expected to start in goal for Calgary, which has lost six of its last seven games including a 5-3 setback at home to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night that led to some harsh post-game words from veteran players.
“We weren’t committed to playing with structure,” Flames defenceman MacKenzie Weegar told reporters. “Today wasn’t up to our standards and us leaders gotta show the way for the young guys,” added Flames captain Mikael Backlund.
Here’s some other information to get you set:
FROM THE PRESS BOX
MIKE SAYS: Today would have been Dale Hawerchuk’s 61st birthday, and his son, Eric, had a terrific post on social media this morning that seemed rather fitting.
“I think if my Dad was here all he’d want for his birthday is for the Jets to beat the Flames and clinch a playoff spot. Probably a round of golf, too,” he wrote.
No doubt, especially given how much the Flames tormented the Jets during “Ducky’s” tenure in Winnipeg.
It sure seems like the Jets are locked into a likely first-round matchup with the Colorado Avalanche. Winnipeg is nine points behind the first-place Dallas Stars, while also having a six-point cushion on the fourth-place Nashville Predators, who currently occupy the first wildcard spot. With just seven games remaining including tonight, finishing second or third seems certain.
The Jets would love to wrestle home-ice advantage away from the Avalanche, who are four points ahead of them right now. Winnipeg does have one game left against Colorado next Saturday in Denver and currently owns the tiebreaker. But the Jets obviously don’t have a lot of room for error here, so tonight almost feels like a must-win if they are to have any hope at second place.
I loved the accountability shown this morning from Dillon, who took a penalty in Saturday’s game against Ottawa Senators that led to the Senators ‘winning goal on the power play late in the third period.
‘First and foremost, I just felt like I let everybody down, I let all of the guys down,” the veteran defenceman said.
“We had played one of our better games and we had worked so hard to get to that point of the game. Whatever the time was on the clock, to take that (penalty), I felt horrible. You’re sitting there in the penalty box and you can’t do anything about it. It’s not like you can go out there and block a shot or do whatever you can. They score the goal, we lose the game and you’re just hoping it’s not something that comes back to bite you here in Game 82 or whatever position we finish in. I’m trying to learn from that and be smarter about it and hopefully not let the guys down again.”
Tremendous stuff.
KEN SAYS: Have the Jets snapped out of their late-season funk after a win over the Kings? The result from the finale of this five-game homestand could go a long way to giving us the answer to that question.
With seven games to go, the Jets are looking to deliver template efforts with regularity.
“You want to be firing on all cylinders. We might play a perfect game and lose,” said Jets defenceman Neal Pionk. “The point is to be playing the best hockey you can play going into the playoffs. We believe that if we play our game that way, we’re going to win a lot of games. We won’t win all of them, but we’ll win a lot of them.”
I’ll be watching the Jets’ newly configured top line closely. Gabriel Vilardi has been very good in his first two games back and seems to be finding his groove. And while the trio with Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers was outshot 11-1 at five-on-five play on Monday, they had some extended zone time shifts and are looking to get back to how they were playing in December.
I’m also curious to see how Toffoli fits in with the Adam Lowry line. After chipping in four goals and six points in his first five games with the Jets after the trade, Toffoli has gone six games without a point and hasn’t looked nearly as dangerous. He definitely brings some additional offensive flair to the unit and can also handle the defensive responsibilities. Does that mean the line will click immediately or need some time to mesh?
For the Flames, centre Nazem Kadri has 12 goals and 23 points in 26 career games against the Jets, while Blake Coleman is chasing the first 30-goal season of his NHL career at the age of 32. He’s sitting at 29 (which already beat his previous career-high by seven goals).
“Well, they’ve got a lot of skill up front. They do. And their (defence) are very involved,” Bowness said of the opponents, who have outscored Winnipeg 11-6 this year. “I’m not surprised they’re scoring, because again that skill level up front in their lines is pretty impressive. And they’re loose right now. It’s a lot easier to play the game when you’re loose and carefree out there and not afraid to try different plays. So they’ll be tough tonight. They always are.”
Wolf was the goalie of the year in the American Hockey League in each of the two previous seasons and he’s working hard to show that he can handle a No. 1 job in the NHL in the near future.
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