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VANCOUVER – Greetings from the West Coast, where we’re all set for a marquee Saturday night matchup between the top two hockey teams in Canada.
The Vancouver Canucks can currently lay claim to the best club in the entire NHL, and by a considerable margin to boot. It’s an incredible story out here, for sure, with a team most pundits figured would have to fight for a wildcard spot laying waste to the league.
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“It’s nice to see, as a hometown guy, the team having success. It’s a good thing when hockey is buzzing in a Canadian city like this,” Winnipeg Jets defenceman Brenden Dillon told the Free Press.
“They’ve always had so much skill here with the Canucks. I saw a good bunch of them come in here end of August, early September. I think the culture here that (Rick) Tocchet and (assistant coach) Adam Foote and these guys have really instilled has obviously played a big part of it. We’ve always known the skill and the goal scoring and everything. They’ve made some good acquisitions, too. (Elias) Lindholm, he’s a heck of a player. (Nikita) Zadorov’s obviously impactful.”
Of course, the B.C. boy, who makes his return from a three-game suspension, would love to spoil the homecoming as his team looks to win for a third straight outing.
It hasn’t been pretty for the Jets, who have just nine goals in the last eight games, including a 1-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night. Coach Rick Bowness has mixed up his top six once again, with Gabe Vilardi and Nikolaj Ehlers switching spots. Still, Winnipeg still has the fifth-best winning percentage in the NHL, trailing only the Canucks, the Boston Bruins, the Dallas Stars and the Florida Panthers.
Connor Hellebuyck and Thatcher Demko will face each other in net. They are the odds-on favourites to be No. 1 and No. 2 for the U.S. Olympic squad in 2026.
“Two of the best in the game,” said Bowness. “You don’t win in this league without great goaltending. I don’t care. Vancouver has been getting it all year from their goaltenders and we’ve been getting it all year. Sometimes the goals against don’t reflect the type of game it was because the goaltending has been outstanding. They have one of the best, and we love our guy.”
Here’s some other information to get you set for puck drop:
FROM THE PRESS BOX
MIKE SAYS: I’m not going to go out on a limb and predict the outcome tonight. But I do get the sense the Jets have their collective game faces on, knowing the stage is a little bigger than usual for this one. Exhibit A: The fact 14 of the 22 skaters on the roster took part in an optional morning skate. (The other eight participated in off-ice workouts).
“They decide. When we practice the day before, it’s totally their option whether they want to skate the day of a game at this time of the year,” Bowness told me. “It’s up to them. They’re not important – to me.”
We’ll see if that strong turnout leads to a strong effort. They’ll certainly need it.
“We’ve been looking for a test like this,” said defenceman Dylan Samberg.
You keep waiting for the dam to burst and the goals to start coming. This group simply has too much talent to struggle the way it has. Although they did only get the one against the Sharks, the Jets did put up a whopping 39 shots on goal and 84 shot attempts.
“We’ve had a lot of looks over the last five to 10 games. Last game we felt like we could have scored six or seven,” said blue-liner Dylan DeMelo. “It’s kinda weird. not just one or two guys, it seems like everybody’s going through it right now. Maybe better now than later in the year. But when we’re not scoring, our defensive structure and our details have been pretty spot-on. When you have that you’re always going to be in games even when you’re not scoring.”
Indeed, the Jets have not strayed far from the successful script. Sure, you could say they were only facing the lowly Sharks last game, so a 17-save shutout isn’t exactly a massive accomplishment. But consider the fact San Jose went into Calgary 24 hours later and scored six times.
“It’s validation that we did have a really good game against them. And any given night anybody can beat anybody in this league,” is how Bowness explained it. “As soon as you take your foot off that gas pedal, you’re asking for trouble. You are.”
Winnipeg Jets coach Rick Bowness says they’ve just got to make sure they play Winnipeg Jets hockey, and it’ll go from there. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press files)
We’ll see if tonight is the night the Jets can finally get the offensive engine revving.
KEN SAYS: There’s plenty of intrigue to sort through as these two teams get set for the first of three meetings over the final 31 games of the campaign. The leading candidates for the Vezina Trophy are going head-to-head. Two legitimate Norris Trophy candidates in Quinn Hughes (the front-runner on many midseason ballots) and Josh Morrissey. Two first-year captains in Hughes and Adam Lowry who are doing an excellent job. Bowness is a former Canucks assistant coach and Tocchet was someone who was on the Jets’ radar for the head coaching vacancy before Bowness ultimately accepted the job. Both teams made a pre-emptive strike, bringing in Sean Monahan and Lindholm respectively to deepen the strength down the middle.
Monahan is looking more and more comfortable, though he’s still looking for his first point with his new team. Cole Perfetti has gone 11 games without a goal and has recorded just one assist during that stretch, so perhaps reuniting with Ehlers could help spark the second line.
The Jets swept the three-game series with the Canucks last season, but it’s important to note that all three games were played before Tocchet took over from Bruce Boudreau.
The Canucks are third in the NHL in goals against average (2.55) and second in the NHL in goals for per game (3.69). Elias Pettersson (28 goals, 72 points), J.T. Miller (24 goals, 70 points), Hughes (12 goals, 66 points) and Brock Boeser (30 goals, 54 points) have eclipsed 54 points this season and they’ve led the way offensively. For context, Mark Scheifele leads the Jets with 43 points and Kyle Connor leads the Jets with 19 goals, though both players missed significant time due to injury. Both teams have solid depth at all three position groups and have made noise all season long.
It may be an overused term, but this will fall under the category of a measuring-stick game for both teams and it should be a highly entertaining one.
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