FROM THE PRESS BOX
MIKE SAYS: In the quest to find a few silver linings, I thought Jonathan Toews played his best game of the season against Edmonton. He looked quicker, the puck was following him all night long and he was in the middle of plenty of offensive chances. I asked him prior to puck drop on Thursday if the five-day Christmas break did his 37-year-old body good, and he concurred the rest was a welcome development.
All of which reinforces something that has puzzled me: Why haven’t the Jets tried to work in some load management with him, giving him the occasional game off to recharge his batteries? Instead, they’ve rolled him out for all 42 games so far, including plenty of nights when it was clear his fuel tank was close to empty.
Winnipeg Jets’ Logan Stanley is a pending unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. (Melissa Majchrzak / The Associated Press files)
Logan Stanley’s stock is also rising, and he had another high-event game against Edmonton which include a spirited scrap with Trent Frederic — the tip of the helmet to the crowd was a nice touch — and even taking a third-period shift on the power play, getting in on the forecheck in what looked like he was being utilized as a forward. Stanley also rang a shot off the post, coming that close to his eighth goal of the season. He’s a pending unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and some are speculating he could cash in on a large contract, perhaps in the neighbourhood of US$5 million per season.
If you’re the Jets, you have to seriously think about moving him by the trade deadline. He might just be your most valuable asset right now. Other pending UFAs include Toews, and I wonder if some contender out there might be willing to pay a price to bring him into the fold. If his play keeps trending in the right direction, that wouldn’t surprise me.
Dec. 5 probably feels like a lifetime ago for Comrie, which is when he last recorded a victory. He’s made just three starts since then, giving up 15 goals on 72 shots. Like pretty much all of his teammates, he’s struggled to produce and will need to be a lot sharper tonight for the Jets to have a chance.
KEN SAYS: What’s it going to take for the Jets to break the cycle? That’s been the big question for the better part of two months during a span that has seen them win just three of the past 23 contests.
You can tell the stretch has been taxing mentally for this group, but they’re determined to find a way out of this funk.
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the Jets’ inability to win one-goal games of late — with nine of them coming during this 11-game slide, but an obscure stat is that they’ve now lost an NHL-record 13 consecutive games that were decided by one goal this season.
“That’s what the NHL is, the teams that win those one-goal games are the ones playing in the playoffs,” said Arniel. “It’s plain and simple.”
That’s exactly why the Jets need to be a little bit more comfortable in those situations moving forward.
Zhilkin remains in the Jets’ lineup and you can expect him to see a bit more ice time in his second NHL game. Zhilkin came as advertised in his NHL debut and despite being limited to 10 shifts for just under seven minutes of ice time, he should still be fresh for this one — and an advantage is that he’s used to playing on consecutive days in the American Hockey League.
“I thought he did a really good job in his minutes of bringing energy, being hard on pucks, responsible, using his speed, using his kind of awareness to create some (chances),” said Lowry. “Their line got us a big goal in the first period. It was awesome to see.”
I’m curious to see whether Namestnikov is back in the lineup for this one after being a healthy scratch for the first time this season. In his first game with the Jets after he was originally acquired, he played on the wing alongside Lowry and I wonder if he could be heading back there in a checking role, but we will see what the pre-game warm-up brings.
One of the unfortunate things about this matchup is local fans won’t have the opportunity to see Kings captain Kopitar live one last time, as he’s on the shelf with an injury and is retiring at the end of the season. But longtime Kings blue-liner Drew Doughty is fired up to play for Canada in the Olympics next month and is usually pretty noticeable when he goes up against the Jets.
Doughty has three goals and 13 points in 35 games while averaging 22:42 of ice time at the age of 36.
PROJECTED LINES
WINNIPEG JETS
FORWARDS:
- Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
- Perfetti-Toews-Vilardi
- Barron-Lowry-Niederreiter
- Koepke-Zhilkin-Pearson
DEFENCE:
- Morrissey-Pionk
- Samberg-DeMelo
- Stanley-Schenn
GOAL:
HEALTHY SCRATCHES: D Miller, F Nyquist, F Namestnikov
INJURED: D Fleury (nose, back)
LOS ANGELES KINGS
FORWARDS:
- Ward-Laferriere-Kempe
- Malott-Byfield-Foegele
- Fiala-Turcotte-Kuzmenko
- Lee-Helenius
DEFENCE:
- Anderson-Doughty
- Edmundson-Clarke
- Dumoulin-Ceci
- Moverare
GOAL:
HEALTHY SCRATCHES: F Guttman
INJURED: C Kopitar (lower body), LW Moore (upper body), RW Armia (upper body), RW Perry (non-roster)
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
Jets coach Scott Arniel on the disconnect with his team knowing what it needs to do, but failing to execute on the ice:
“We are in a kind of fragile situation right now were everyone is expecting the worst to happen and it is happening. That mindset, you guys asked me about the mental side of things, those are all part of those moments where, (you must) get over it and find a way to be stronger in that situation. We are talking about it, I hear the bench talking about it, ‘attack, stay on our toes,’ but it is not registering.”
WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
Mike has an early story coming on today’s announcement of the Canadian women’s Olympic team, with a focus on Manitoban skaters.
Mike and Ken are also putting their heads together for Dump & Chase, which will include their NHL awards ballots at the midway mark of this season.
Ken will handle the game analysis of Jets vs. Kings.
You can find all three pieces in Saturday’s paper and online.
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