Winnipeg Jets at New Jersey Devils

Greetings from Newark, where the Winnipeg Jets arrived to a winter wonderland after a massive amount of snow blanketed the region.

The Jets also arrived in New Jersey in a foul mood after dropping a 5-1 decision to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday in a game that featured five unanswered goals, leaving head coach Scott Arniel to unload on his players in the locker room and later at the podium.

As the Jets open a stretch of five games before the Olympic break — including four on this road trip — they understand the urgency of the situation.

It’s literally make-or-break territory for a Jets team that enters Tuesday’s action eight points behind the San Jose Sharks (who also hold a game in hand) in the chase for the second wild card berth in the Western Conference.

Arniel is expecting a strong response from his group.

“Well, I’ve done it before. I mean, that’s all part of coaching,” said Arniel. “You can’t do it every night. You can’t do it all the time. And it has to be when it’s warranted, too.

“I don’t think the players were caught off guard by it. And I’m pretty sure they recognized that we let one slip. Let’s move off of it now. We’ve done our homework on it. Now it’s all about the Devils.”

Winnipeg Jets' Nino Niederreiter tries to control the puck as New Jersey Devils goaltender Jake Allen makes the save during the third period of the Jan. 11 game. (Fred Greenslade / The Canadian Press files)

Winnipeg Jets’ Nino Niederreiter tries to control the puck as New Jersey Devils goaltender Jake Allen makes the save during the third period of the Jan. 11 game. (Fred Greenslade / The Canadian Press files)

This is the second and final meeting of the season with the Devils, who are nine points up on the Jets but currently sit seven points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Jets earned a 4-3 victory over the Devils on Jan. 11, but New Jersey posted a 5-2 record since that loss.

“Without question, it’s been our commitment defensively,” Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the morning skate.

“We’ve been giving up way less on the rush, just made life a lot easier on our goaltenders. That’s a big part of it. But we’ve been just confident and comfortable playing in low-event, low-scoring games while we’re trying to find our offense here.

“We’ve seen an uptick in our special teams in the last little bit. (One thing) I have been talking about here a lot is we want to get our defensive game in a great spot so that when our offense starts clicking and we start finishing at a higher rate, then we can really get rolling as a team. I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but we’ve seen an uptick pretty much in every area of our game.”

Connor Hellebuyck makes his 33rd start of the season for the Jets, while the Devils counter with Jake Allen.

The Jets held an optional skate on Tuesday, but are expected to go with the same lineup as Saturday, leaving forward Gustav Nyquist and defenceman Isaak Phillips as the healthy scratches.

—Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe

FROM THE PRESS BOX

MIKE SAYS: The next time I see the Jets in person will be March 3 when they host the Chicago Blackhawks at Canada Life Centre. And so when I left the downtown rink this past Saturday, I couldn’t help but wonder how different the club might look by then compared to the group I had just watched get dominated by Detroit.

The Jets have eight games between now and then, including four on this current road trip that Ken is covering, a one-game stop at home next Wednesday against Montreal — I’m going to be in Milan by then for our Winter Olympics coverage — and then a three-game journey coming out of the break.

With eight pending unrestricted free agents — five will be in the lineup tonight, along with backup goaltender Eric Comrie, injured defenceman Colin Miller and healthy scratch Gustav Nyquist — there could be plenty of changes coming at or near the March 6 trade deadline.

Among the things I’ll be watching closely — but from a distance — is how those potential trade chips look. Logan Stanley and Jonathan Toews are at the top of the list in my eyes, but Luke Schenn, Tanner Pearson and Cole Koepke could also potentially fetch some type of return from contenders looking for depth upgrades. It would obviously serve the Jets well if they increase their stock through solid play over this next little while.

We may once again be getting close to a scenario where Arniel has no choice but to consider splitting up the top line. They’ve been largely ineffective as of late, and I’d actually like to see one of Morgan Barron or Cole Perfetti get a shot with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, assuming that duo isn’t getting broken up.

Why not? What do they have to lose at this point?

KEN SAYS: To say it’s now or never might be a slight exaggeration, but with only 31 games to go (including this one), the Jets need to get on a hot streak or they run the risk of facing a double-digit deficit in the pursuit of a playoff spot.

The math is already stacked against the Jets, but it will be interesting to see how this group responds to the harsh criticism from Arniel, who doesn’t make a habit of questioning his group’s effort very often.

Even-strength goals have suddenly been tough to come by for the Jets and that’s also been the case for their opponent as well, so naturally, this could be a high-scoring affair, right?

Gabe Vilardi is having a strong season, but he’s now gone four consecutive games without a point. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)

The Jets’ top line has carried the load for much of the season, but they’ve been quiet in each of the past two games and are due for a better performance.

Gabe Vilardi is having a strong season, but he’s now gone four consecutive games without a point and he’s gone five games without a goal since notching his 19th on Jan. 16.

Vilardi was the only member of the Jets top-six forward group that took part in the optional skate on Tuesday, so he’ll be looking to get back on track offensively on this road trip.

Perfetti has been limited to one goal (and point) during the past six games, while Toews has one assist in five games since he had a goal and an assist against the Minnesota Wild on Jan. 15.

Winnipegger Cody Glass is having a strong season for the Devils, as he’s up to 13 goals and 18 points in 41 games.

Glass scored twice against the Jets earlier this month and he’s just one goal away from tying his career high, set during the 2022-23 season with the Nashville Predators.

Devils centre Jack Hughes is starting to get going offensively, producing a goal and 10 points during his past nine games to move him to 34 points in 34 games this season.

PROJECTED LINES

WINNIPEG JETS

FORWARDS:

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Perfetti-Toews-Vilardi
Niederreiter-Lowry-Namestnikov
Koepke-Barron-Pearson

DEFENCE:

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Salomonsson
Stanley-Schenn

GOAL:

Hellebuyck
Comrie

HEALTHY SCRATCHES: D Phillips, F Nyquist

INJURED: D Fleury (nose, back), D Miller (lower-body), D Pionk (lower-body)

NEW JERSEY DEVILS

FORWARDS:

Dadonov-Hughes-Mercer
Meier-Hischier-Bratt
Griotuyuk-Glass-Hameenaho
Palat-Cotter-Brown

DEFENCE:

Siegenthaler-Kovacevic
Nemec-Hamilton
Dillon-Pesce

GOAL:

Allen
Markstrom

HEALTHY SCRATCHES: D White, C Glendening, F Lammikko

INJURED: D L Hughes (shoulder), C McLaughlin (undisclosed), RW Noesen (knee), RW MacEwen (knee)

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

Jets forward Tanner Pearson on creating greasy goals in the last meeting with the Devils:

“That will be a topic of conversion for tonight. We’ll look at it. Every game you want to do it. Good things happen when you go to the net. There’s a lot of things that play into it. The more pucks you get there, stuff just happens sometimes (or) it hits a shin pad and goes in.”

WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON

Ken caught up with former Jets D-man Brenden Dillon following the morning skate and will write about his journey to 1,000 games and beyond. He will also handle the game analysis from Jets vs. Devils.

You can find both pieces in Wednesday’s print edition and online.