Nice win — now to get serious

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This article was published 03/10/2016 (3284 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

And with that, things are about to get real.

The Winnipeg Jets are expected to make a major round of cuts today — perhaps as many as a dozen or more — as the club’s pre-season schedule shifts from what has been an entertaining open audition for all this team’s exciting young talent to a serious dress rehearsal for a regular season looming next week.

Monday night’s game at the MTS Centre against the Ottawa Senators — which the Jets won 4-2 to improve their pre-season record to 4-1 — was the last home game before the club opens the regular season Oct. 13 against the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Jets had 42 men on their roster heading into Monday’s game and that must be drastically trimmed, both to get the club down to a more manageable number heading into two final pre-season games this week and also to funnel some talent to the Manitoba Moose, who opened training camp Monday.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice said Monday night he’d like to get down to 28-30 healthy players heading into the final two pre-season games.

 

Top Line Returns

The Jets top line to finish last season — Nikolaj Ehlers-Mark Scheifele-Blake Wheeler — made its 2016-17 debut.

It didn’t take long for the three to make their presence felt — Ehlers set up Scheifele for a power-play goal midway through the second period, Wheeler scored on a blast with just six seconds left in the second and Ehlers was credited with a goal with just four seconds left in the game when he was hauled down from behind on a breakaway on an empty Ottawa net.

Put it together and the three linemates combined for five points in their 2016-17 debut.

Power play Firing

The Jets went 2-for-7 on the power-play, with goals from Scheifele and a beauty from youngster Kyle Connor, who beat Sens netminder Andrew Hammond from an impossible angle to notch his third goal in three games this pre-season.

The two goals brings the Jets power-play this pre-season to 9-for-25, a sizzling 36 per cent scoring clip.

That’s unsustainable, of course. And it’s still just pre-season. But it’s also hard to ignore those kind of numbers when you consider an anemic power-play unit was the Jets’ undoing on many nights last season.

Maurice said Monday morning he wants to see a power-play unit this season that creates scoring chances with speed and lots of motion, instead of counting on snipers.

“When (power plays) get stagnant and there’s no movement, you’re really, really relying on a high finishing skill to make it work — a guy who can really pick a corner or a defenceman who can bomb the puck,” said Maurice.

“We’d like to get away from that individual skill as the important part of the power-play.”

 

Hutch Starts

Michael Hutchinson became the first Jets goaltender to get a second start this pre-season, stopping 27 of 29 Ottawa shots.

Hutchinson is in a battle with veteran Ondrej Pavelec and youngster Connor Hellebuyck to become one of the two netminders the Jets carry to start the regular season.

One of those three will have to go down to the minors next week to start the regular season and if the Jets choose to send down Hutchinson, he would have to clear waivers before he could be assigned to the Moose.

Hellebuyck is on a two-way contract and would not have to clear waivers to be assigned to the Moose, but he is also generally regarded as the Jets’ goaltender of the future after an impressive NHL debut last season.

Pavelec is in the final year of his contract and set to earn US$4.75 million this season.

Eric Comrie also got a start in net for the Jets this pre-season but will be assigned to the Moose, possibly as early as today.

 

Stafford Leaves Early

Jets forward Drew Stafford got slammed hard into the boards during the first period and didn’t return to the Jets bench.

The club said Stafford sustained an upper-body injury.

“We’ll get some tests done (today),” Maurice said after the game. “I don’t think it’s overly significant, so we’ll leave him at day-to-day.”

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @PaulWiecek