‘Defence’ defines Jets

Opinion

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This article was published 22/11/2014 (3967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the Winnipeg Jets launch into the meat of their season, they’re about to do so in a whole new way.

The Jets went past the quarter-pole of the NHL’s 82-game campaign with their 21st game Thursday night, a 4-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

The team’s record at this stage, 10-8-3, is the best in the last five seasons, but not by a lot. So there’s little early evidence to suggest slow starts have been the source of the franchise’s consistent failure — seven straight springs — to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Each of the Jets/Thrashers teams since 2010-11 has been kind of middle-of-the-road at the quarter pole, never more than one game below .500 to this year’s two above.

This fall’s Jets, however, are starting to show characteristics never seen by this franchise, namely in goals for and goals against.

Scoring has been a definite concern. With only 43 goals to show for the 21 outings, tight games are the norm for this team.

But there’s more focus on the more important side of scoring stats, and that’s defence and goals against, a narrative held by most as the most reliable road to better results.

Here, the Jets are 11 goals better than last season’s first quarter. That’s better than half a goal a game.

And amazingly, these Jets have improved by a full goal per game on the fairy-tale 2011-12 squad that ushered the NHL back to the Manitoba capital. Then, few in Jets Nation cared much beyond the fact NHL games were again taking place in downtown Winnipeg.

The defensive move is significant but as you can see, however you may interpret first-quarter results, they are not the end product. None of the past first quarters have put the team on the road to the post-season.

Not only is more of this required, but an even better version of more.

“We’ve had three weeks playing good defensively,” Jets coach Paul Maurice declared this week. “We can get better at that, by all means. It will be about things that become more habits than reads, that you’re just where you’re supposed to be. I think then our quickness comes out a little more. We’ll get better in those areas.”

It is Maurice’s prodding that has sent the Jets from a very uncertain start at 2-5, to this “three weeks” of progress.

And the coach laid out why it’s just progress, a small step.

“We’re still becoming who we are,” he said. “Three, four weeks of good hockey doesn’t set a tradition in stone by any means. We have to do this through adversity because it’s still coming. Every team faces it three or four times a year, whether it’s your schedule, injuries, droughts of scoring, power play struggling…

“Whatever it is, you face your adversity and when you can maintain what you’re supposed to look like through those times, then you can look back a year, three years, five years and say, ‘That’s who the Winnipeg Jets are.’ “

Since we’re not that far along, it’s tough to make hard-and-fast determinations.

But some of the franchise’s fog has dissipated and the road forward would appear to be evident.

What has emerged since Maurice was put in charge last January is more clarity in the dressing room.

The players say what’s expected of them — the specifics — is better defined and less abstract, and it’s more individually tailored. The goal with these one-on-one channels Maurice has established is to maximize individual preparation and that, in turn, has led the Jets to better starts and better first periods.

It’s been especially evident in their latest 14 games, though there have been a few anomalies like last Sunday’s outing in Minnesota.

Now, rather than working hard some nights to just wake up and to join the pace of a game, the team has had its compete level ready to go with the national anthem.

After giving up five first-period goals in their first three games, the Jets have surrendered just 10 in their next 18 games, and three of those came last Sunday in Minnesota.

This is another layer in the search for an identity.

“Working hard on the 10 feet of ice that’s in front of you,” said Maurice, trying to boil that down. “And then having a pretty good line of communication, good energy on the bench, lots of talk.

“Wired for our games. I think how we’ve come out for our games is an important part of who we are. It’s the preparation that goes on in the room and that’s leadership, that’s the players, it’s not the coach, in there winding them up.

“That’s those guys getting ready for the games.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca