Jets played the right way, despite loss to Oilers

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/03/2020 (2018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON — There’s a clear path to the NHL playoffs for the Winnipeg Jets. One that involves finding a way to bottle up and duplicate the kind of performance that went down late Saturday night here in the Alberta capital.

That might strike some as odd given the end result, with the Jets skating away empty-handed and not a whole lot of regular-season runway left for a team currently on the wrong side of the post-season line.

For my money, the 3-2 loss to an equally desperate Edmonton Oilers club ranks right up there with some of Winnipeg’s best games of the season. It was the kind of effort you need when the stakes are high, as they are right now. And more often than not, it would have produced a well-deserved two points for the visitors.

Sure, you can always find some flaws. Giving up the first goal, for the 10th time in 11 games, is less than ideal. Surrendering a pair of power play tallies — in the final day of a month where you’ve owned the best penalty kill in the NHL — also let a bit of air out of the balloon.

But once they found their legs and got going, it was as solid as anything we’ve seen in a while. They fired 41 shots at veteran goalie Mike Smith while giving up just 22 of their own, and very little during five-on-five play where they dominated. Winnipeg also had oodles of other great chances that either missed the net or were blocked.

Which is why this one really hurts for the Jets, who are past the point of taking any solace in a moral victory.

“It doesn’t matter how you play, you’ve got to get results this time of year,” a visibly frustrated Blake Wheeler said in a quiet Rogers Place dressing room following the game.

“To play as hard as we did and then lose, that’s a painful one,” added a subdued coach Paul Maurice.

For the Jets, the key here is making this kind of effort the benchmark going forward, while not allowing any sense of feeling sorry for themselves to creep in despite icing a lineup that is currently without key players in Patrik Laine, Josh Morrissey, Bryan Little, Adam Lowry and Mathieu Perreault.

In that sense, might a suggest they go back into the not-so-distant past and recall how they responded to a frustrating 2-1 defeat to Boston back on Jan. 31.

It was the team’s first game back out of the All-Star break, which they had limped into with four straight regulation losses. They poured everything they had into that game against the mighty Bruins — I’d argue it was their most complete game of the season — yet still came up short as the winless drought reached a season-high five games.

With a tough schedule on deck, the Jets were at a bit of a crossroads. Things quickly could have gone off the rails.

Instead, they responded with their winningest February in franchise history, starting with a 4-0-1 run that included a pair of victories over the defending Stanley Cup champs from St. Louis. Overall, they went 8-5-2 for the month, keeping themselves very much alive in the race.

And now, with 15 games left, they’ll need to March forward with similar response if they want to keep playing beyond Apr. 4.

“You’re angry with yourself if you don’t come in with your best. But you’re exceptionally frustrated when you play the way we did and you lose a hockey game because you know the stakes. But the next one’s going to get played, the puck’s going to get dropped, and you should be a hockey team coming into that one knowing your game’s right,” Maurice told me late Saturday night when I asked him what the mindset needs to be.

One moment in the Oilers game particularly stood out to me, when the game was still tied during the third period. There was Wheeler stepping into the path of a slapshot, the puck striking him in the leg and quickly going the other way. Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor were off to the races on a two-on-one, which Smith ultimately foiled.

Wheeler, clearly in some distress, literally crawled on all fours to the bench. A snapshot in time, but one that perfectly symbolizes what it takes this time of year.

They’re going to need a lot more of that going forward. Against Buffalo on Tuesday as a crucial three-game homestand kicks off at Bell MTS Place. Against a red-hot Vegas club on Friday. Against Arizona a few night later.

Again and again and again.

It’s a big ask, to continue ratcheting up the intensity and managing the inevitable emotional ebbs and flows. But what choice do they have? Nearly every remaining game is against a team either just ahead, or just behind them, in the Western Conference standings. The opponent is likely to be just as hungry as they are.

Sure, getting a few injured players back to full health would help the cause. But you can’t just sit around waiting for that to happen.

The fact is, the schedule sets the Jets up to bring their best every game. There’s plenty of days off between games, and only one back-to-back remaining on the docket. That gives lots of time for rest and recovery, while allowing them to lean heavily on Vezina Trophy candidate Connor Hellebuyck without burning him out.

Maurice can also give his big guns big minutes, as we saw Saturday night. The newly reunited trio of Wheeler, Scheifele and Connor have been very good in their two games together, matching up very well at five-on-five against superstars like Alex Ovechkin, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

Connor told me prior to the Oilers game they welcome the challenge.

“We want to see the other team’s best. It’s something to look forward to. I don’t think it’s something we’re worried about every single night. When we play our game we can be productive,” said Connor, who has scored in three straight games, leads the team with 33 goals and is one off matching his career high set last season.

On Saturday night, Connor and his teammates sure looked like a playoff team. And if they can string together 15 more games like that, it says here they will be a playoff team.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg