Plenty to blame for Jets woes

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/01/2022 (1323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dave Lowry doesn’t want to point fingers, as he told me in no uncertain terms after the Winnipeg Jets extended their winless streak to a season-high six games on Thursday night.

Fair enough. I’ll do some for him.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for what is ailing Lowry’s troops right now. And, following arguably their worst loss of this disappointing season, it feels like the club is rapidly approaching a critical juncture — one that won’t just impact the remainder of the current season, but future ones to come.

Winnipeg was 13-10-5 when Paul Maurice parted ways with the organization on Dec. 17. They are just 4-6-2 under interim coach Lowry, including this current 0-4-2 slide they’ll try to put the brakes on Saturday in St. Louis. Any “bump” from the change in bench boss — if there ever really was one — is long gone, it appears.

A season that began with so much promise is now circling the drain. Where has it all gone so wrong?

Let’s start with Connor Hellebuyck. Simply put, Winnipeg’s No. 1 netminder needs to be better. His .909 save percentage ranks 29th in the NHL among masked men with at least a dozen starts this year. Considering there are only 32 teams, it would be accurate to say Winnipeg has received below-average goaltending from the 2020 Vezina Trophy winner.

In addition to not stopping enough pucks, there’s been no shortage of brain cramps that have added to his woes.

I still believe Hellebuyck is among the best in the world, and that the 28-year-old is more than likely to emerge from this funk and regain his form. I also believe some of his recent struggles are due to the fact there’s no legitimate safety net behind him. By spending so close to the salary cap ceiling, general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff left no room to bring in a proven backup, instead going with the unproven Eric Comrie and his league-minimum salary.

The fact Hellebuyck has started 13 straight games speaks to a lack of confidence Lowry has in giving anyone but Hellebuyck the net. Hellebuyck certainly benefitted in the past from having someone like Laurent Brossoit pushing him for playing time, but there’s no such internal competition this year. It shows. Rightly or wrongly, added pressure and scrutiny comes with the territory, and the Jets sure could use an appearance or two from the Hellebuyck of old, starting with Saturday’s tough assignment against the Blues.

The problems run much deeper, of course. As Lowry and several players admitted on Friday, they’re still very much searching for what their true identity is. The fact this is happening as they get set to play Game 41 of the year, the official midway point, is concerning.

They aren’t scoring enough, especially of the depth variety. They’re not defending enough, prone to costly lapses and breakdowns that end up in the back of their net. They are often on the wrong end of the special teams battle — Winnipeg had six minutes of power-play time Thursday against Vancouver, coming up empty. They were shorthanded for a grand total of 17 seconds, and gave up two goals. Game, set, match.

Some of it is the product of circumstances, for sure. There’s been a revolving door in and out of the lineup lately, as COVID infections and injuries take a heavy toll. The Jets currently have eight players sidelined, including top defencemen Josh Morrissey and Dylan DeMelo, and star winger Nikolaj Ehlers. They have already dressed 29 different skaters this year, and 11 of them have played games for both the Jets and the Manitoba Moose — including four who have made their NHL debuts.

The pain is really being felt on the blue line right now, where veterans Neal Pionk, Brenden Dillon and Nate Schmidt will be joined by Ville Heinola, Johnathan Kovacevic and Declan Chisholm against the Blues. Heinola has 15 big-league games under his belt, while Kovacevic and Chisholm have one each. Leon Gawanke, who has not played in the NHL, is the next man up with Morrissey (COVID), DeMelo (injury), Nathan Beaulieu (injury), Logan Stanley (injury) and Dylan Samberg (injury) all currently sidelined.

Hopefully Hellebuyck eats his pre-game Wheaties. He’s likely going to be a busy man given what’s in front of him.

There’s also the not insignificant matter of scheduling, in which the Jets went five weeks between home games, then returned to Canada Life Centre this week for a pair of contests — both losses — in front of a paltry 250 fans under current public health orders. What used to be one of the loudest barns in the league, where the Jets fed off the energy of their frenzied crowd, has become a ghost town. The hope is that could change by Feb. 8 when they host the Minnesota Wild, but the pandemic will ultimately have the final say.

Here’s the dilemma for the organization. The Jets are 16 points of out cracking the top three in the Central Division, which brings an automatic playoff spot. They are 12 points back of fourth-place Minnesota, which currently holds one of the two Western Conference wild-card spots. That leaves Winnipeg basically fighting with a ton of other clubs — Dallas and Chicago in their own division, and everyone but Seattle in the weaker Pacific Division — for essentially the second wild-card spot.

The Jets woke up Friday five points behind Calgary for that spot, and the Flames have a game in hand. Dallas, San Jose, Edmonton and now even Vancouver are all on the outside looking in, but above Winnipeg. The reward for getting in would be facing the No. 1 seed — likely the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche — in the first round of the playoffs.

Which brings us to the crossroads I mentioned earlier. With the trade deadline seven weeks away, how close are the Jets to essentially throwing in the towel and becoming sellers? Pending UFAs Andrew Copp and Paul Stastny could likely fetch nice returns from contenders looking to beef up, and that scenario should become increasingly tempting with each passing loss. There must also be an internal audit about the roster configuration going forward, and whether the current core needs a significant shake-up beyond what happens with Copp and Stastny. The evidence would suggest that’s certainly the case.

Then comes the burning question of whether it will be Cheveldayoff tasked with making such decisions, including what to do with Lowry and the rest of the staff when a thorough coaching search is held in the summer. Would a lost season, something that definitely wasn’t in the cards when training camp began last fall, prompt a major house cleaning?

The Jets could always reverse course if they can start stringing some wins together and become the team they thought they were, of course, but if they don’t, change is very much going to be in the air, and the finger pointing is going to become fast and furious.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg