Time to face the grind

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This article was published 28/01/2019 (2413 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PHILADELPHIA — The band’s pretty much back together in the northeastern United States as the Winnipeg Jets embark on a hectic 10-week stretch of hockey.

It wasn’t a particularly harmonious start.

Coming off a weeklong break, the Jets opened the “second half” of the regular season with a clumsy 3-1 defeat in Philadelphia on Monday night and hook up with the Boston Bruins tonight.

The Jets will play eight times in 14 days after the bye week and all-star break.

Earlier in the day, Jets captain Blake Wheeler was asked for his approach to the grind the Jets face between now and the end of the 2018-19 regular season.

“I’m going to bust my ass,” Wheeler said.

His work ethic wasn’t in question, but both he and Mark Scheifele, who had an extra day off after participating in the NHL all-star weekend, couldn’t quite get their act together against the Flyers. The Jets will need more from their leaders tonight at TD Garden.

Winnipeg’s remaining 33 games are squeezed into 68 nights, including three more back-to-backs after tonight — a simple truth that sparked no angst from Wheeler, the club’s leading point producer who was held in check by the Flyers.

“We’ve put ourselves in a good position. I know you guys love that cliché, but try to work toward playing our best hockey toward the end of the season and see where that puts us,” said Wheeler, who has a team-high 61 points, including 52 assists, only four helpers behind NHL assist leader Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Jets defenceman Ben Chiarot (lower body) participated in the Monday morning skate but didn’t play. He will likely join the battle in Boston, meaning veteran Joe Morrow or rookie Sami Niku will take a seat with extra forward Nic Petan. Defenceman Dustin Byfuglien (lower body) and forward Nikolaj Ehlers (upper body) remain out.

The Jets posted four consecutive wins, including impressive defeats of the Vegas Golden Knights and Nashville Predators, from Jan. 11 to 17 before falling 4-2 to the Dallas Stars on Jan. 19 in their last game before the bye week.

Winnipeg created some separation with the Predators, but the Central Division rivals are now tied with 64 points apiece, although the Jets have three games in hand.

Those points still need to be earned, Jets head coach Paul Maurice said.

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One Winnipegger’s turbulent tenure with the Flyers is over, while another who is enduring struggles of his own remains a significant part of the team’s future.

Veteran winger Dale Weise will no longer be a part of the team, while young forward Nolan Patrick’s role with the Metropolitan Division squad will continue to expand, the club’s general manager said Monday.

Chuck Fletcher made it clear he’s looking to move Weise, 30, to another organization, possibly as part of a larger deal that would likely force the Flyers to swallow a chunk of his salary. The nine-year veteran is in the third year of a four-year contract that comes with an annual US$2.35-million cap hit.

“Dale’s not going to be a part of this going forward, so we’ll try to find him another team to go to. We didn’t send him down right away because we had that eight-day break coming up. He’d earned the right to have that eight-day break,” said Fletcher, who was hired in December after ex-GM Ron Hextall’s ouster.

Weise has five goals and four assists in 42 games this year, and he’s pointless in seven games this month while averaging about 11 minutes of ice time a night in a fourth-line role. He didn’t suit up for the team’s past three games and during that time was waived by the club and told to stay home and wait for a trade.

But with no takers to date, he was officially loaned to the team’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, on Sunday and is expected to report.

The energy forward demonstrated in the past he can be a valuable offensive contributor. Yet, it seems like eons since Weise scored 15 goals in 56 games with the Montreal Canadiens before being shipped to the Chicago Blackhawks at the trade deadline during the 2015-16 campaign.

Last season, he had four goals and four assists in 46 games, playing limited minutes while getting ignored by then-coach Dave Hakstol for top-six and power-play opportunties. He seemed to wiggle back into the coach’s good graces earlier this winter, but when Hakstol was axed in December and Scott Gordon stepped in on an interim basis, Weise’s role diminished again.

The Flyers, struggling near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, are shuffling the deck to get some of their youngsters into the lineup.

On Monday, Mikhail Vorobyev, a fourth-round pick in 2015, was promoted from Lehigh Valley, where he’d accumulated six goals and 22 points in 32 games.

One of the organization’s prized pieces is Patrick, who had a brilliant junior career with the Brandon Wheat Kings and was selected second overall in the 2017 NHL draft.

Just 19 months into his NHL career, Patrick has yet to command much attention in a Philadelphia uniform — although he scored a sensational between-the-legs goal Jan. 14 at home during a 7-4 victory over the Minnesota Wild, highlighting a four-point night. Some here called it his coming-out party.

He’s scored nine goals and added eight assists in 41 games in his sophomore campaign. In his debut season, he had 13 goals and 17 assists.

Fletcher said the organization believes in the 6-2, 200-pound centre’s upside and will be patient while he progresses.

“If you look at how highly successful teams are constructed, a large portion of the core consists of talent that the organization drafted and developed. With Nolan Patrick, I really like what I’ve seen in the last month. I know he’s scored some goals right before the break, but even before that, he was moving his feet and was playing very well on both sides of the puck,” Fletcher said.

“He’s a big man and highly skilled, so he’s hard to handle. Nolan Patrick is going to be a very big part of our team moving ahead.

“It’s all about consistency. Nolan played really well going into the break and now, he needs to continue doing those things.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPJasonBell