A team searching for an identity

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This article was published 28/01/2022 (1367 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets aren’t just looking for precious wins these days. They’re also searching for an identity.

“I think that this is what we’re trying to figure out,” centre Mark Scheifele admitted Friday. “Figure out what is our game plan, what is our strategy and what we do great as a team. That’s what we’re struggling with right now. It’s something that needs to be figured out if we’re going to turn this around.”

It was a refreshing dose of candour from the club’s alternate captain, who is clearly frustrated with his team mired in its longest winless streak of the season. The Jets will be trying to snap a six-game skid (0-4-2) against a strong St. Louis squad on Saturday afternoon.

But it should also have some alarm bells ringing, considering Winnipeg is about to hit the official midway point of the season. Should this still be such a work-in-progress at this stage?

“Well I think, No. 1, is you have a change in coaches, so that can be a period of time,” said Dave Lowry, who took over from Paul Maurice on Dec. 17 and has gone 4-6-2 in that span.

“I look at those other teams, and I’m not too concerned with what other teams are doing. There’s still teams that are trying to find their way as well. We have a lot of new bodies, we have a lot of young faces that are getting their feet wet in the National Hockey League. So you add them into trying to find and create your own identity, it’s going to take some time. The understanding is this is the National Hockey League, you have to play a certain way, and you have to be an active participant every night.”

So what exactly would Lowry’s ideal version of the Jets look like, since we clearly haven’t seen much of it on display recently?

“We want to be a hard team to play against. We’ve got some guys where the expectation is they’re going to finish checks, they play physical, they separate pucks using their body. And I’ve got some smaller skilled guys. The expectation is when they go into a corner they’re going to come out with the puck. So they have to have an understanding that they have to use their body, they have to use their quickness or they have to get in through their hands,” said Lowry.

“That becomes, that’s how you forge your identity. Yeah we can be a hard team to play against. And by being quick and getting in on the forecheck, that can make you a hard team to play against. The foundation for us is based on our structure. And parts of our structure is work. It’s details. You look at teams that are successful, it’s the repetition, it’s doing the same thing over and over, night after night. That’s something that right now we’re still working towards.”

The Jets will be without eight players against the Blues. Defenceman Josh Morrissey remains in COVID protocol, while blue-liner Dylan DeMelo, who skated Friday in a yellow non-contact jersey, isn’t quite ready for a return. Morrissey has missed the last two games, DeMelo the last three, but both could be options when this short road trip ends Tuesday night in Philadelphia.

Winnipeg is also without defencemen Logan Stanley, Dylan Samberg and now Nathan Beaulieu, who got hurt in Thursday’s 5-1 loss to Vancouver. That means youngsters Ville Heinola, Johnathan Kovacevic (who made his NHL debut against the Canucks) and Declan Chisholm (who made his debut earlier this month against Detroit) will join veterans Neal Pionk, Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon in the lineup Saturday. Leon Gawanke, who has not played an NHL game, was called up Friday as insurance.

“I think it’s kind of that next man up kind of concept,” said Pionk, who blocked a shot in the third period Friday but managed to avoid any type of injury. “I think a big part of that is the older veteran guys communicate to the younger guys and making sure they’re feeling welcome here, first off, and that they belong here and that they deserve to play in the NHL so they go out there with confidence and help us win.”

Up front, the Jets are still without injured forwards Nikolaj Ehlers, David Gustafsson and C.J. Suess. However, Dominic Toninato is expected to return to the lineup, as he exited COVID protocol on Friday and skated with the club before they flew to Missouri. He missed the last two games.

“We talked about expect the unexpected. COVID was going to factor in on a lot of these transactions. And what it has done is provided opportunity for a lot of guys on the Moose,” Lowry said of all the roster juggling. “We knew at some point that we were going to be dealing not only with COVID but we were going to be dealing with injuries. We were hoping it was going to happen when we played two games in 14 days, but that’s not the case.”

Lowry is expecting his group to be a surly bunch given the current state of affairs. He figures the sooner they find that evasive identity, the more likely it is that the wins will start to pile up.

“Disappointed, and they should be. We should be an angry team. For me, the biggest thing is probably disappointment. I believe there is a certain standard that we’re capable of and we have to make sure we push to get there,” he said.

“Every guy has to lean on each other,” added Scheifele. “We are the only guys that can turn this around. It’s the guys in the room. We have a lot of guys in and out of the lineup or whatever but you got to lean on each other and lean on experience and go from there.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg