Jets weathering turbulence well

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This article was published 11/11/2019 (2154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sami Niku and Kristian Vesalainen get in a car accident as they drive to the rink for the first day of training camp. Dustin Byfuglien fails to report, dropping a bombshell he’s considering retirement, only to later have independent surgery as part of an increasingly messy dispute with the club. Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor miss all of the pre-season due to contract disputes.

The season gets underway, and Josh Morrissey is injured in pre-game warm-up by fellow blue-liner Anthony Bitetto. Mark Letestu is diagnosed with a heart condition that may very well end his career. Mason Appleton breaks a bone in his foot while tossing around a pigskin with teammates before practice. Bryan Little suffers a gruesome injury after taking a slapshot to the head from Nikolaj Ehlers.

A beloved team employee is diagnosed with cancer for a second time.

There’s no question the Winnipeg Jets have had a lot on their plates so far this year, on top of a major off-season roster turnover and the influx of several new players, including teenaged rookies such as Ville Heinola and David Gustafsson and journeymen depth like Carl Dahlstrom and Luca Sbisa picked off the waiver wire.

Yet here they are, with a 10-7-1 record that has them sitting in a playoff position with nearly a quarter of the season under their belts. The Jets, on a 4-0-1 run, will try to finish the current homestand in style when they host the Colorado Avalanche tonight at Bell MTS Place.

“I’m telling you, man. I don’t have a good word that isn’t a curse word to use for everything that has happened here this year. It hardens your team. Whether we’re rallying around it, more than anything we’re just staying in the fight and just staying with it together. That creates more teamness and the good juices that you need at the right time of the year than anything can, that points can or scoring 50 goals,” captain Blake Wheeler said following Sunday’s 3-2 overtime victory over the Dallas Stars.

The latest triumph followed a similar script: win the special teams battle (a power play, killing off the only penalty they took), some terrific goaltending (26 saves for Connor Hellebuyck), some depth scoring (Andrew Copp’s goal tied the game) and the stars coming out to shine (Laine opened the scoring, and Mark Scheifele potted the winner).

“This whole season, you can grab a handful of plays and it’s a microcosm of our whole year, both for myself and for our whole team. Plays that have typically ended up in the net are either hitting posts or we’re not capitalizing. Oddly enough, it’s been a more positive mindset because we’re still finding ways to win without some of the offensive things that we’re capable of doing,” Wheeler said.

“This team is learning early how to stay with a game plan and just grind for 60 minutes. Ultimately, that’s how you have to play to win when playoff time and crunch time comes. Where I’m going with this, I’d rather learn that lesson now and sacrifice some of those points and in the second half of the year, just have that come second nature and we’ll start making those plays that we’re used to making.”

The Jets also erased a third-period deficit to win for the fifth time this season, which is an impressive number just 18 games in.

Six of Winnipeg’s 10 wins have also come beyond regulation, with four in overtime and two in a shootout. That means plenty of nail-biters right down to the very end.

“I think we’ve proved to ourselves that we can come back in any game this year. Any game where we’re down a goal or two goals, it doesn’t really matter how much time is left. We have the confidence we can do it. We’ve done it before. I don’t think there’s any real panic in our room when we get down a goal, we know the firepower that we have,” Copp said.

Head coach Paul Maurice said it’s not simply a cliche to say his group has persevered despite some early-season adversity.

“The one thing that’s kind of caught is the whole thing of, you know, adversity makes you stronger. And I know it’s a line in a book and on Hallmark cards and all those kinds of things. But adversity is an opportunity, and that’s what’s turned out here,” Maurice said.

‘I think we’ve proved to ourselves we can come back in any game’– Jets forward Andrew Copp

“The challenge has been great for us because it’s kind of rallied us all around each other and (trainer) Al Pritchard… getting cancer for the second time. We’ve had a bunch of shocks to our group. It’s brought everybody a little closer together, so we kind of laugh differently then we used to. I think we are a closer group.”

Many of the Jets are wearing “PritchyStrong” apparel in support of their trainer, and there’s no question this is a tight-knit bunch.

And stringing together some wins, as they’ve done lately, is no doubt helping the cause.

“That’s what good teams do, they rally around adversity. They step up into some big roles and elevate their game,” Scheifele said.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg