They say that winning cures all and as such the vibes are pretty positive around the Winnipeg Jets this week. Two wins over playoff contenders have this team looking like the early-season Jets and not the team plagued by listless play for much of the 2019 calendar year.
But don’t go hanging the mission accomplished banner just yet. Nashville and Columbus may be in the NHL’s upper echelon points-wise, but their play of late doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
The rest of this week and all of next, however, should give us a great indication of where this Jets team is at. Over their next six games Winnipeg plays Tampa Bay, Carolina and Washington all on the road, followed by San Jose, Boston and Calgary all at home, and that stretch should reveal if this team is really back on top of its game or was merely kicking teams while they were down.
WHEELING
A near perfect week by Vegas Golden Knights goalie Marc Andre Fleury was the only thing standing between Blake Wheeler and First Star of the Week honours. As eye-popping as his five goals and three assists in three games were, when those points came was most impressive.
In both of the Jets’ past two wins they started the third period tied — and that’s when Wheeler came alive.
He scored the goal that broke open the game against Nashville before adding an assist on an empty-netter. Columbus was an even better clutch display as Wheeler had a natural hat trick in the third period (he scored four goals that night) to turn a 2-2 tie into a 5-2 win.
Wheeler is known as an assist man and rightfully so. Elliotte Friedman has suggested he could become the first ever NHL player to 100 points in a season with less than 20 goals. Despite this recent assault on the back of the net that possibility remains alive.
Just don’t confuse that imbalance with an inability to score.
Wheeler is a win-first guy. He chooses to dish the puck because this team is built to score goals and is flush with players who excel at just that. But when it comes down to it, Wheeler is just as likely to light the lamp as anyone on that roster when the Jets really need it.
KNOW YOUR ROLE
Give Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff credit when it comes to the intricacies of the trade deadline deal. Players may look good on paper, but the bigger question is how they will fit in the locker room.
Cheveldayoff hit a home run with Paul Stastny last year who provided instant chemistry and it looks like he’s done it again this season, but on a bigger scale.
Kevin Hayes has three points in three games and chewed up big minutes while centring a play-driving line alongside Kyle Connor and Nik Ehlers.
Nathan Beaulieu has responded well to being thrown into the fire on the Jets’ top defence pair, looking steady and drawing the first assist on the game-winner in Columbus.
Even Par Lindholm got a look, centring the fourth line and keeping the puck out of the net in his roughly 10 minutes of ice time.
Head coach Paul Maurice says it’s working because everyone knows their role. Each line understands the ice time they will get, what’s expected of them in that time and no one is looking at another teammate thinking they should be in their slot instead.
It’s the type of organization that makes hockey easy for the players, but getting to that point can be like solving a Rubik’s cube. Good job by Cheveldayoff in bringing in the right puzzle pieces.
FLYING UNDER THE RADAR
You have to wonder what it is about Kyle Connor that has led to his accomplishments going somewhat unrecognized and unrewarded for so much of his hockey life. Jets fans lamented after last season when the only 30-goal scoring rookie didn’t qualify as a Calder Trophy finalist. Before that, he was cut from the American world junior team despite being a dominant point producer at the college level.
This kind of thing has followed him even longer than that. Coming into camp with the University of Michigan Wolverines, despite leaving the USHL as its all-time leading scorer and being a first-round NHL draft pick, Connor remained somewhat unknown. That’s the way Zach Werenski remembers it and few players should have a better account. After all, Werenski and Connor were teammates since they were 10 years old. The two even captured the 2011 USA Hockey U14 National Championship title together.
Werenski and Connor were teammates at Michigan as well, although the big Columbus blueliner arrived a year before Connor. When teammates caught wind of their shared past they asked Werenski, “who is this guy anyway?”
Werenski’s reply? “He’s the guy that’s going to lead this team in scoring.” Connor went one step further, leading the entire NCAA scoring race, as a rookie, by eight points.
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