With Bowness in charge, a different feeling surrounds the Jets entering season

WINNIPEG — Just how much is the new coach bump going to be worth for the Winnipeg Jets?

Well, with the regular season set to begin on Friday night against the New York Rangers, we’re about to find out.

Of course, it’s not as simple as saying the hiring of new bench boss Rick Bowness and his overhauled coaching staff is immediately going to translate into X number of points in the standings.

That’s impossible to fully measure and you won’t fully recognize the actual impact until the season really gets going.

But what can’t be argued is that there’s a different feeling surrounding the Jets as they approach the 2022-23 campaign.

“Anytime you bring a new staff they’re going to want to put their spice, their flavour on it,” said Jets defenceman Nate Schmidt.

That spice and flavour for Bowness and company has been part of delivering a recipe that revolves around figuring out how to maximize the potential for a group that got away from its identity.

One of the key ingredients on that front has been the attempt to ensure this team plays with pace in all three zones and doesn’t cheat for offence, instead fully committing to a structure that should reduce the high number of quality scoring chances allowed.

“The guys have caught on really well. I still see in games where the old way they were playing kicks in. That’s just ingrained in their head. Is it automatic yet? No. It’s not,” said Bowness. “When it’s not automatic there are some growing pains. So we’ll get through that. I know how they played in the past. I see them kind of going back to that.

“Not intentionally, it’s just a natural instinct. They’ve played that way for a couple of years. We’ll break those instincts. While you’re doing that, there are some growing pains. We’ll get them through it.”

The Jets have a good handle on their collective strengths and they’ve shown a willingness to ensure one of their biggest weaknesses — defending as a five-man unit — improves considerably.

One the real games begin, the task for the Jets is to stick to that structure and resist the urge to revert back to some of the bad habits that crept into their game.

“Ultimately, (with) our team, we’ve got speed, we’ve got size, we’ve got all of the intangibles you need, but a little bit of direction is all that we needed,” said Jets defenceman Brenden Dillon. “We’re understanding that we’ve got enough skill and offence to score goals, but we’ve got to take care of the defensive end. We’re as ready as we’re going to be. Obviously, there are going to be a few shifts here and there where guys are still on the old program, but we’re getting better and better every day.

“There’s been a lot of communication out there and guys are learning some new stuff, but it’s been awesome. Everyone is really getting accustomed to it and we can see the positive reinforcement when we are doing it right.”

Once the aggressive nature of play in all three zones becomes instinctual, that’s when you’ll really see what the Jets could be capable of.

It’s too simplistic to call this a redemption tour for a core group that was more than happy to put the disappointment of last season behind them after missing out on the Stanley Cup playoffs by eight points.

Last season is in the rear-view mirror, other than applying some of the lessons learned from the end result.

This is a team that has a top-level goalie in Connor Hellebuyck and a top line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers that could be among the most electrifying trio in the NHL.

This isn’t a one-line hockey team either.

Cole Perfetti projects to be a guy in the discussion for the Calder Trophy, given the opportunity he’s going to be given with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Blake Wheeler, along with some time on the second power-play unit.

Dubois is coming off a season where he recorded a career-high 28 goals and posted 60 points (one off his career high) in 81 games and he hasn’t reached his ceiling yet.

Although there’s been plenty of speculation about his future after signing a one-year deal with the Jets during the off-season, Dubois is encouraged by the conversations he’s had with Bowness about his role on the team.

“I mean, I’ve always said I want to be a guy that’s hard to play against, that you can put into any situation that can do a little bit of anything out there,” said Dubois. “I think if I can be a guy that you can put out there in the last minute if you need a goal or if you’re up a goal, that’s who I want to be. That’s who I want to become. And it hasn’t been easy and it’s not easy to get to that point, but you need the help of the coaching staff of the players in here. I’m looking forward to that this year.”

The defence corps is led by Josh Morrissey (who will serve as an alternate captain with Adam Lowry and Scheifele this season) and features a group that recognizes there’s competition ongoing for ice time and some additional decisions that are going to be made regarding the long-range planning as this season moves along, since several prospects are knocking on the door for full-time work.

As for the topic of expectations, Bowness was asked to weigh in with his thoughts and while he wasn’t making waves with a bold proclamation or by offering a guarantee, he didn’t shy away from the subject either.

“There's two sets of expectations here. There's the noise outside the team and then there's ours. And the most important ones are ours,” said Bowness. “To take a run at a playoff spot. How's that? There's all of this noise out there. Ignore it.”

Winnipeg Jets projected opening-night roster vs New York Rangers

Kyle Connor-Mark Scheifele-Nikolaj Ehlers

Cole Perfetti-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Blake Wheeler

Morgan Barron-Adam Lowry-Mason Appleton

Saku Maenalanen-David Gustafsson-Sam Gagner

Josh Morrissey-Dylan DeMelo

Brenden Dillon-Neal Pionk

Logan Stanley-Nate Schmidt

Connor Hellebuyck

David Rittich

Healthy scratches: D Dylan Samberg, D Kyle Capobianco, F Axel Jonsson-Fjallby.

Placed on waivers Thursday: F Dominic Toninato (for the purpose of being assigned to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL if he clears).