Jets Takeaways: Perfetti shows growth with two-goal effort against Golden Knights

Nobody needed a goal more than Cole Perfetti. 

The 22-year-old was in the midst of an 11-game goal drought. While he was generating a healthy dose of scoring chances, Perfetti appeared passive throughout his dry spell, and his confidence was in the gutter. Goals aside, he wasn’t impacting the game in the way that you expect a top-six forward to. It drew parallels to last spring, when Rick Bowness healthy scratched the Winnipeg Jets 2020 first-round pick several times and dressed him just once in the playoffs.

But on Friday night — as the Jets fell 4-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights — Perfetti got the monkey off his back. 

It all started near the midway point of the first period, when Perfetti tipped a point shot from Josh Morrissey to give Winnipeg a 1-0 lead. Goals like that will never make the highlight reel, however, a five-foot-11 forward gaining inside position on a six-foot-three defender like Noah Hanifin is no small feat.

“I figured it was going to be a greasy one, and it was,” Perfetti told reporters post-game. 

From there, the pep was back in his step. 

He was assertive as he carried the puck through the neutral zone, generating a handful of entries that led to Winnipeg sustaining offensive zone time. He didn’t become invisible in a tight-checking affair against the NHL’s heaviest team, delivering three hits of his own. And he was in the right place at the right time for his second goal of the game, capitalizing on a rebound via a rush chance from Morrissey to tie the game up at two.

“Sometimes, the puck luck kind of goes your way. I mean, you run that route in the last 10 games, nothing (comes) to you. But then tonight, you're feeling yourself, and the puck comes right to you, and then you don't even think twice, and you don’t dust it, and it goes in,” he said.

Not to hyper-focus on the goals — as mentioned, they weren’t the only things that made him noticeable — but the way in which Perfetti lit the red lamp was encouraging. Even amidst the poor puck luck, Perfetti was still driving hard to the slot — something that young, undersized forwards struggle with in their formative years — which was what created the first goal. Perfetti’s not the fastest skater, and creating in transition has never been a strong suit of his. But he leveraged his strengths and, on top of hustling down the ice and filling a lane, positioned himself perfectly to benefit from a rebound. 

Those goals exemplified growth.

And the timing of that kind of effort couldn’t have been better for a Jets team reeling from injuries. Dylan Samberg broke his foot on Monday. Mark Scheifele is clearly battling something, having deferred all faceoff responsibilities to Gabriel Vialrdi over the last few games. And Nikolaj Ehlers left Friday’s game with what looked to be an ankle injury (Arniel says he’s day-to-day). 

Perfetti was vaulted up to the first power-play unit after Ehlers left the game, and chances are that will continue if the speedy Danish forward misses Sunday’s contest against the Dallas Stars.

The table is set for Perfetti to build on this game and prove he can be a driver — not just a passenger.

New-Look Bottom Pair

Scott Arniel opted to scratch Ville Heinola and Colin Miller and swap in Logan Stanley and Dylan Coghlan on the bottom pair. 

In the midst of such a gruelling road trip, Arniel said the move was motivated by a desire to get fresh legs in the lineup. 

For someone who was playing in his first NHL game since April, Coghlan looked pretty solid. The 26-year-old made a clutch stick check on William Karlsson to nullify a grade-A scoring chance in the first period, generated six shot attempts and even took some reps on the second power-play unit. 

Stanley had been sidelined since Nov. 9th with what Arniel characterized as a “mid-body” injury.

While Heinola and Miller looked excellent in their first two games together, chances are Stanley will still be rotating in-and-out on that bottom pair. Especially given Arniel’s post-game comments. 

“We need him to be a part of our group,” Arniel said of the hulking six-foot-seven defencemen.

Other Thoughts 

• Based on Arniel’s post-game comments, Ehlers won’t return back to Winnipeg and will join the team en route to Dallas. So that’s a good sign. While we just lauded Perfetti’s chance to prove he can be a driver, a second line sans Ehlers — who has recorded 25 points in 24 games — would be a huge blow for the Jets. His rush entry and chance that led to Perfetti’s goal tonight was a perfect example of what makes Ehlers so beloved in this market. His ability to make something out of nothing.

“It's a one-on-one, and he puts it through the defender, and then creates so much space for the speed that he finds a late guy coming through,” Perfetti said as he praised Ehlers’ individual skillset.

• If Ehlers can’t go on Sunday, I expect Alex Iafallo to slot in alongside Vladislav Namestnikov and Perfetti. Iafallo took shifts with those two after Ehlers was hurt, and his puck-retrieval abilities would complement the two offensive creators well. 

• The Jets' second pairing needs a face-lift. Since Samberg got hurt, the Jets’ second pairing of Haydn Fleury and Neal Pionk hasn’t been very inspiring. One ought to wonder if Arniel is considering experimenting with a Heinola-Pionk pairing. No coach loves having one, let alone two, undersized pairings in your top four, but if it means both Heinola and Stanley can play — as opposed to the two rotating — it could be worth a shot.