The Winnipeg Jets captured five of six points on a three-game West Coast road trip and showed resilience, but also a bad old habit of relying too much on goaltending. They hadn’t had trouble starting on time before the road trip, but got off to slow starts in all three games of the jaunt through Los Angeles, Tempe, and Las Vegas.
In the first two games, they proved the old adage “it’s not how you start, but how you finish” true by capturing a pair of victories. It was the first time in Jets 2.0 history they came back from multi-goal deficits to win on back-to-back nights.
Jets Outplayed But Find a Way in L.A.
The Jets got caved in much of the game against the Los Angeles Kings, especially during the first period where the shots were, at one point, 16-1 in favour of the home side. The Jets scored first courtesy a breakaway goal by Mark Scheifele but then allowed three straight.
Last season, the fragile Jets may have packed it in, but under a new regime, they pushed back and scored three straight to make it 4-3. The Kings tied it 4-4 in the third, but then the Jets got a gritty game-winner with five-and-change to go as fourth-liner Axel Jonsson-Fjallby tipped in a Brenden Dillon point shot.
One aspect of the game that hearkened back to last season was the lopsided shot totals — 44-19 in favour of the Kings. The Jets relied on Connor Hellebuyck’s heroics like they have many times over the past few seasons to abscond with two stolen points.
“An ugly win,” associate coach Scott Arniel, filling in for Rick Bowness as Bowness recovers at home from a COVID-19 setback, said postgame. “It certainly wasn’t a Picasso… I know it’s not VHS tape but it’s in the garbage and we’ll just put that one aside.”
Jets Overcome Chilly Feet in Arizona
One of the many shortcomings of the Arizona Coyotes’ new home — the 5,026 seat Mullett Arena in Tempe they moved to after being booted from Gila River Arena in Glendale for non-payment of bills — is the less-than-beer-league quality of the temporary visitors’ dressing room.
The “accommodations,” if you could call them that, are located in a neighbouring rink and went viral this week for being nothing more than a square of folding chairs cordoned off by curtains. Cole Perfetti praised the ice quality and college-like atmosphere at Mullett Arena, but said postgame “if you take your shoes off (in the dressing room), it’s a little chilly on the feet” because the floor is rubber and on top of the rink’s ice surface.
In what was the Coyotes’ home opener and first-ever professional game at the barn they’ll will occupy for at least the next three years, the Jets did not register a shot until the 7:22 mark. Christian Fisher got the rowdy crowd engaged, scoring a pair of first-period goals (and with his first tally, providing the answer to the future trivia question of “who scored the first NHL goal at Mullett Arena?”)
Last season, this matchup well could have been just another example of the Jets underachieving against and losing to a beatable team — especially with noted Jet-grounder Karel Vejmelka in the crease — but a new top-six player in Perfetti provided some spark before the first period was over with a gorgeous goal on an outstanding individual effort.
The Coyotes, a rebuilding team short on high-end talent, did a good job forcing the Jets into a low-event game through the first two periods. In the third, however, the Jets started using speed through the neutral zone to generate controlled zone entries and chances, and Mark Scheifele hit pay dirt at 8:34 to tie the game. The Jets outshot the Coyotes 13-2 in the third.
In the three-on-three overtime, where skilled players have tons of space to shine, Blake Wheeler spoiled the party by whacking home a Pierre-Luc Dubois pass on a two-on-one just 30 seconds in.
In addition to overcoming the odd circumstances, the Jets also overcame their own ineffective power play, which went 0-5 and gave up some shorthanded breakaways.
“We stuck with it,” former captain Wheeler said postgame. “We played last night in L.A. and we knew those first periods are always tough. The fact it was still a hockey game, and (goaltender David Rittich) made some big saves back there for us to keep us in it, and you leave those games on a back-to-back close or down a goal, you have a chance to win. That was mission accomplished.”
Hellebuyck Faces Too Many Pucks Against Golden Knights
By Sunday in Vegas, the Jets looked every bit a team playing for the third time in four nights.
For the second-straight start, Hellebuyck was shelled — the Golden Knights put high-danger chance after high-danger chance at the goaltender — but he did everything and then some to prevent what should have by all means been a blowout.
In what was perhaps his best performance since Nov. 1, 2019, when he made 51 saves in a one-goal victory against the San Jose Sharks, Hellebuyck stood on his head, making a number of 10-bell saves as the Jets were outshot 33-8 through two periods and 47-20 through regulation.
The Golden Knights triumphed 2-1 in overtime, but Hellebuyck cannot be blamed for the game-winner — Jack Eichel took advantage of a Jets’ trio that was out of gas and indecisive in the final seconds of the extra frame, cutting to the net and scoring.
Jets defenders will have to tighten up around Hellebuyck if they want to make the playoffs. Last season, he was overworked and dead-tired by March due to the number of starts he made and the amount of rubber he saw in each start. During the stretch run, the quality of his play dropped dramatically.
Jets’ Season Has Started Pretty Well, All Told
This old habit rearing its ugly head aside, one has to be fairly encouraged by the way the Jets have started a pivotal campaign where nothing less than the long-term trajectory and relevance of the franchise are on the line.
Related: Jets Have Chance to Regain Relevance in Pivotal 2022-23 Season
Entering play Tuesday, they are tied with the Dallas Stars for first in the Central Division, impressive considering all the adversity they’ve faced already.
Their opposition has been strong, as they’ve faced the 2021-22 Eastern Conference finalist New York Rangers, three squads considered Stanley Cup contenders in Golden Knights (twice,) the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the St. Louis Blues, and last season’s Cup-champion Colorado Avalanche.
They’ve played seven of nine on the road, seven of nine without first-liner Nikolaj Ehlers, and eight of nine games without new head coach Rick Bowness, who has been struggling health-wise in the wake of his COVID-19 diagnosis and did not join the team on the road trip. They also have just one goal from the severely snakebitten Kyle Connor, which was an empty-netter.
They have a lot to improve on and growing pains to work through — 60-minute efforts have mostly eluded them as they have varying degrees of success, period-by-period, in playing Bowness’ way. Their special teams are also a work in progress as the power play is operating at 13.3 per cent efficiency and the penalty kill is operating at 79.2 per cent. Ideally, those number should add up to 100 or more.
However, to see the Jets grinding through and working hard is refreshing after seeing mostly complacency last season. Good teams find ways to win when they aren’t at their best and if the Jets keep doing that, we might just have to consider them a good team.
