WASHINGTON – Off the ice, the 10-day stretch at home was exactly what the Winnipeg Jets (12-9-0) needed after a six-game, 13-day road trip. On the ice, the three-game home stand started exactly as the Jets wanted it to – a 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Unfortunately, the Jets dropped the next two, and now their focus is on getting things back on track as they begin another long trek on the road in Washington (12-9-2) tonight.
“You look at everyone’s schedule in the league, that’s the kind of year it is,” Morgan Barron said of the schedule. “It’s always fun to get out on the road. Obviously I think we have a bad taste in our mouth from the results of last trip. So it’s a good opportunity to go into some great buildings and some tough atmospheres and really kind of come together.”
Even though the Jets finished the home stand with one win in three games, there were positives in nearly every other statistic. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Jets held a 53 percent share of the shot attempts at five-on-five (149-132) and racked up 66 percent of the high-danger chances (32-16).
They know the final result on the scoreboard is what matters, but they do feel they’re gaining traction.
“If you can continue to do that, we’re going to be a great team,” said Barron. “But we have to prove we can do that. Internally we have that belief. But it’s a matter of stringing those periods together and stringing games together. I think for us, the big emphasis is peaking at the right time and kind of continuing to grow.”
For his part, head coach Scott Arniel has seen that growth over the past 10 games, even with Winnipeg’s 4-6-0 record in those games. Of course, results are what matters when it comes to the standings and when Arniel looks at the last two games, he sees one central theme.
“We’ve got to stay in those one-goal games,” Arniel said, referencing the fact Carolina turned a 2-1 Jets lead into a 3-2 Hurricanes advantage in the first 6:31 of the second period, and Minnesota using a shorthanded goal to build a 1-0 lead into 2-0 on Sunday.
“Our mindset has to be stay in games, whether up one, down one, tied. And then continue doing what we’re doing without the puck,” said Arniel. “I think that’s gotten a lot better, our attention to sort of our DNA, which is defending, as been better. Now we just have to take up, and I don’t want to say ‘offence.’ I don’t want to say it, because then you know what happens – it tilts the other way again.”
And there is the challenge. Even though Winnipeg wants to press to find the offence they need to win games, they know they need to stick to their identity of defending well and generating chances off that – and by forcing the other team to defend.
Through 21 games, Winnipeg’s 66 goals are the 24th most in the league. In terms of goals against, they’re still in the top five in terms of fewest allowed. As it always seems to, it comes down to execution.
“I call it the next pass. We found our low centreman at times, and then whatever that next play was or our winger got the puck and we would turn it over,” said Arniel. “If you can start on the rush, if you can push a team back on their heels because of the rush, and you don’t have to dump the puck in all the time or start again and regroup and do it again, that’s tilting the ice and making the team play in the other end of the rink. We often talk about that next play. That next play is huge.”
