ST. PAUL – Despite the fact the Winnipeg Jets have won six of their first nine games this season, the search for a full 60-minute performance is still ongoing.
All through the early part of the regular season, the Jets (6-3-0) have shown they can play to their stingy, back-to-back William Jennings Trophy standard. To this point, it just hasn’t been throughout a full contest.
The next chance to do that comes tonight in Minnesota against the Wild. It’s also an opportunity to clean up a few areas that led to Winnipeg’s most recent loss, a home-stand finishing 3-2 setback to the Utah Mammoth on Sunday.
“We’re in game nine here. It’s time to end that stuff,” head coach Scott Arniel said following that loss. “What we did in the first period was hard work and it has to happen each and every shift and it has to happen from all four lines and all of our D. That’s our DNA.”
The first period that Arniel is referencing may not look stunning on the surface – after all, the score was 0-0. A deeper look, though, shows that Winnipeg controlled the areas they want to control.
Natural Stat Trick’s metrics gave Winnipeg the edge in five-on-five shot attempts (20-13), scoring chances (9-7), and high-danger chances (7-2).
“That was the exact blueprint of what we wanted to do for three periods,” said Dylan DeMelo. “Then in the second period we got away from it. We’ve got to stay with it and stay patient with our game. We’re still trying to find that right now.”
DeMelo’s fellow blue liner, Logan Stanley, is leaning into Winnipeg’s strong track record in responding to games they don’t like. Last season, the Jets were 17-7-2 coming off a loss, and are 2-0-0 in that scenario this season.
“It’s a mentality. I think it’s good leadership,” he said. “We have a good hockey team in here. We’re not satisfied with losing hockey games. It’s important to us to bounce back and respond when we don’t have a good game or a tough loss. We want to have a good one tonight.”
The line rushes at the team’s morning skate indicated that Arniel will be switching things up a bit:
