Top guns strafing the Jets’ competition
Big numbers from veterans compensating for lack of a balanced attack in post-season run
WINNIPEG — Some numbers just pop off the page like objects in a 3-D movie.
Mark Scheifele’s 12 goals in 13 playoff games, for instance, a pace that could challenge the playoff record for goals if he maintains it.
Blake Wheeler has been busy proving an assist is worth as much as a goal and like Scheifele has 18 points in 13 games on this Winnipeg Jets playoff run.
The 15 points by rover Dustin Byfuglien is another.
And how about the plus-9 rating put up by Paul Stastny so far or Tyler Myers’ plus-8?
But there are other numbers that stand out in a puzzling, not-so-good way.
If I had suggested going into the playoffs the Jets would be up 1-0 in the Western Conference final, but without a single playoff goal from Nik Ehlers or Adam Lowry, just one goal each from Bryan Little, Andrew Copp and Mathieu Perreault and just two from Kyle Connor, you’d have called me crazy. Again.
Conventional wisdom says you need balanced scoring from at least three lines, maybe even all four, to go deep into this tournament.
Aside from a surprising contribution from Brandon Tanev (four goals), the Jets aren’t getting that yet.
But this team laughs in the face of conventional wisdom — that they were too young, didn’t have enough playoff experience and needed more seasoning before they made a legitimate Cup run.
So what do they do? Trample Minnesota, for starters. Then eliminate Nashville, last season’s Stanley Cup finalist, by winning a Game 7 pressure-cooker on the road, a scenario that’s supposed to cause young, inexperienced knees to buckle.
And here they are with the early lead on Vegas, while still leaning heavily on Scheifele, Wheeler, Byfuglien and Stastny to carry the load.
How much longer can they keep this up?
Head coach Paul Maurice just shrugs, not wanting to look this gift horse in the mouth.
“We need enough scoring from four lines,” Maurice said Sunday, emphasizing the word enough. “If it happens to be Mark and their line keeps going, then we can be patient with it. Where it’s a danger is that the lines that aren’t scoring feel they have to change their game outside of what we want to do to generate that — and then you’ve got a problem and then you’ve got a lot of pressure on your ‘A’ line.
“Because you’re not scoring if you’re fooling around with your game.”
From where Maurice sits, Lowry’s and Little’s lines aren’t fooling around with their games and the stats bear that out.
In Game 7 against Nashville and Game 1 against Vegas, all six players are either even or on the plus side.
It’s interesting to see how the playing time is being distributed, too.
Nobody received less than 12 minutes against Vegas Saturday or less than 11 minutes in Game 7 against the Predators.
Copp points to a couple of things that have made up for any offensive shortcomings from the supporting cast.
“The power play’s been pretty good,” he said. “We’ve had scoring from our D, which probably counts as depth scoring, really. It’s a big part of our team and why we’re here to begin with.”
That’s true. And it’s why the Jets, young or not, were considered dangerous going into the post-season.
Little and Perreault combined for 33 goals during the season, not a bad one-two punch from your bottom six.
Copp and Lowry chipped in nine and eight, respectively. Joel Armia had 12 (he got his second of the playoffs Saturday).
In the top six, Ehlers and Connor combined for 60 during the regular season, but have two combined in 13 playoff games.
It’s not the formula anyone would have predicted to get the Jets this far.
Maybe they can win yet another series with it. But chances are their scoring depth is going to be tested before this run is over — probably even before this series is over.
Until then, there is no arguing with the results.