Jets are good, but are they Cup contenders?
Team has 22 games to get kinks worked out Before Playoffs Begin, writes Paul Friesen.
It’s the big unknown swirling around the Winnipeg Jets. The one nagging at fans and the one that could determine what the GM does between now and the trade deadline on Monday.
We know what this surprising bunch has been through 60 games: one of the top-five teams in the NHL.
But does it have the makeup to find another gear for the stretch drive and the playoffs?
After surviving — thriving, actually — through one of the more bitter winters this town has experienced in a while, are the Jets built for success into the spring?
Or could all this promise melt away, exposing bare spots we didn’t know were there? After Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to the L.A. Kings, captain Blake Wheeler was asked about his team’s ability to reach another level over the last 22 games.
“You’d like to be playing your best hockey at the end of the year,” Wheeler said. “That remains to be seen. We’re going to do our best to be doing that at the end of the season. And lord willing, we’ll have a chance to play in the playoffs and hopefully we’ll be playing our best hockey at that time of year.”
The just-completed 10-game homestand didn’t provide the answer. Their 6-3-1 mark fell far short of what they’d done at home previously this season.
The homestand was a chance to get one hand on top spot in the Central Division. They didn’t.
But that’s history. The last 22 games include nine against division rivals, plenty of opportunity to pound that flag into the ground.
IN THE CREASE
Head coach Paul Maurice a few days ago hinted he might not give Connor Hellebuyck a night off until March, when the Jets hit the road for six straight.
You wonder if his thinking might change this weekend, when Winnipeg plays back-toback nights, at St. Louis Friday and Dallas Saturday.
Hellebuyck, who has started nine straight games and 15 of the last 16, hinted at feeling some fatigue after the 4-3 loss to the Kings.
“I’ve liked my games in the past a bit more,” Hellebuyck said. “I still feel like I have more to give. The wear and tear on your body is going to get you one of these games.”
Hellebuyck went on to secondguess his decision to take Monday off and skate the morning of the game, instead of the other way around.
If the Jets weren’t down to their fourth-string goalie (Eric Comrie) at the No. 2 spot, you’d have to think Maurice would be giving serious consideration to resting Hellebuyck in one of the games this weekend.
But with Steve Mason and Michael Hutchinson still sidelined by concussions, it seems it’s Hellebuyck’s show, for now.
At the 50-game mark of the Jets’ season, Hellebuyck had a .924 save percentage and 2.35 goals-against average.
Through his last nine starts those numbers are .912 and 2.44.