Ottawa Citizen

JETS LOOK LIKE A SQUAD IN DIRE NEED OF SHAKEUP

Major trade might help struggling team put end to its recent run of lacklustre play

- PAUL FRIESEN pfriesen@postmedia.com Twitter.com/friesensun­media

The trade deadline for the Winnipeg Jets was always supposed to be about bolstering an already dangerous team for a playoff run.

Add a second-line forward, the thinking went, and the Jets should be as good a bet as any to reach another Western Conference Final — and beyond.

But things have changed over the last couple of weeks, to the point where you wonder if GM Kevin Cheveldayo­ff needs to swing a deal for another much more troubling reason.

It looks like his team needs a shakeup.

Its recent play, including just two wins its last seven games, screams for it.

The list of problem areas is too long to be a coincidenc­e and includes shaky team defence, an ice-cold power play and an increase in bad penalties.

The common denominato­r for most of the items on the list is a lack of speed, but of course that’s ridiculous. The Jets can skate.

It’s their internal motors that seem to be clogged up. That could be fatigue or it could be a stagnating of interest or motivation, or a combinatio­n.

Or maybe this combinatio­n of size, world-class skill and speedy grit isn’t quite the right mix this season.

Every year is different, as we know, and it’s obvious the Jets aren’t as cohesive a unit on the ice as they were last season.

Not only are they no better — you’d expect a team this young to improve — they aren’t as good as they were 12 months ago.

The standings even say they’re falling behind: after 59 games, the Jets’ 76 points is three off their pace at the same time last season.

The most dramatic backslide is in goals against: 170 this season, 15 more than at this time last February.

Offensivel­y, the Jets have scored six more goals this year, but given the young talent they have, that’s almost zero progress.

What most people wrote off as growing pains through the first four months of the season have become more chronic of late.

Over the last seven games, Winnipeg has been outscored 25-17, including twice by the league’s worst team in Ottawa, has gone 0-for-19 on the power play and given up eight power-play goals against.

At this same time last year, the Jets had won five of their last seven, outscoring their opposition 27-17. They’d just spanked Florida and Colorado by a combined 13-3 count and begun a run of six-straight games with at least one power-play goal.

That wasn’t a temporary surge a year ago, either: the Jets were seven games into a remarkable 22-7-1 run to end the season, momentum they carried right into the playoffs.

This team hasn’t shown any sign of going on a run even remotely resembling that.

They keep this up and Nashville will take over first place in the Central Division, leaving the Jets a likely first-round playoff matchup with the St. Louis Blues, currently on a 10-game heater.

I doubt anyone in the organizati­on would like the sound of that matchup right now.

After losing in overtime to the Senators on Saturday, the Jets took Sunday off as scheduled, then took an unplanned second day off Monday.

Coach Paul Maurice is obviously hoping for a reset. The Jets don’t play again until Wednesday in Colorado. They have another two games, at Vegas and Arizona, before Monday’s trade deadline.

There’s no better way to achieve that than with the acquisitio­n of a player from a bottom-feeding team.

I don’t know that Cheveldayo­ff will pull off a real shocker and deal a veteran player. Anyone suggesting he ship the ice-cold Patrik Laine out of town, well, that’s an extreme long-shot at best.

But the urgency in getting something done has to have ratcheted up.

At the very least, the Jets needs an injection of enthusiasm.

There’s no better way to achieve that than with the acquisitio­n of a player from a bottom-feeding team that long ago puckered up and kissed the playoffs goodbye.

If the Jets were rolling along as they were going into last year’s deadline, Cheveldayo­ff could be picky and wait for the perfect move. Which he did in 2018, acquiring Paul Stastny from the Blues.

Today, he doesn’t have that luxury.

Two weeks ago, perhaps the notion of standing pat was actually plausible, if a little quaint.

It’s not plausible anymore.

 ?? JEFFREY T. BARNES/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Patrik Laine’s Winnipeg Jets are sputtering with just two wins in the last seven games, Paul Friesen writes, and it’s obvious the team is not as cohesive as last season.
JEFFREY T. BARNES/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Patrik Laine’s Winnipeg Jets are sputtering with just two wins in the last seven games, Paul Friesen writes, and it’s obvious the team is not as cohesive as last season.
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