RALEIGH – Stop number three on a four-game road trip for the Winnipeg Jets sees them fly into Lenovo Center to take on the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Jets (4-7-3) dropped both games in the state of Florida to open the trip and are looking to get things back on course in their second meeting of the season with the Hurricanes.
The first match-up, which came back on October 17, was tight throughout but the Hurricanes earned a 3-2 win. That was the second loss in an eight-game span that has seen Winnipeg go 0-6-2, a stretch that has been difficult physically and mentally for Winnipeg.
“Try to come to the rink and enjoy yourself and go out there and have fun, but it's really difficult right now,” said Morgan Barron, who notched his first goal of the season against the Panthers on Friday. “Everyone wants to play in this league and wants to win, and when we're not finding ways to come up with points, it's just really frustrating.”
In this situation, it’s important to find positives. The last four periods (the third against Tampa Bay on Thursday and the majority of the three periods against Florida on Friday) have been closer to what Winnipeg wants to look like.
Yes, this is a results-based business. That’s not lost on head coach Scott Arniel, but he sees signs for optimism – even if that final result isn’t there yet.
“There were a lot of 50-50 puck battles that we came out on the right side of them, that we hadn’t done the last time we played Florida (on Tuesday) or even in the first two periods (on Thursday) against Tampa,” said Arniel. “Now we’ve got to get over the hump, find a way. Keep that work ethic, keep that compete going and then find a way to get the two points.”
Winnipeg has made a few line-up changes over the first two games of the road trip, so Sunday’s line-up is difficult to predict with Sunday’s afternoon start (and an off-day on Saturday due to the team’s back-to-back games).
Warm-up will be the best indication of what Arniel and his coaching staff will do. He reunited Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele with Gabriel Vilardi in the third period in Florida, and also used defenceman Tyrel Bauer as a forward in some cases.
“He’s the type of kid (that says) ‘whatever coach, I just want to play,’” said Arniel. “We’ll see how this plays (out). I might try it again. But obviously, his role, it’s a tough role. The kid is a gamer for it.”
As for the Hurricanes, they’ll be closing out a three-game home stand on Sunday. They’ve won each of the first two games (over Boston and Columbus) and three straight overall to lead the Metropolitan Division.
The first match-up between the two teams was tied 2-2 after 40 minutes, before former Jet Nikolaj Ehlers notched a power play goal (his first of the season at that point) which proved to be the game-winner.
Since then, things have been difficult for the Jets, but Barron remains optimistic – even through the frustration.
“We're trying to get out of this slump, and obviously these points are really important,” he said. “We’ve got to stop the bleeding at some point, and I don't really think there's moral victories right now. We just have to find a way to come out on top. So the schedule's not getting any easier, and we're going to have to regroup and put together a really good 60-minute effort in Carolina.”
Puck drop is set for 1 pm CT.
