GAMEDAY: Jets at Senators

Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness had a special moment after the formal part of the team's morning skate on Saturday.
He helped his grandson take some strides on the Canadian Tire Centre ice.
"Had him on the ice for the first time. I love that," smiled Bowness, whose son Ryan is the assistant general manager of the Ottawa Senators. "The little grandson, got to spend some time with him. We're going to come back here for the All-Star break to spend some time with him."
Bowness coached the Senators for parts of four seasons in the infancy of the club back in the early 1990s, but with his son holding a spot in the current club's hockey operations department, let's just say Bowness is putting in some extra video work.
"I haven't watched this many Senators games since I coached them," he laughed. "I watched their game last night because we're playing them tonight. But when they're playing I try to watch as many games as I can."
Yes, despite the family memories made this morning, Bowness' focus will be entirely on getting the Jets a win over his son's Senators tonight when the puck drops.

The Jets (29-16-1) have lost the first two games of a season-long five-game road trip, so getting back in the win column against a Senators (20-22-3) team coming off a 4-1 loss in Pittsburgh on Friday is key.

Bowness approved of the effort in Toronto despite the final outcome, much more so than in Montreal.
"I was very happy with the offence that we created. It was just giving up those Grade A's to the wrong guys (Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner)," he said. "If we can do that again, against a very good hockey club, then the chances are the pucks will go in the net for us."
In the two losses - both by a score of 4-1 - both Jets goals came off the stick of Kyle Connor on the power play.
"We can do a little more five-on-five, for sure, to score some goals," said Dylan DeMelo, who believes the key to doing that starts in the defensive zone against Ottawa tonight. "We did a great job when we played them in Winnipeg of holding onto pucks and making plays, making them play defence. Anytime you can stop their skilled players from rolling through coverage and trying to get easy offence, it usually bodes well for us."
The game DeMelo references, the 5-1 victory over Ottawa at Canada Life Centre on December 20, was right in the thick of the toughest section of Winnipeg's December schedule.

It was the third game of five games in seven nights, and the lone stop at home in that stretch which saw them play back-to-back on the west coast, stop off in Winnipeg, then play a back-to-back on the east coast.
During that stretch, Bowness credited a number of depth players stepping up into bigger roles, and also the team's top line players for making a difference in helping the Jets to a 9-7-0 record that month with seven regulars out of the line-up.
He expects them to play a big role tonight in Ottawa after a tough couple nights to open the road trip.
"They want to be difference makers every night," Bowness said. "It's not a perfect game every night. You're going to make mistakes. Those things happen, and you move on. If they continually happen, then you have to address it in a different manner. When it's a one off like that, which we haven't seen all year, we can't overreact to it either. They're proud guys."
There weren't any line rushes as part of Winnipeg's morning skate on Saturday, but Bowness did say that there will be a couple adjustments.
Karson Kuhlman will slot back in up front, with Sam Gagner coming out. On the blue line, Ville Heinola will come out for Dylan Samberg.
Samberg returns after missing the last two games due to illness.
"It's one thing to get over the initial bug and then it's the fatigue that drags on, for not only a couple of days but a couple of weeks in some of our situations," said Bowness. "We've just got to give him a chance to feel like he's got his feet back under him."

A win tonight would also level Winnipeg's record against the Eastern Conference, which is 8-9-0, compared to their sparkling 21-7-1 mark against the West.
"We played Buffalo and that was an absolute run-and-gun pond hockey game. We played Montreal, a little bit like that too," said DeMelo. "It seems like they just run-and-gun a little bit systems wise. We're used to a little more detailed teams like St. Louis and Dallas, teams that it matches well for us. We fall into that trap sometimes. So it's us playing our game no matter who we play against."
So look for that to be Winnipeg's focus tonight as they try to get the road trip back on track.
It all comes down to doing what they do well.
"A detailed game, a 200-foot game, us being real good with our sorts in the D-zone, good with the puck, and holding onto pucks in the o-zone and making them play some defence," DeMelo said. "They have a lot of skill, a lot of guys that want to make plays. We have to make it hard on them and do a good job, everybody buy-in tonight."
-- Mitchell Clinton, WinnipegJets.com
Game Notes
The Jets are in the midst of playing 10 of 13 games against Eastern Conference opponents. Winnipeg is 8-9-0 against the Eastern Conference this season.
The Jets are 6-3-0 in January for a 0.667 points percentage, which is tied for sixth in the NHL. The most wins the Jets have had in January is eight during the 2018-19 season.
The Jets have dropped consecutive games for the fifth time this season. After each of their losing sides of two-games or more, the Jets have won multiple games in a row.
The Jets have scored on the power play in four consecutive games. Winnipeg is 10-for-36 on the power play in the last 11 games (31.3 percent). The Jets have climbed to ninth in the NHL this season with a power play successful 24.6 percent of the time.
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