GAMEDAY: Jets at Wild

ST. PAUL – Despite the fact the Winnipeg Jets have won six of their first nine games this season, the search for a full 60-minute performance is still ongoing.

All through the early part of the regular season, the Jets (6-3-0) have shown they can play to their stingy, back-to-back William Jennings Trophy standard. To this point, it just hasn’t been throughout a full contest.

The next chance to do that comes tonight in Minnesota against the Wild. It’s also an opportunity to clean up a few areas that led to Winnipeg’s most recent loss, a home-stand finishing 3-2 setback to the Utah Mammoth on Sunday.

"We're in game nine here. It's time to end that stuff,” head coach Scott Arniel said following that loss. “What we did in the first period was hard work and it has to happen each and every shift and it has to happen from all four lines and all of our D. That's our DNA.”

The first period that Arniel is referencing may not look stunning on the surface – after all, the score was 0-0. A deeper look, though, shows that Winnipeg controlled the areas they want to control.

Natural Stat Trick’s metrics gave Winnipeg the edge in five-on-five shot attempts (20-13), scoring chances (9-7), and high-danger chances (7-2).

“That was the exact blueprint of what we wanted to do for three periods,” said Dylan DeMelo. “Then in the second period we got away from it. We’ve got to stay with it and stay patient with our game. We’re still trying to find that right now.”

DeMelo's fellow blue liner, Logan Stanley, is leaning into Winnipeg's strong track record in responding to games they don't like. Last season, the Jets were 17-7-2 coming off a loss, and are 2-0-0 in that scenario this season.

"It’s a mentality. I think it’s good leadership," he said. "We have a good hockey team in here. We’re not satisfied with losing hockey games. It’s important to us to bounce back and respond when we don’t have a good game or a tough loss. We want to have a good one tonight."

The line rushes at the team's morning skate indicated that Arniel will be switching things up a bit:

“I’m just looking at pieces for each line, with what each line kind of needs and the other side is what Minny has with their group of forwards," said Arniel. "I’m trying to match things up that way. I don’t know. Sometimes when you don’t like how it’s going, you mix it up a little bit. I just wanted to see a bit of a different look.”

It could be said that Winnipeg’s opponent on this one-game road trip, is also trying to find their game as the final week of October begins. The Wild (3-5-2) dropped a 6-5 overtime decision to the San Jose Sharks on Sunday and, like the Jets, are dealing with some injuries of their own.

Veterans Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno, Zach Bogosian, and Nico Sturm are all out (though Foligno is questionable for tonight's tilt) and Minnesota – a team that was middle of the pack last year in goals against (16^th) - has allowed the second most goals in the National Hockey League so far.

So, Tuesday’s match-up isn’t only about two valuable divisional points on the line, it will also be a chance for both squads to establish the type of game they’ve been striving for all season.

“In the grand scheme of things, it is so early so it is all about finding ways to get better, to execute cleaner and continue to get more and more of our game building throughout the season,” said Josh Morrissey, who hit 300 career assists with his two helpers on Sunday. “It is an opportunity to build and find ways to improve and grow and with a lot of new faces in our room.”

The Jets swept the four-game season series with the Wild last season, so Winnipeg knows they’ll be facing a motivated group in the Wild – who are also trying to get a six-game home stand back on track after opening with losses to Utah and San Jose.

Arniel and his staff will certainly dig into some of the tendencies they see in the Wild, but most of the focus for them – and the players – will be what Winnipeg needs to do in their own game to be successful.

"Keep hammering it home. There's a lot of ways that you can look at it,” said Arniel. “It's going to be one of those situations that doesn't get any better unless we start to do it on a consistent basis each and every period."

Puck drop is set for 7 pm CT.