VANCOUVER – Tonight, the Winnipeg Jets begin a stretch of 26 games in 51 days to close out the regular season schedule.
They’re well aware of the task in front of them: chip away at the 11-point gap that separates them from a wildcard spot in the Western Conference. In fact, two of the teams they face on this three-game road trip – Anaheim and San Jose – are ones they’ll have to chase down to accomplish that goal.
If that challenge wasn’t steep enough, the Jets (22-26-8) will have to start that process without key members of their group. Nino Niederreiter and Neal Pionk are week-to-week with injuries, Josh Morrissey won’t be on the trip after the injury he sustained at the Olympics, and fellow defencemen Haydn Fleury (day-to-day) and Colin Miller aren’t ready to go yet, though they are progressing from their own respective injuries.
So when the puck drops tonight at Rogers Arena, the Jets may look different than they did at the start of the month of February, but the goal remains the same.
“All hands on deck,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “At the end of the day, it’s our group, whoever is dressed for (these) games, it’s finding a way, starting with Vancouver, finding a way to two points. We have lots of great players here. We have veteran guys that have helped us in the past and we need them to step up now.”
The Jets will have one of their two gold medallists from the Olympics in Milano-Cortina, as Kyle Connor joined the team for practice on Tuesday in an effort to be ready to play in Vancouver (Connor Hellebuyck, named the best goaltender in the Olympics on the men’s hockey side, will join the team on the road trip in Anaheim).
The 29-year-old forward played in two games for the United States, but was scratched after that, and is itching to get back to game action. When the Michigan product returned from the 4 Nations Face-Off last February, he had 10 shots on goal and an assist in a 4-3 shootout win over St. Louis.
That started a run of points in 13 of 16 games for Connor, with five multi-point efforts and a total of 17 points.
“It’s almost a new season here,” said Connor. “There is a lot of fight in this group and a lot of belief here. Hopefully we can get off to a good start. We need to start rolling these wins, piling them up and stacking them. These are huge games for us.”
With all the injuries comes the opportunity for others. One of those is Ville Heinola, who has 21 points in 44 games with the Manitoba Moose this season. In Tuesday’s practice, the 24-year-old was paired with Luke Schenn in the regular line rushes and was part of the personnel for Winnipeg’s second power play unit.
“Obviously it’s never fun to see guys go down,” said Heinola. “For me, I’m super excited to get to play and get the opportunity to play.”
Due to Niederreiter’s injury, the Jets line-up will look different up front than it did in practice before the flight to Vancouver (the veteran forward participated in the skate to assess his injury, before it was deemed he would be out on a week-to-week basis). The morning skate will be the best indication of the adjustments Arniel and the coaching staff will make.
As for the Canucks (18-33-6), they went into the Olympic break with three consecutive losses to Toronto, Utah, and Vegas, and were outscored 14-6 in that span. Vancouver’s line-up was remarkably banged up during that final stretch before the Olympics, with the likes of Brock Boeser, Nils Hoglander, Thatcher Demko, Marco Rossi, and Zeev Buium on the injured list. On top of that, veteran blue liner (and former Jet) Derek Forbort has only played two games this season due to his injury.
As a result, the Canucks find themselves in eighth in the Pacific Division. However, based on their skate on Tuesday, they could be getting a bunch of those bodies back. Boeser, Hoglander, Rossi, and Buium all took part in line rushes and could give Vancouver – who are 29th in the National Hockey League in goals with 145 – some offensive punch.
Winnipeg won the first of this season’s three meetings with the Canucks by a 5-3 score back in November, and will complete the season series on March 7 in Winnipeg. If the Jets take care of business and find a way to two points tonight, it would be the exact start to the road trip they need.
And just the start to the sprint to the end of the season they want.
“Right now it’s game in and game out, what you can do to be the best player you can and try to get wins here and climb back in the fight,” said Connor. “At the end of the day, we have to crawl our way back into the fight here and have a good push.”
Puck drop is set for 9 pm CT.
