COLUMBUS — It’s safe to say the Winnipeg Jets took full advantage of a soft spot in their schedule.
A dominating 6-1 victory on Sunday night over the Columbus Blue Jackets to kick off a five-game road trip comes on the heels of a 6-0 thrashing of the Anaheim Ducks on Friday which closed out a three-game homestand.
No, there won’t be a parade to celebrate lopsided wins over two of the NHL’s weakest teams, who had both played the previous night and are racked with injuries.
But the Jets flexed their muscles — and then some — in getting back to what has made them one of the league’s heavyweights this season.
Great goaltending. Smothering defence. Balanced offence. Structure and discipline. And no shortage of positive vibes to begin a tough week which is about to move up a few weight classes when it comes to competition.
We’ll get to that shortly. First, let’s look at how the Jets crashed the Blue Jackets’ St. Patrick’s Day party in convincing fashion and moved back into top spot in the Central Division with a 43-19-5 record and 15 games left to play.
1A and 1B? – Jets coach Rick Bowness has been trying to find the right mix in his top six for much of the season. And while it remains a work in progress with winger Gabe Vilardi currently sidelined indefinitely with an enlarged spleen, the veteran bench boss appears to have found a winning combination with the current makeup of his top two lines.
Kyle Connor got the scoring started on Sunday, burying a beautiful feed from Mark Scheifele to make it 1-0 just 86 seconds into the game. Along with Alex Iafallo, who is likely just a placeholder for Vilardi, the talented trio have been doing a lot of good things lately.
Connor is now up to 29 goals on the year, while Scheifele notched his 40th assist of the campaign and has an outside chance of matching or exceeding his career high of 50.
Not to be outdone, the second line of Nikolaj Ehlers, Tyler Toffoli and Sean Monahan appear to have found some serious chemistry. Ehlers scored his 20th of the year just 70 seconds into the second period after a ridiculous between-the-legs backhand feed from Toffoli.
“Honestly, we literally talked about it right before that shift to, either way, find that little soft ice and I think I just missed Mony and it went right to (Ehlers),” Toffoli said of the pretty play.
Ehlers then returned the favour a few minutes later, setting up Toffoli in the slot. Monahan had secondary assists on both.
“It was obviously fun. A lot of time together, I thought we did some really good things. Hopefully, it only gets better,” said Toffoli.
If they keep up this type of production, we might have start referring to them as the other first line. Perhaps 1A and 1B?
Toffoli then finished off the scoring late in the third period when he pounced on an egregious giveaway and went top shelf on a breakaway. It was his second straight two goal game and gives him 30 on the season.
“It’s one of those things for myself I go in every year expecting to score 30 goals,” said Toffoli, a pending unrestricted free agent this summer. “To do it, obviously very proud. And there’s still 15 games. Hopefully, they don’t stop.”
Don’t discount the depth – Great teams get valuable contributions up and down the lineup, and that was certainly the case against Columbus.
Defenceman Logan Stanley, who has been a healthy scratch for much of the year, scored his first of the campaign with eight minutes left in the second period to make it 4-0. David Gustafsson, who has also seen prolonged press box duty, provided a perfect screen.
“Good for Logan. He’s worked very hard,” said Bowness. “Listen, he didn’t play a lot early. He never complained. He’s been a real good pro about it, a real good teammate, and it’s nice to see him rewarded with a goal. He’s played very well for us.”
Stanley joked that it was “annual” goal, as he’s scored four in his career — one in each of the past four seasons.
“It felt good, help the guys win and everyone loves to score goals once in a while,” he said.
Then Vlad Namestnikov, who has bounced all over the lineup this year due to his versatility and is now playing with Gustafsson and Morgan Barron on the fourth line, made it 5-0 with just under two minutes left in the frame. He’s up to nine goals on the year.
Barron also looked to have scored when he tipped a Brenden Dillon shot in the third period, only to have it waved off upon video review due to a high-stick.
Hellebuyck shows his form – A goaltender is typically not a major story in a lopsided win, but don’t overlook the job Connor Hellebuyck — especially in a first period that saw the Jets outshot 11-7 despite grabbing a 1-0 lead.
“We didn’t like the first. We weren’t fooled by the score,” said Bowness. “We knew we had to tighten it up. It was loose. We were giving them too many chances off the rush so we addressed that and we did.”
Hellebuyck, the Vezina Trophy favourite, finished with 30 saves on the night. The only puck to beat him came early in the third period during a goal-mouth scramble, with Brenden Gaunce sweeping it home before he could cover it.
Hellebuyck is now 31-15-3 through 49 starts, with a 2.31 goals against average and .922 save percentage,
Roster rotation — The Jets rolled out the same skaters for a second straight game, meaning defencemen Dylan Samberg and Colin Miller, and forwards Cole Perfetti and Rasmus Kupari were once again healthy scratches,
“That wasn’t the original plan,” Bowness admitted. However, he didn’t want to make any changes following the shutout victory over the Ducks.
Stanley said nobody, including himself, is pouting over the situation which may mean rotating in and out of the lineup at times.
“I think we’ve got a deep team in here, forwards, d’s, goalies. So we all want to play and play well and help our team win,” he said. “We’re gonna need that in the playoffs and for a long run.”
Bowness said he expects all of the extras to get some work this week given the busy scheduled.
Business picks up – There will be no pushovers for the rest of the road trip. The New York Rangers are up next on Tuesday night, followed by a trio of teams — the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders and Washington Capitals — who are fighting to remain in the Eastern Conference playoff picture with time ticking away.
“It’s a huge week,” said Dillon.
“We’re not trying to get too ahead of ourselves, but looking at this month of March, this was going to be a tough one. A lot of games in a short period of time, travel, we’ve got some teams fighting for their playoff lives. I think this is going to be a good test for us to play some different styles of hockey.”
Bowness said the challenge for his club is to prove it can now hang with some of the other top dogs in the league.
“We know we haven’t played as well against the top teams lately as we can. As we’re capable of. So it’ll be a good test for us,” he said.
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Mike McIntyre
Sports reporter
Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.
