NEWARK — It would appear a loss to the NHL’s worst team left a mark.
Change was in the air on Saturday afternoon as the Winnipeg Jets hit the ice for the first time since Thursday’s 3-1 stunner against the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets to kick off a four-game Eastern Conference road trip. Coach Rick Bowness got out the blender and switched all four forward lines, both power play units and two of the three defence pairings.
“We haven’t been scoring goals the last couple games. We’re not getting to the net,” Bowness said following a 75-minute practice at Prudential Center.
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Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers was held off the scoresheet Thursday night in Columbus.
The 34-20-1 Jets will play three tough games in the next four nights starting with today’s clash against the New Jersey Devils. They face the New York Rangers 24 hours later at Madison Square Garden, then wrap up across town on Wednesday night against the New York Islanders.
Winnipeg is just 5-6-0 in the last 11 games, with only 26 goals scored in that span.
“We have to start scoring some greasy goals,” said Bowness. “It can’t always be the top two lines scoring goals. We need goals from that third and fourth line. With three games in four nights, we want to be able to roll four lines, this gives us four balanced lines.”
With that in mind, the forward group now looks like this:
Mark Scheifele centres Cole Perfetti and Mason Appleton. Pierre-Luc Dubois is between Kyle Connor and Saku Maenalanen. Adam Lowry goes with Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler. And Kevin Stenlund is on the fourth line along with Morgan Barron and Karson Kuhlman.
“We’ve got a checker on each line, but we want that checker to get to the net. We’re not getting enough net presence,” Bowness explained. “Yes it’s for defensive purposes, but just as importantly for offensive purposes.”
The power play units have also undergone a makeover, thanks to a recent cold snap which includes an ugly 1-for-7 showing in Columbus which include three separate five-on-three opportunities that came up empty.
“We didn’t put our best foot forward in the past couple of games on special teams, on the power play. Something had to give,” said defenceman Nate Schmidt. “I think we’re excited to see who becomes our top unit.”
Scheifele, Wheeler and Josh Morrissey remain on one unit, with Perfetti and Schmidt now joining them.
“Just a different look is what (Bowness) was looking for. We’ll see what happens,” said Perfetti. “He’s really stressing that the penalty kill and power play is a big part of these games coming down the stretch. Just doing whatever it takes to get the puck in the back of the net.”
Dubois and Connor move to the other unit, where Ehlers, Stenlund and Neal Pionk remain.
“What it’s supposed to be is to give us two even units. The unit that’s going the best is the unit that, if we can, we start with,” said Bowness.
“You want that internal competition. It can’t be like ‘OK it’s a given, it’s a power play I’m going.’ We want more internal competition. Our power play has gone from 10th to whatever it is today (16th as of Saturday). It’s just not effective enough. We’ll tweak the minutes and see where it goes.”
After a day off Friday in New York, Saturday’s skate was longer-than-usual and included plenty of power play work. The 10 skaters on the two units hit the ice first, spending about 10 minutes running through simulated man advantages but without any defenders or goaltenders. It was all about quick puck movement and rotation.
Bowness was especially animated, repeatedly getting on his players to be quicker.
“There are a lot of good players on both units now. There is a lot of really solid, talented, and smart hockey players,” said Perfetti, who was asked if the Jets need to try and focus on basics such as shooting the puck, creating net-front traffic and trying to get tips and rebounds.
“They know when to shoot and pass. It’s all situational. Sometimes you might over pass, sometimes you might overshoot. It’s all about finding that happy balance,” he said. “We want to get pucks to the net to score, but we’re also trying to make the right play, the right read, and get it to the net at the right time.”
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“We want to get pucks to the net to score, but we’re also trying to make the right play,” said Cole Perfetti.
Perfetti said he was been watching video of Boston’s Patrice Bergeron to study ways he can improve on the power play, especially now that he is being used in the so-called “bumper” position.
“It’s definitely different, I’m learning it and I’ve never done this before. So I’m trying to learn how to be successful at it and watch some of the top players in the league that do it,” he said.
“The bumper is a really important position. If you have a good bumper guy, it can make a really good power play. I’ll do whatever I can to support the rest of the guys – give them outs, give them opportunities to use me as support – and hopefully we create something there.”
On the blue-line, Morrissey is back with his regular partner, Dylan DeMelo, while Pionk drops down to play with Brenden Dillon. The Dylan Samberg and Schmidt duo is the only one that remains intact.
Forward Sam Gagner and blue-liners Logan Stanley and Kyle Capobianco look to be the healthy scratches. Forward David Gustafsson continues to work his way back from injury but was still in a non-contact jersey on Saturday.
“You got to find something. If we get to ourselves into this time of year and only score two goals, it’s going to be tough to win on a lot of nights,” Schmidt said of the flurry of changes.
Connor Hellebuyck will start in goal on Sunday after battling a non-COVID illness and not playing the last two games. Bowness said they’ll consider starting him on Monday as well,
Not surprisingly, there was also plenty of chatter at practice about the NHL’s latest blockbuster trade, which saw the Toronto Maple Leafs acquire Ryan O’ Reilly and Noel Acciari from the St. Louis Blues on Friday night.
“I’m a big hockey guy, I love hockey, so I try to stay up-to-date with all the news,” said Perfetti. “There is a lot happening right now. It’s exciting times around the league.”
Winnipeg will get an up-close look at two other recently traded stars in Vladimir Tarasenko (Blues to Rangers) and Bo Horvat (Canucks to Islanders) before the road trip is over. And, of course, plenty of focus remains on the Jets to see if they’ll load up between now and the March 3 deadline.
“You’d love to be in the (general manager’s) room,” said Schmidt. “It’s that time of year where you start seeing things, seeing some teams make big deals like yesterday. Interesting time of the year.”
Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg
Mike McIntyre
Sports columnist
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.
