Jets Aim to Follow up Monday’s 60-Minute Effort

It may have taken six games, but the Winnipeg Jets finally played a full 60 minutes of hockey.

Heading into Monday evening’s divisional contest with the well-rested St. Louis Blues, the Jets had already been on the ice for over 300 minutes this season. Managing a win in the season-opener – a game to which they took down a beaten-up New York Rangers squad – as well as an overtime victory over the Colorado Avalanche in Denver a few days later, neither of Winnipeg’s wins were full 60-minute efforts.

That all changed on Monday as Connor Hellebuyck picked up his first shutout of the year – a 4-0 win over a Blues team that entered the game without a loss on the season.

“We needed everyone tonight and we played a full 60 minutes. Character is in this room and now we know the game plan that we need,” the former Vezina Trophy winner said post-game. “This game wasn’t going to be won off of a couple sweet plays. It was going to be won in the corners and making sure they got nothing… It felt great. Felt like it was a step in the right direction. We know we have it in this room and we needed to show it for 60 minutes. Now that we have, now we have something to build on.” 

It wasn’t just Hellebuyck either.

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The defence – Sans Dylan Samberg who was nursing an injury – stepped up in both zones, while the offence saw contributions from all four lines. Mark Scheifele scored the winner – his team-leading fourth of the year – while defensemen Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk continued with their point production from the blue line.

“You want everyone scoring,” Scheifele said of his team’s diversity in scoring. “You need everyone to score to win games. Tonight we had everyone. Everyone was making good plays. Everyone was playing simple when we needed to. They shut it down when they needed to. That’s what you need when you play against a good team like that.”

Sure, St. Louis had only played a league-low three games prior to Monday night’s tilt, but in those games, it had outscored its opponents 11-5. Holding off an offensive attack like that is one thing, but to shut it down completely, that’s a whole other avenue.

Winnipeg actually only allowed 22 shots on net on Monday, with just three being of the high-danger variety.

“We knew we were going against a team in St. Louis that made you work for every inch of the ice,” associate coach Scott Arniel said. “We did a great job of battling, getting from zone to zone to zone, getting to their end of the rink. It wasn’t going to be pretty getting it there. Sometimes it was chipping pucks out, sometimes it was not trying to go east to west through the neutral zone. We were playing north-south hockey. That was a real complete game. I thought all our lines, all our D, I think everybody was rock solid – Helle as well.”

A couple solid quotes from associate coach Scott Arniel following Monday's 4-0 shutout victory over St. Louis.

He touched on his quick post-game conversation with Rick Bowness, as well as the overall execution of Winnipeg's modus operandi: pic.twitter.com/Bv51QLCFeb

— Carter Brooks (@CBrooksie84) October 25, 2022

For Arniel, it was actually his fifth game of the season serving as the acting head coach. Prior to Monday’s game, the Jets announced that offseason signing Rick Bowness would miss the contest after experiencing signs of dizziness and fatigue. One would imagine that those symptoms stemmed from the 67-year-old’s first bout with COVID that held him out of the team’s first four games of the season.

“I’m sure he was happy watching that one; hopefully that picks his spirits up,” Scheifele laughed post-game. “You just hope and pray for him to feel better and better. That’s really all we can do. Obviously, our trainers and doctors are on it to make sure he comes out of this thing healthy and stronger. All we can do is pray for him.”

With the Jets having a day-off on Tuesday, the club regrouped at Canada Life Centre on Wednesday morning for a practice prior to taking off on another three-game road trip. Missing in action once again was Bowness, whom the club announced will not be travelling west with the team as it makes stops in Los Angeles, Arizona and Vegas in another string of three games in just four nights beginning on Thursday.

“He was on a Zoom call with us today when we showed the team some clips this morning,” Arniel told reporters. “I get my 10-15 texts a day, which is good because he’s staying in it and he’s watching it. At the end of the day, he’s with us in spirit here. We’re all putting the game plan together and he’s got a big say in it.”

A surprise DNP for the Jets was defenceman Logan Stanley, who played arguably his best game of the season for Winnipeg on Monday. His coach confirmed that he suffered a minor injury blocking a shot, but will travel with the club and hope to get back into the lineup soon. Dylan Samberg shed his non-contact sweater and practiced in full with the club.

Nikolaj Ehlers – who has been out since hurting himself in a game with the Dallas Stars on October 17 – joined Stanley on the sidelines, but he will be boarding the Jets’ plane for the States Wednesday afternoon.

“He’s progressing,” Arniel remarked. “He won’t be playing but he may be skating with us, getting on the ice, maybe get working out with the extras.” 

With a focus on repeating the same style of performance displayed on Monday, Winnipeg will look to push its recent 1-2-0 road trip back into the rearview mirror.

“We’ve kind of won one, lost one. A bit of a trend happening,” Arniel added. “We need to have that same kind of effort, that same kind of look. It came from four lines, it came from the six defence, and obviously our goaltending. Playing on the road, you have to play it that way.”