VANCOUVER - The Winnipeg Jets open a quick two-game road trip tonight against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Jets (32-14-5) have won two in a row thanks to a perfect home stand at Canada Life Centre, which produced victories over Pittsburgh and San Jose. As for the Canucks (37-12-6), they extended their win streak to three with a 4-1 victory at Rogers Arena on Thursday.
Any opportunity to play in a big game - on a Saturday night in Canada, no less - is one to be cherished. The Jets have that opportunity tonight against the league-leading Canucks.
“It’s always exciting,” said head coach Rick Bowness. “We’re more concerned about our standards. We know how good Vancouver is. We want to make sure we play Winnipeg Jets hockey.”
Scoring goals hasn’t been a problem for the Canucks this season. They put up four in their most recent win and that has them tied with Dallas and Colorado for the most in the NHL (203).
The Jets have a lot of offensive talent, but the goals haven’t been coming as easily the last little while. Winnipeg has 15 goals in the last 11 games, including one in the 1-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks.
That being said, Bowness feels the tide is going to turn for his club. They had 24 high-danger chances at five-on-five against San Jose.
“If I had to sit here and say we’re not creating any offensive chances, that’s a whole other discussion, but we are,” said Bowness. “We’re generating enough chances to score more than one or two goals. It’s from our defensive structure, the puck just hasn’t been going for us lately.”
Dylan DeMelo, who played 21:29 in that win over the Sharks, felt the Jets couldn’t had a big lead early on in the win over San Jose. Still, the positive is that the Jets remain confident in low-scoring, one-goal games.
“It’s kind of weird. It’s not one or two guys, it seems like everyone is going through it right now. So maybe better now than later on in the year,” said DeMelo. “When we’re not scoring, our defensive structure and our details have been spot on. When you have that, you’re always going to be in games.”
On his pairing with Josh Morrissey, DeMelo knows he’ll be going up against the potent Vancouver offence every time he hops over the boards.
“The new coaching staff has them playing really structured, really detailed,” said DeMelo. “They don’t give you much. They’re a hard forechecking team. A lot of guys are having career years. So top to bottom, they have a great line-up. It’s a real good test for us.”
It was just an optional skate for the Jets this morning, but it’s expected that Connor Hellebuyck (who didn’t skate) will get the start in goal against Vancouver.
The projected line-up, based on Friday’s practice, looks like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Monahan-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Namestnikov-Iafallo
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
Puck drop is set for 7pm CT
DILLON BACK
Brenden Dillon returns from a three-game suspension tonight. He spoke about his emotions surrounding that on Friday.
His return means that Dylan Samberg will be reunited with Nate Schmidt, who he’s spent the most amount of time with this season.
That being said, Samberg enjoyed the last three games with his fellow Hermantown, MN product in Pionk.
“It brought me back to my first game, that’s who my partner was in my first game,” said Samberg. “All the D pairings back here are great and no matter who you play with, it’s awesome. Guys are communicating, which is definitely helpful. I felt it went great. Dilly bar is back, and now I’m back with Schmidty.”
Samberg had an assist on Winnipeg’s only goal, the eventual game-winner, on Wednesday night at Canada Life Centre. He’s happy to see a big piece of the Jets defence, Dillon, back in the fold.
“He’s one of our best penalty killers,” said Samberg. “He’s a tough player, he plays hard and plays the game the right way. He’s good to have back and have on our side.”
PENALTY KILLIN’ IT
Winnipeg’s penalty kill is a perfect eight-for-eight in the last three games, but has been quite consistent since the start of 2024.
Since January 4, the Jets penalty kill is second in the NHL at 87.8 percent.
“It’s a collection of our work,” said DeMelo. “We’ve switched some personnel up on it. At the end of the day, guys take a lot of pride in it. For a lot of guys, that’s our money maker. We knew it would turn eventually.
“With the great goaltending we have, they’re there to back stop us when we need them too. We’re doing a great job on face-off, making it a little harder on them getting in the zone, and we’re doing a much better job on clears and shared clears.”
