Jets keep finding ways to win

WINNIPEG – Coming home from a successful road trip in which they went 3-1, the Winnipeg Jets got back to business today at Canada Life Centre.

The Jets sit second in the Central Division heading into Friday night with the Dallas Stars sitting one point back of Winnipeg, the Stars are hosting Ottawa this evening. The team has stayed in the hunt for the Central title without Gabriel Vilardi for a long stretch of games and now will have to continue missing Kyle Connor.

“We’ve got a ton of leaders in our locker room and good core. Everyone has been pushing the ball in the same direction so to speak,” said Josh Morrissey.

“You can’t replace players like KC, but guys can step up and not try and fill his shoes but just be the best version of themselves and bring their best game to the table and collectively as a group kind of pick up those minutes.”

The Jets lost their first full game without Connor 2-1 in San Jose and then the following night fell behind 2-0 in the opening period against the Kings in Los Angeles. Winnipeg scored five unanswered goals against a Kings team that had been stingy defensively this season. The top line of Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers and Gabe Vilardi led the way offensively.

“To get down two goals early and respond the way we did and how Mark’s line played with Gabe and Nikolaj. They really took the game over, that’s a huge win,” said Adam Lowry.

“Generating any chances against LA’s 1-3-1 especially when you are down, it’s tough. To find a way to comeback on tired legs, three games in four nights, it would have been easy to fold up the tent. You know, that’s the sign of a good team. There was no quit, we were able to kind of take over the game and started to dictate the pace.”

Rick Bowness was asked about the fundamental qualities that he’s seeing from his group that is allowing them to respond to any type of adversity that is being thrown at them.

“Well again, every team is going to face adversity in our league. You come to the rink (and wonder) ‘what’s going to happen today?’ So, you’ve got to have that attitude and one thing we always say, and you see it in our room, man. It’s solutions, it’s not excuses. No matter what happens, we deal with it,” said Bowness.

“And we deal with it head on. So, that’s a big part of our mantra here is that we find solutions and we’re not looking for excuses or a way out. Even against LA, we talked Wednesday morning, okay third game in four nights, back-to-back and they’re sitting here waiting for us. No excuses. There’s no excuses. We’ve got to go out and play our game and we did.”

The play of Scheifele’s line, how well the team has defended five-on-five, their depth up front and on the blueline has overshadowed one key factor. Goaltending. Laurent Brossoit has found his game and of course, Connor Hellebuyck is dialled in.

“Listen, I’ve been fortunate to be around some great goalies in this league, (Roberto) Luongo, Vasi (Andrei Vasilevskiy) and they all have the same thing. They have tremendous work ethic in practice and preparation. They are ready to go. They don’t get rattled. They’re all very, very confident people. Very confident in their skills and just as important as any of that, they want to be in the net. No matter what, they want the ball,” said Bowness.

“So, Louie was the same, Vasi was the same, Helly is the same. They work their butt off, they’re well prepared every day and again, if they give up a bad goal, it doesn’t rattle them. They get ready for the next one. Again, they want the ball, they want to be in the net, and I love that about them all.”

INJURY UPDATES

Rasmus Kupari and Ville Heinola continue to work their way back from their injuries and Bowness said that both players are a long ways away from returning at this point.