COLUMBUS – When the Winnipeg Jets take on the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight to close out a two-game road trip, they’d love to carbon copy their performance from Wednesday night against Detroit.
In the 6-2 victory over the Red Wings, the Jets scored five times at five-on-five and took care of business in their own end as well, limiting Detroit to just three high-danger chances at even strength (according to Natural Stat Trick).
“We went through the game this morning and we didn’t give up many chances,” said Morgan Barron. “I thought it was pretty productive on our part and pretty good from top to bottom.”
It was exactly the response the Jets (9-1-0) were looking for after dropping their first game of the season back on Monday. Head coach Scott Arniel really liked how Winnipeg started the game, but also the way his team limited Detroit’s ability to move the puck.
“We took the speed game, the offensive game, away from Detroit because we did a good job tracking back, holding the line, not allowing them to get entries,” Arniel said. “The five-on-five coverage we did, it just led to offence going the other way.”
They’ll need to do that again tonight against Columbus (5-3-1), a team that has won two games in a row and has scored 29 goals at five-on-five, the third most in the National Hockey League behind Vegas (37) and New Jersey (30).
“They’re not giving you an inch out there. They play hard, they play a good structure. We know Dean Evason from Minnesota, his teams play hard,” said Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “There is no doubt about it. They’ve beat some really good teams in this building. We have our work cut out for us tonight. We know it’s not going to be an easy game. We’re going to have to bring another great effort tonight to beat these guys.”
The Jets won’t make any changes to their skaters on Friday night, though Arniel did say he does have a plan for getting players that have sat for the last handful of games into the line-up soon.
There will be a change between the pipes however, as Eric Comrie will get his third start of the season. It comes in the very building, Nationwide Arena, where he had his first career NHL start (and win) back in April of 2017.
“(Connor Hellebuyck) was real good the other night and we have Tampa as an afternoon game and three huge divisional games coming up next week,” said Arniel. “(Comrie) is going to have to play a lot before the Four Nations just because of all these games packed in there. We have to be good in front of him and give him another opportunity to be at his best.”
The line-up in front of Comrie is expected to look like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Iafallo
Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Stanley-Miller
The other aspect of the win in Detroit that Winnipeg would like to see carry over is the strong start. The Jets opened the scoring in a game for just the third time this season on Wednesday, and DeMelo felt every line and defensive pair that hopped over the boards just kept building momentum.
“We played fast and we played direct. We weren’t fooling around with the puck. We got in and went to work,” he said. “When we play north and we play direct and we’re playing fast, all the lines are getting into it. When we’re into the game and we’re engaged, it means we’re playing a north and direct game. That was a huge start, then our skill goes to work on some really nice goals there.”
The trio of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, and Gabriel Vilardi were on the ice for all three of Winnipeg’s first period goals on Wednesday. Not only did Connor register his 500th NHL point as part of that quick start, his three points extended his season-opening point streak to 10 games and gave him four consecutive multi-point performances.
His nine goals and 17 points earned him the NHL’s Second Star of the Month for October.
“When he’s in his groove, I don’t think there is really anything the other team can do to stop him,” said Barron. “Scheif and Gabe do a great job complementing him. It’s a lot of fun to watch and I know he’s going to be able to keep it going.”
Puck drop is set for 6 pm CT.
