WINNIPEG — Click! Click! Click, click click…
That sound you hear is Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice, flicking the many switches that he’ll need in the “ON” position if the Jets are to beat the Western Conference’s best team since the calendar turned to 2019, the St. Louis Blues.
And this sound you hear is Maurice, saying the words his team needs to hear, one day before opening a Round 1 playoff series in a town that’s feeling a tad nervous about its team.
“I’m fine with where our game’s at right now,” Maurice said on the final practice day before the Jets Stanley Cup run begins. “Surviving since the All-Star game has been good for us and playing without important players (namely Josh Morrisey and Dustin Byfuglien) has been really good for us.
“They had 99 (points). We had 99. It’s going to be a helluva series. Regular season was fine, it just wasn’t a whole lot of fun. This is where it’s fun.”
There’s the first switch that needs to get flipped: Fun.
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Where a year ago the Jets were having more fun than any team in hockey, winning 11 or their final 12 games prior to the playoffs and walking in as the league’s No. 2-ranked team with an amazing 114 points, this season the Jets are coming in on a 2-4-1 jag. They are the 18th best team in the NHL since Christmas.
Sure, there have been reasons that 2018-19 did no flow as smoothly as the season before, but the time to diagnose those has passed. In a town where expectations have only grown since that trip to the Western Conference Final last season, there is some tension among the fan base, as they’ve watch this team sputter.
“They’re fans. They can think whatever they want,” said utility forward Bryan Little. “If they could see us in this room and see our confidence level and how relaxed we are going into (Wednesday), I think they would be more confident.
“I’m not sure how we finished last year, I think we won eight or nine of our last 10. So, yeah, it’s a bit different but I think it’s a clean slate. It’s a new year, it’s a different kind of hockey coming out.”
The Jets theme is, “We’re OK. Just waiting for the real season to begin.” But privately, you know there is some nervous sweat – especially having blown the Central Division lead in the final week of the regular season.
The reality is, there are more than just a couple of things that have to happen for this engine to run smoothly as Maurice would like. As smoothly as it is going to have to, to get out of Round 1. For instance:
• Byfuglien is the best Jets defenceman, but in the five games he’s played since returning from an ankle injury, he has neither found his game nor his way back on to the Jets power play.
• Morrissey (shoulder injury) has not played since Feb. 24. He’s ready for Game 1, but it will be like hopping on a moving train for the Jets second most important blueliner.
• Brandon Tanev, an excellent fourth-liner who gives the Jets the kind of depth that makes them dangerous, has a hand injury and won’t play in Game 1. Who knows when he comes back?
• The lines have been in a blender, as Maurice tries to shake the team out of a run that has seen them go .500 (14-14-3) since Feb. 1. Much of that was played without their top two defencemen, but you know what they say: There’s no room on the score card for a story.
• Patrik Laine’s season has been a bit of a disaster. Sure, he had 30 goals, but 18 of those came back in November. He’s had four power-play goals since Jan. 1, and in a contract year that was supposed to end with a $70 million, long-term package, Laine has fewer goals, fewer assists and fewer points than he had as a rookie.
Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler, the true leaders up front and the guts of this Jets team, have struggled with their chemistry down the stretch. They know it’s in there somewhere, but the time to find it has surely arrived.
“We know the team we are,” declared Scheifele. “We had our good stretches, our bad stretches. We know what makes us a good team. It’s about putting it on the ice. It’s not about talking about it, saying what we’re going to do. It all comes down to putting it on the ice.
“Walking the walk.”
The walk begins on Wednesday. First one to arrive, turn the switch on please.
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