FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Fade into the background or stand up and be counted?
These are the choices the Winnipeg Jets are left with as they head out onto the road for a three-game trip that has the potential to be season-defining.
Having lost seven of the past eight games (1-5-2), the Jets have watched their grasp on a playoff spot in the Western Conference transform from firm to precarious.
There’s no doubt these are tense times, something that was evident when Kyle Connor stood in front of the backdrop inside the Jets’ locker room and did his best to explain what happened in a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild.
“Yeah, it definitely sucks. But that’s hockey. We’re going to have those nights,” said Connor.
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You can understand Connor’s frustration.
This is a movie he and many of his teammates have sat through before, only this time he’s hoping to help author a vastly different ending.
While it’s true that every season is different and carries its own set of circumstances, it’s impossible to ignore the mountain evidence of this most recent late-season slide, especially when you consider the one in 2018-19 and the other during the 2021 campaign that included a seven-game losing skid just before the playoffs arrived.
The impressive 20-9-1 start of 2022-23 wasn’t necessarily an example of fool’s gold, there were plenty of concrete examples of the strides this group was taking under the guidance of Rick Bowness and a new coaching staff.
Things didn’t come easily, but the results were definitely there.
As Bowness said they would be, the defence was coming and their offensive contributions have been plentiful, with Josh Morrissey clearly leading the way and remaining in the heart of the Norris Trophy discussion.
Goalie Connor Hellebuyck looked very much like a Vezina Trophy finalist throughout a first half that included a trip to the NHL All-Star festivities with Morrissey.
But little by little, some of those old habits in the team game started creeping back in, and as other squads around them found a way to find a new level, the Jets seemed stalled in neutral.
For every step forward, there was seemingly one or two back.
The foundation the Jets worked so hard to establish wasn’t holding up the way it once was.
The defensive structure showed some cracks as well, whether it was poor coverage, missed assignments or careless puck management, opponents began scoring with a bit more regularity.
With the exception of a couple of outlier outings, the Jets offensive attack went from relatively potent to more of the pop-gun variety.
That’s a bad combo platter, not a winning recipe.
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Were it not for a shaky showing from Edmonton Oilers goalie Jack Campbell last Saturday, it’s quite possible the Jets could be staring into the abyss of an eight-game losing skid.
Those are the types of slumps that threaten to sink a once-promising season.
At the very least, this is a serious test of mettle for the Jets, who face Paul Maurice and the Florida Panthers on Saturday in the latest in a long line of important games.
Instead of cruising toward the post-season and playing their best hockey of the campaign, the Jets are in a holding pattern, searching for answers and wondering when the tables might be ready to turn.
A team recently battling for top spot in both the Central Division and Western Conference standings is now searching for its true identity while hanging on for dear life as the turbulence has arrived.
This isn’t to suggest that it’s all doom and gloom for the Jets, who still have a record of 36-26-3.
An optimist would argue the Jets have played much better in consecutive games that followed the occasionally loose 7-5 triumph over the Edmonton Oilers, but they have nothing to show for it.
Bowness believes the 4-2 loss to the Wild was one of the best games his team has played this season in terms of the process and the template, outside of the end result, of course.
The veteran bench boss has a case, given how much offence the Jets generated and how little they actually gave up.
Over the course of an 82-game schedule, teams are going to run into a hot goalie every now and then.
It’s impossible not to argue that the Jets were on the receiving end of that in losses to the San Jose Sharks and the Wild, where James Reimer and Marc-Andre Fleury stole the show.
Now comes the hard part.
Can the Jets sustain the defensive commitment long enough for them to work through this extended scoring drought and perhaps find a way to get the power play going long enough to be the difference during the stretch run?
They don’t have much of a choice, not with the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators suddenly in hot pursuit and working hard to narrow the gap.
“Right now. We know where we stand. We’re still sitting in a playoff spot. Those other teams still have to win games to catch us,” Bowness said on Wednesday night before his team departed to the Sunshine State for games on consecutive days against the Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.
“We have to play like that and we have to play like that every night. And if you play like that every night, there’s no way the puck’s not going to go in. Not with 82 shot attempts and 20-something scoring chances. Yeah. We just have to play like that. We know what we’re up against. We haven’t lost that eighth spot right now, so we have to fight to keep it.”
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Oh and did we mention the Jets will be without Pierre-Luc Dubois for at least one more game and likely longer as he works his way back from an upper-body injury he sustained in Monday’s game against the Sharks.
When healthy, Dubois has been a force this season and while his production has certainly dipped during the past several weeks, his absence was noticeable against the Wild and it will be this weekend as well.
Yet, the Jets found ways to overcome injuries to key cogs earlier this season and perhaps this critical stretch will end up serving as a bit of a rallying point for a team in serious need of one.
For all of the discussion about the uncertain future and roster decisions that are on the horizon, it’s the present that requires the Jets’ immediate attention.
And if they don’t respond soon, the heat will be turned up even further.
“There’s a lot of fight. We’re going to stick with it,” said Jets left-left-winger Kyle Connor. “We’re going to keep pushing. There’s no quit in here. Not a single guy. Even the guys out of the lineup, they come in and do a great job.
“We know we have a great team here, we’ve just got to put it together. We’re on that trajectory. The last couple games have been a hell of a lot better, so we got to keep building, keep getting better and look on for the next one.”
The Jets have accumulated plenty of scar tissue during the past several seasons, dealing with disappointment of early exits or missing out on the playoffs entirely like they did last season.
For all of the talk about the lessons learned from those dark days, it’s time for the Jets to put those past disappointments into action, not add to the pile.
Great teams find a way to pull themselves out of spots like this one, using the urgency of the situation as an ignitor.
The past two games were clearly a step forward, but unless the Jets find a way to get some results and stop the bleeding, they could tumble below the playoff line and then the degree of difficulty increases dramatically and the margin for error gets thinner than it already is.
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