{"id":17775,"date":"2025-05-02T11:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T11:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/17775\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T11:25:10","slug":"keys-to-the-jets-winning-game-6-role-players-a-surprise-return-and-greasy-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/17775\/","title":{"rendered":"Keys to the Jets winning Game 6? Role players, a surprise return, and greasy goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014 The Winnipeg Jets can win their first playoff series since sweeping Edmonton in the 2021 bubble \u2014 their first against a Central Division opponent since 2018 against Nashville. They can eliminate the St. Louis Blues for the first time in Winnipeg\u2019s NHL history, avenging a 2019 playoff loss that devastated their old core and marked the last games of franchise icon Dustin Byfuglien\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

They can also make up for the pain.<\/p>\n

The pain of being walked out on by Paul Maurice, suddenly, in 2021, then missing the 2022 playoffs altogether. The growing pains that came next: rebuilding a dressing room culture, a lack of pushback against Vegas in 2023, moving on from captain Blake Wheeler and PL Dubois, and then \u2014 when Winnipeg finally seemed to have found a winning style of play \u2014 last year\u2019s five-game loss to Colorado.<\/p>\n

A win in St. Louis would turn all that pain into prologue \u2014 the necessary context against which this year\u2019s Jets showed their mettle and demonstrated their growth. The Jets\u2019 regular-season success since Scott Arniel and Rick Bowness were hired is admirable. But playoff results, starting with a Round 1 win against the Blues, would redefine this era of Jets hockey.<\/p>\n

One little problem: History isn\u2019t on Winnipeg\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

The Blues have won 14 straight games at home, for one, including two dominant wins earlier this series. Mark Scheifele didn\u2019t travel to St. Louis<\/a> and won\u2019t be available, either. Scheifele is Winnipeg\u2019s franchise leader in playoff points \u2014 and five points behind Dale Hawerchuk in Winnipeg history \u2014 but was injured in Game 5. He didn\u2019t travel to St. Louis and it\u2019s highly unlikely that he\u2019d be available for Game 7, if necessary. Despite Vladislav Namestnikov\u2019s Game 5 heroics, the Jets have lost all four playoff games they\u2019ve played with Scheifele scratched. Expanding the sample to include the 2020 qualification round adds one win and two losses against Calgary.<\/p>\n

If Winnipeg loses Game 6 \u2014 or worse \u2014 the excuses are baked in. If the Jets beat the Blues, those excuses transform: every piece of adversity turns into another reason Winnipeg\u2019s success was all the more impressive.<\/p>\n

So how do the Jets do it?<\/p>\n

Arniel is calling for Game 6 to be about his role players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be a meat-and-potato \u2026 work zone-to-zone, get out of our zone, get through that neutral zone and then make them spend some time in their end of the rink,\u201d Arniel told reporters in Winnipeg on Thursday. \u201cNot having Nik [Ehlers], not having Scheif, kind of knocks out a couple of your top six players. So this is straightforward, grind it out kind of work for, fight for every inch and get those greasy goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Ehlers, though \u2014 there\u2019s an outside chance he plays in Game 6.<\/p>\n

Unlike Scheifele, Ehlers traveled to St. Louis, and will participate in Winnipeg\u2019s morning skate on Friday. He may even do so wearing a regular jersey for the first time since April 12. It\u2019s difficult to believe that Ehlers would be a gamebreaker if he does play \u2014 and it may be more sensible to imagine a Game 7 or Round 2 return \u2014 but he\u2019s making progress.<\/p>\n

Ehlers\u2019 injury has been the source of intrigue since getting hit in the foot by Nicolas Hague\u2019s slapshot in Vegas on April 3, sliding foot-first into the boards later that game, and also getting hit in the foot by a power play slot shot from Cole Perfetti. Ehlers returned to the Jets lineup two games later only to back over linesman James Tobias<\/a> in Chicago, aggravating his previous injury. He\u2019d been seen in a walking boot prior to making his return to Jets practice.<\/p>\n

Assuming Ehlers can\u2019t play in Game 6, one of David Gustafsson or Rasmus Kupari will rejoin Winnipeg\u2019s lineup. Vladislav Namestnikov will likely reprise his top line role between Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi, while Vilardi will continue to take key faceoffs after winning four of seven he took on Wednesday. Morgan Barron could see himself promoted, while Adam Lowry, Nino Niederreiter, and Mason Appleton\u2019s shutdown line will be counted on to chip in more offence after a push in Game 5.<\/p>\n

The Jets haven\u2019t won in St. Louis in regulation since Drew Bannister was the Blues\u2019 head coach, but they\u2019re proud of the homework they did during the extended break before Game 5. Josh Morrissey told The Athletic\u00a0that Winnipeg had done a strong review of its own defensive coverage after the Blues\u2019 control of Game 3 and Game 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we\u2019ve been such a good defensive team is many factors but one of them is D-zone coverage,\u201d Morrissey said. \u201cWe end plays quickly. We don\u2019t let teams out of corners. We make it hard to find open ice. Then, when there are battles, we win them, get the puck into our hands, and then break it out and go the other way. It can be a frustrating game for teams to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrissey didn\u2019t get into specifics but praised Jets coaches for the video package they put together, highlighting moments the Jets\u2019 defensive coverage was working as it needed to be and showing the details that went awry at other times.<\/p>\n

Jets captain Adam Lowry echoed that praise after Winnipeg\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

\u201cArnie did a really good job of going through the breakdowns \u2026 When you review those things, you kind of see a lot of it is self-inflicted,\u201d Lowry said after Game 5. \u201cNot that it\u2019s an easy fix, but there\u2019s a structure we play with, an expectation of where guys are supposed to be and when we get back to that, we\u2019re a real tough team to get to the middle of the ice, we\u2019re real tough to score off in zone plays and we don\u2019t give up a whole lot in transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without Scheifele in the lineup, leaders like Morrissey and Lowry will have to elevate their game. For Morrissey, who\u2019s received a steady barrage of hits throughout the series, it means turning defensive zone success into time spent on the attack. He hasn\u2019t looked as dynamic in recent games as he has for so much of the season. For Lowry, it means maintaining discipline and avoiding penalties like the one he took against Tyler Tucker in Game 4.<\/p>\n

And if Winnipeg simply cannot control the flow of play in a tough road building, that\u2019s where Connor Hellebuyck \u2014 Hart Trophy finalist \u2014 needs to shut the door.<\/p>\n

The Jets have already defeated some of their own history by winning Game 5. They hadn\u2019t won a game after losing one in the playoffs since 2019 against these same Blues. Even as the injuries pile up, Winnipeg\u2019s depth players stepped up to deliver a massive win.<\/p>\n

Arniel said closing out the Blues will take exactly that same kind of energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of the group, how everybody stepped up. That\u2019s kind of what our team has done all year, that when guys go down other guys step in. And it\u2019s going to be just as large tomorrow. We did the job last night, now we\u2019ve got to turn around and do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Photo of Nikolaj Ehlers: Terrence Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS \u2014 The Winnipeg Jets can win their first playoff series since sweeping Edmonton in the 2021…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,4474],"class_list":{"0":"post-17775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-jets","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkjets","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-winnipeg-jets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}