DALLAS — The Winnipeg Jets have reached that crowded intersection where they will attempt to turn an unwavering belief into reality.
Although the road ahead during the final eight games of the regular season is sure to provide a few more turbulent stretches, a 4-3 overtime victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday meant the Jets have almost completely erased the 11-point deficit they faced coming out of the Olympic break.
Yes, there are still two teams to attempt to leapfrog and several others hot in pursuit going into Thursday’s game against the Dallas Stars, but the Jets have put themselves in a position few outside the organization thought was even remotely possible.
Hunter Hiebert / WINNIPEG JETS
Winnipeg Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey (right) said Wednesday there is a ‘no quit’ attitude in the club’s locker room as the regular season winds down.
By going 10-4-4 since Feb. 4, the Jets have put together a stretch that has them well within striking distance — trailing the Nashville Predators by a single point going into Wednesday’s action.
“We were saying it all year, but even when we were struggling, that this is a team that knows how to win hockey games and has won a lot of games in the regular season in the last number of years,” said Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey. “Of course, there are always new faces, but a large part of this group has been together and has had success in the regular season and in the stretch when the games tighten up and matter most.
“To be honest, I think that is when the make-up of our team is best (suited), for those tight games, as we pride ourselves on being a good defensive team and that is so much more important down the stretch as the games get closer and closer. There is a lot of confidence in our group. We are coming from behind and maybe teams in front of us feel the pressure, but we feel no pressure. We are just going out there and playing and competing and trying to show the group we can get back into the playoffs.”
The Jets season has been a tale of two tapes — as head coach Scott Arniel occasionally references
A crisp 9-3 start was followed by a woeful stretch of 6-19-5 that included an 11-game winless skid that left the Jets on the precipice of a high pick in the draft lottery.
Since that time, the Jets are now 17-8-7, a stark turnaround that has them squarely in the mix to squeak into the playoffs.
“There is a lot of confidence in our group. We are coming from behind and maybe teams in front of us feel the pressure, but we feel no pressure.”
Rather than punt on the season, the Jets’ necessary changes after the Olympic break have allowed them to play faster on a more consistent basis.
“We had a good start and then had a large stretch of the year where it didn’t really feel like it was our group and we just couldn’t get any traction,” said Morrissey.
“We are not even close to being there yet but we have erased a pretty big deficit and that is kudos to every single guy in this room, and the staff. There is no quit in here and we are going to fight right until the end. We are a proud group, and we will show that all the way.”
Experience is something that is tough to quantify with a mathematical equation or to fully pinpoint, but one thing that can’t be disputed is that the Jets core group has not only done a lot of winning during the regular season these past years, they’ve built up plenty of scar tissue along the way as well.
Learning from past disappointments is just as an important part of the process, and that is something the club can certainly lean on.
“You’ve got to perform under pressure. That’s the biggest thing,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry. “We know every game is important. We don’t have time to just squander points. We can’t have these letdowns where we play one great game and then come down and take a breath.
“We still have an internal optimism and a belief in this group that when we play the right way, when we have all hands on deck, we’re a tough team to beat.”
“It’s obviously disappointing where we found ourselves (in the standings), but we’ve talked about it all year. We still have an internal optimism and a belief in this group that when we play the right way, when we have all hands on deck, we’re a tough team to beat. We’ve proven it over the last month. We can beat some of the best teams in the league, and it’s just going to take more of that moving forward.”
The next test comes against a Stars team that’s been one of the league’s best this season and pulled within two points of the Colorado Avalanche for top spot in the NHL recently, but has stumbled of late as they’ve dealt with some key injuries, posting just two wins during the past nine games (2-4-3).
With that in mind, it’s natural to wonder if the Jets might be catching the Stars at a good time — but that doesn’t make the Stars any less dangerous.
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In fact, it probably makes them even hungrier to try and find their standard in a game against a Central Division rival, especially when you consider the Stars are still in the middle of a battle for second spot in the division with the Minnesota Wild, even if the Avalanche appear to be out of reach.
The Jets can’t afford to concern themselves with who else might be jockeying for position in their own races. Instead, the club’s mission is abundantly clear: keep applying pressure to the teams above them in the standings and continue to meet the next moment in front of them.
“We just said to take care of our own business and that’s what we’re trying to do. We got ourselves here, but we can’t take our foot off the gas,” said Arniel, asked about the mindset that was required to go on this recent run. “It doesn’t get any easier in going into Dallas and then Columbus, so a lot of heavy lifting still to go.
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Winnipeg Jets captain Adam Lowry said Wednesday there is still ‘an internal optimism’ amongst his teammates that the club will make the post-season.
“We have got to make sure that we continue to do those things that keep us in games and that gives us a chance to win.”
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Ken Wiebe is a sports reporter for the Free Press, with an emphasis on the Winnipeg Jets. He has covered hockey and provided analysis in this market since 2000 for the Winnipeg Sun, The Athletic, Sportsnet.ca and TSN. Ken was a summer intern at the Free Press in 1999 and returned to the Free Press in a full-time capacity in September of 2023. Read more about Ken.
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