CHICAGO \u2013 A brief look at the National Hockey League standings would show that tonight\u2019s opponent for the Winnipeg Jets is in a much different spot than the first-place Colorado Avalanche \u2013 who the Jets beat on Saturday \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean Winnipeg\u2019s focus can be any different.<\/p>\n
There are just nine games left in the regular season schedule and the Jets (31-30-12) remain three points back of the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference. No matter who is in front of them, they need to continue to find points.<\/p>\n
So while the Chicago Blackhawks (27-34-13) are coming off a four-game road trip that ended with three consecutive losses, the Jets know exactly what Chicago is capable of. After all, the Blackhawks shut out Winnipeg 2-0 at United Center on January 19 \u2013 when Jonathan Toews made his return to Chicago and received a thunderous (and lengthy) ovation.<\/p>\n
The Jets have won two of the three games in the season series so far, including a 3-2 overtime win back on March 3 at Canada Life Centre. Since returning from the Olympic break, Winnipeg is 9-4-4, the 11th best mark in the NHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how to win, we know how to take care of business,\u201d said Mark Scheifele, who had an assist in Saturday\u2019s road trip opening win in Denver. \u201cEveryone\u2019s demeanor going into games, just working their hardest and giving it their all and I think the biggest thing is just confidence in our team, confidence in our group and going from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winnipeg\u2019s confidence is showing through. This season, the Jets are 13-12-12 in one-goal games. However, since the Olympics, their record in that situation is 4-1-4, and the argument could be made that both wins over Colorado this month (with scores of 3-1 and 4-2) required empty-netters to become two-goal victories.<\/p>\n
Dylan DeMelo feels the group\u2019s confidence is showing in the third period, where they have a plus-five goal differential since February 25 (17-12).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some stretches there where we\u2019d have leads and we\u2019re sitting on our heels and letting them just come at us. Safe is death in this league,\u201d said DeMelo. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to be careless – obviously – when you\u2019re up, but you still have to play with assertiveness and play on your toes. We kind of got away from that and I feel like we\u2019ve done a better job of that now. Even if we\u2019re up a goal or up two goals, we\u2019re still trying to go after teams, still trying to apply pace, apply pressure on teams. I feel like it has been paying off for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeMelo was one of the numerous Jets that took part in Monday\u2019s optional practice in Chicago. Winnipeg took Sunday off to attend the Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field as a team, taking full advantage of the two days between games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this was our first two-day break in three weeks,\u201d said DeMelo, who played 21:54 against the Avalanche, one of four Jets defencemen over 20 minutes in the game.<\/p>\n
As for the Blackhawks, tonight\u2019s tilt with the Jets is a one-game stop at home before heading right back on the road for three more. Chicago\u2019s three consecutive losses to the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, and New Jersey Devils have had a combined score of 16-5 as the young team adjusts to the departure of veterans like captain Nick\u00a0Foligno and Jason Dickinson.<\/p>\n
Still, Chicago has the likes of Connor Bedard (who has already hit the 30-goal mark this season for the first time) and other exciting young forwards like Anton Frondell, who was selected third overall by the Blackhawks in the 2025 NHL Draft. Frondell has four assists in four NHL games so far, including his first multi-point game with two assists in the 5-3 loss to New Jersey on Sunday.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just part of the reason why the Jets will need to every bit as detailed as they were on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we need this time of year,\u201d said Scheifele. \u201cIt was a resilient game. We were playing against the best team in the league and the star power they have on the Avs. to be in a tight game, back and forth all game, to come out with a win and get some greasy goals and guys blocking shots and doing all that stuff, it took a full team effort. It was a great game through and through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only will Winnipeg need that effort tonight. They\u2019ll need it every night for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to stay in the fight,\u201d said DeMelo. \u201cGuys are digging in and playing hard. We\u2019re picking up wins and getting points and just trying to stay in the fight here. It\u2019s going to go down to the wire. We\u2019re just hoping to keep accumulating them and get in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Puck drop is set for 7:30 pm CT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2013 A brief look at the National Hockey League standings would show that tonight\u2019s opponent for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5121],"tags":[5,78,4,77,18,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-532465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg-jets","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-winnipeg","12":"tag-winnipeg-jets","13":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116322664896785873","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}