You’d have a pretty hard time convincing someone that the Winnipeg Jets aren’t sitting on a gold mine when fully healthy.
What they’ve been able to accomplish with so many top players shelved with injury has been remarkable. How many teams would have fallen completely out of contention by this point?
There’s no doubt Winnipeg’s resiliency has been given an almighty stress test as we near the midway point of the 2022-23 campaign. And at 23-13-1, sitting in second place in the Central Division and fourth in the Western Conference heading into Sunday’s action, they’ve handled the suffocating load of adversity remarkably well.
All of the praise isn’t to suggest this passage of time in Winnipeg’s season has been handled cleanly, because it hasn’t. There have been some ugly wins, with Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers being a prime example.
But even looking at that game, it’s more than just surviving.
Connor Hellebuyck may have “stolen one” with his 31-save effort, culminating in his 18th win of a Vezina-calibre season. But Dylan Samberg’s block with seconds left may have prevented a goal even Hellebuyck might not have saved with the Jets scrambling down 6-on-4 for the final 1:14.
No one would have blamed Hellebuyck for allowing one there, but no one is talking about one going in late because Samberg stuck his leg out to prevent the shot from ever materializing further.
Samberg had a tough go against the Canucks, yet Rick Bowness trusted his young blue-liner with preserving a lead late in that game. Samberg also got beat on Edmonton’s game-tying goal in the third, with Mattias Janmark getting between him and Adam Lowry off the draw to slip the puck over to Klim Kostin for the quick strike.
Where did Bowness go late? Back to Samberg.
Samberg’s not being let off the hook here for his mistakes. He’s being challenged to go back out and make amends. Samberg obliged and redeemed himself.
That’s good coaching. Samberg wasn’t stapled to the bench right after the mistake. Instead, Bowness gave him a shovel and told him to go dig himself out of the hole he made.
It’s still a shift in philosophy and surprises at times, but it’s so crucial for the organization long-term as they truly develop NHLers at the NHL level.
Meanwhile, also on the ice were David Gustafsson and Morgan Barron, another pair of young Jets holding down the fort. It’s moments like those that breed trust between player and coach, and there’s been a lot of young players on the Jets fostering faith with Bowness this year.
Again, another monumental shift in attitude under Bowness. Young players are being leaned on, not sheltered.
The Jets stuck to their structure in that game, even with the dam finally giving way in the third when Oilers forward Klim Kostin tied the game.
When the Jets are playing their best, their structure remains intact and they’re calm in one-goal situations. They checked both of those boxes on New Year’s Eve, even if others were left unchecked. Keeping their nerve late there with Connor McDavid prowling around on the ice is no small feat, and it helped lead to a win.
Kristian Reichel deserves a nod here, too.
Again, another young player that the team has drafted and developed got his first shot of the year and made the most of it.
Reichel provided the secondary dish on Kyle Connor’s game-winning goal after being bumped up to Pierre-Luc Dubois’s line with Connor.
Reichel makes so many smart plays on the ice, just little things that go unnoticed. He was Winnipeg’s best 5-on-5 player during the game in terms of expected goals, and helped turn Dubois’s line into an offensive one he replaced Sam Gagner at right-wing.
Bowness will have some tough decisions to make when health returns to Winnipeg’s side in the coming weeks, with Blake Wheeler, Nikolaj Ehlers, Cole Perfetti, Saku Maenalanen and Nate Schmidt already skating.
Kevin Stenlund has made a great case for himself to remain in the lineup, especially as Michael Eyssimont has fallen down the order a little bit.
I suspect Karson Kuhlman, who was recently acquired off waivers, and Jansen Harkins will be the first two put on waivers when one of Winnipeg’s walking wounded is wounded no longer.
I wonder what the Jets will do with Kyle Capobianco when Schmidt returns to health. Has Heinola shown enough? The only issue for the 21-year-old Finn becomes numbers.
Schmidt is going back on the second-unit power play when he returns, and Heinola doesn’t kill penalties at the NHL level at this point. The writing’s probably on the wall, but I’m still curious if Heinola wins out over Capobianco. The only worry there would be how many games Heinola sits in the press box. Also: he’s still waiver-exempt and the Jets would be threatened with losing Capobianco if they were to try and push him to the Manitoba Moose through waivers.
Happy New Year, folks.
sbilleck@postmedia.com
Twitter: @scottbilleck
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