Jim Slater Scores for the Jets
The Winnipeg Jets took a big step on Saturday night. Besides recording their second victory of the season, of course.
This time, the Jets came back. And don’t think that isn’t huge for team morale.
After all, this is a team that blew a 3-1 lead in Toronto and lost 4-3 in a shootout and then blew a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes in Ottawa and got blitzed 4-1. This is a Jets team that has started the season blowing leads, not beating the opposition after it takes the lead.
A Goalie Change Does the Trick
But on Saturday night, after falling behind 2-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Jets switched goalies and appeared to switch gears at exactly the same time. The Hurricanes scored on Ondrej Pavelec at 4:40 (Jussi Jokinen) and 6:43 (Jeff Skinner) and appeared to be cruising, but that’s when Jets coach Claude Noel took Pavelec out, replaced him with Chris Mason and the Jets just seemed to have new life.
Alexander Burmistrov and Kyle Wellwood scored power-play goals before the end of the first period (Wellwood scored at 19:58) and the Jets proceeded to beat their intra-divisional rivals 5-3.
This was a Jets team that outhit, out-hustled, out-worked and as a result out-scored their opposition and it could be argued that it was Winnipeg’s best performance of the first two weeks of the campaign. Hard work pays off and it’s paid off twice at home for the Jets already this season. In Saturday’s game, the team’s puck pursuit and puck support was unmatched and suddenly, at 2-4-1, things don’t look so hopeless anymore.
Monday night’s game with the skilled, but under-performing New York Rangers (2-2-2) will be a nice test.
Meanwhile, on Sunday afternoon, the Jets announced that the team had returned 18-year-old draft pick Mark Scheifele to his junior team, the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League.
That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
A surprise pick in the draft at No. 7 back in June, Scheifele was terrific in the pre-season. Trouble was, he was playing against AHL, ECHL and junior players. As an NHLer in regular season games, he’d make a great ECHL star.
He had a goal, no assists and no penalty minutes in his first seven games on a struggling team. He was averaging 14-15 shifts and playing about 10 minutes a game (he played only 7:21 on Saturday night). That’s a waste for a skinny 6-foot-2, 180-pound kid who is only going to get better in junior.
In fact, it’s a terrible waste of talent to have Scheifele playing on a checking line. If he’s not a Top 6 player he shouldn’t be playing in the NHL. Fact is, the only reason he made the Jets is because the team had little or no offensive punch. In their first six games, the Jets were averaging fewer than two goals per outing. It was the wrong place for a kid like Scheifele and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff made the right decision yesterday.
Scheifele needs to go back to junior, play 23 minutes a game, score 150 points, play on the World Junior Championship team and go deep in the OHL playoffs. It’s the best thing that could have happened to Scheifele.
He’s going to be a star. Just not yet.
