For the past two seasons, the top of the Central Division has been clearly defined. The Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche have been three of the top teams in the NHL.
That’s why it might be a bit jarring to see the Jets wobble into Ball Arena on Friday night. Winnipeg began Friday in sixth place in the Central — five points back of a playoff spot and 15 shy of the Minnesota Wild, who have replaced the Jets (15-16-2) in the top three and just added all-world defenseman Quinn Hughes in a blockbuster trade.
“It’s been really tough,” Jets forward Kyle Connor said. “We haven’t really come across something like this since I can remember. It’s very challenging. The only way out of it is together. It’s in this room. We show glimpses of it and what it could be, but it’s got to be every night.
“We’re just very disconnected. We simplified a lot of the game plan coming into today, until we get back to playing on the same page and we’re able to ramp it up again.”
Winnipeg finished the regular season two years ago with 110 points, good for second in the Central before Colorado routed the Jets in a five-game playoff series. Last season, the Jets won the Presidents’ Trophy as the top regular-season club in the NHL with 116 points before the Stars knocked them out in the second round.
The Jets have made the playoffs seven of the past eight seasons. From 2017-25, Winnipeg accumulated the seventh-most points in the NHL. There was one trip to the conference finals, in 2018, but not a lot of playoff success.
Still, this has been a strong regular-season team that become a great one over the past two years.
“It’s been different, but the biggest thing is, we look at how we’ve played and we don’t deserve to be in that category (with Colorado and Dallas),” Jets captain Adam Lowry said. “I think there is a sense of urgency to get back on track, start playing to the level consistently that we can. We see it in spurts of games. We see it for a couple games. Then it goes away.”
This much of a step back was certainly not expected. Winnipeg did lose Nikolaj Ehlers, a dynamic offensive player, but the Jets added Gustav Nyquist to replace him. And the marquee addition was Jonathan Toews, who decided to return to the NHL after missing the previous two seasons.
Nyquist has no goals and six points, Toews has three goals, nine points, and a sub-43% expected goals percentage at 5-on-5.
The top line of Mark Scheifele, Gabe Villardi and Connor has been very good, combining for 47 goals in 33 games. Josh Morrissey might only be the fourth-best defenseman in the Central after Hughes arrived, but he’s still a legit No. 1 and one of the top-10 or so in the league at the position.
Winnipeg’s depth was a huge asset last year. It is not this year.
“I think the biggest driver of our team’s success over the last few years has been consistently night in, night out having good structure and not giving up a lot of chances,” Lowry said. “This year, we’ve come off that. We’ve been loose defensively. We haven’t managed the puck as well as we’d like.
“Those things end up with more defensive zone time, less offensive zone time. The offensive numbers go down, the defensive numbers go down and I think that’s a pretty good indicator of where we are.”
Avs coach Jared Bednar a couple of his players were far more complimentary of the Jets than two of their key players were Friday morning. Colorado is clearly still very wary of what the Jets can be when they are right.
Bednar noted the injuries, including two-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck’s extended absence and recent return. Kyle Connor said the Jets weren’t good enough when he was healthy early in the season or since he’s been back.
The Jets were 9-3-0 after a Nov. 1 win. It looked like the same team from the past couple of years. Winnipeg has won just six of the 21 games since, and five of those wins have come against teams in the bottom 10 of the NHL standings.
The possibility of the Jets falling from first in the NHL standings one year to out of the playoffs the next is real.
“It definitely puts a lot more stress on everybody,” Connor said. “Just the whole process — you have one eye on the big picture, and then we’re also focused on the day-to-day. We realize that we need a lot more points to get in. We’re cognizant of it, but at the same time, it has to be the day-to-day and how we approach the next game.”
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