ST. LOUIS - The current National Hockey League standings might be the best way to summarize life in the Central Division.
The Winnipeg Jets, at 5-0-0, are the league’s only remaining undefeated team. The reward? That only gets them tied for top spot in the division (with Dallas at 5-1-0). Even then, the lead over the next closest club (Utah) only sits at one point, with the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild right behind at eight points.
“Even if you look at the bottom of the Central right now, there are a couple teams you wouldn’t expect to be there – and I’m sure those teams will make a push too,” said forward Morgan Barron. “The margins are really thin. It seems no matter who we’re playing, no matter where they are in the standings, it’s going to be a tough game. That’s what we expect tonight.”
Tonight, the Jets open a three-game road trip against one of those teams trying to chase them down in the early going – the St. Louis Blues.
Winnipeg won all three match-ups with the Blues last season – outscoring St. Louis 13-6 in the process – but they also know that this Blues team will be much different than last season.
“They have a lot of guys over there who are always hard to play against,” Barron said. “Every year is a new year. Obviously they have new guys in the line-up. It’s going to be a tight game.”
Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, two players signed to offer sheets that their former club – the Edmonton Oilers – chose not to match, have found ways to contribute to help St. Louis to a 4-2-0 start. Broberg has a point in every game the Blues have played this season, while Holloway scored his first goal as a member of the Blues in Saturday’s 4-3 win over Carolina.
“They’re always a well-structured team,” said Vladislav Namestnikov. “They’re fast and they added some speed. We have to stick to our game and focus on the Winnipeg Jet hockey we can bring, and just play our game.
The Jets are full marks for their start to the season, though. Are there things to fix? Of course. Every team in the league is working on something as the schedule progresses. Namestnikov, who has five points in Winnipeg’s last two games, believes the key is making sure the Jets’ game doesn’t change from home ice to the road.
“Nothing changes for us. We just have to play responsible in our D-zone and that will lead to offence,” said Namestnikov. “We did that for the four games at home, we just have to take that on the road now.”
One of the main lessons that came out of Sunday’s 6-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins was how to deal with a heavy forecheck, something that Arniel expects the Jets will see once again tonight at Enterprise Center.
“They’re off to a good start,” said Arniel. “They work hard, they come at you in waves, they’re aggressive on the forecheck. They have some top end people - (Jordan) Kyrou, (Robert) Thomas, (Pavel) Buchnevich - guys that can make plays. For us to start this road trip, we have to be ready to go against that forecheck.”
After Eric Comrie’s 39-save effort on Sunday, Connor Hellebuyck is expected back between the pipes for the Jets in St. Louis.
The projected line-up is expected to look like this:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Namestnikov
Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Stanley-Miller
Logan Stanley, who played 16:52 and recorded an assist against Pittsburgh, will get into a second straight game after making his season debut against the Penguins.
“I liked a lot of what he did,” said Arneil. “I wanted him to play at home and get one game at home before these games. For him, it’s just once you get in the rhythm again, him playing with (Colin Miller), recognize his partner and how to play with him, how they read off each other, you get to go right back at it quickly to try and build on what you’ve done.”
Winnipeg’s schedule will be unrelenting over the next two months, where they average a game every second day until the middle of December.
But the veteran group won’t be caught getting ahead of themselves. The best way to handle a busy schedule is to take care of what’s in front of them. After all, the Central Division doesn’t let you get too far ahead.
“It’s a lot of good teams in the division and a lot of tough match-ups,” said Namestnikov. “We just have to take it one game at a time, focus on St. Louis today and go from there.”
Puck drop is set for 7 pm CT.
