SEATTLE - While the three-game road trip the Winnipeg Jets are on will cross three different time zones - the second of which coming tonight in the Pacific against the Seattle Kraken – Adam Lowry doesn’t mind one bit.
“Anytime you get to catch up with family, it’s nice. It’s a good road trip for that (for me) with Seattle and Calgary,” said Lowry, who had dinner with his father – Kraken assistant coach Dave Lowry – and his mom, Elaine, Wednesday night. “I’m just looking forward to playing against him tonight.’
The conversation at dinner between Lowry and his dad was likely about many topics as the two caught up on each other’s seasons. When the puck drops tonight, however, it’ll be all business.
The Jets (6-0-0) have had success against the Kraken ever since they came into the National Hockey League in 2021. Overall, the Jets are 7-2-0 in the nine meetings they’ve had with the Kraken, and won the season series with victories in two of three meetings last season.
This is a new season though.
“One area that really jumps out, looking at their games and checking the analytic side of things, their defending and their d-zone coverage, they do a real good job in there,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “It’ll be a test for us getting to the inside. Also, they’re rolling four lines. They use them quite a bit.
“They’re good in this building. We have to be sure we’re ready.”
Colin Miller, who blasted home his first goal of the season in Winnipeg’s 3-2 win over St. Louis on Tuesday, liked the resilience his club showed to start off the road trip.
“It wasn’t our cleanest one that we’ve had of the year so far, but I think we took over somewhere through in that second period,” said Miller.
That second period is when Winnipeg scored three times and outshot St. Louis 14-9.
“Every game isn’t going to be a masterpiece,” said Lowry, who credited St. Louis for their strong start in the first. “It was nice to go on the road, be down after one, and fight back to win that game.”
No changes are expected in the Jets line-up from the group that produced the club’s sixth straight win to open the season. Connor Hellebuyck, who reached 280 career wins with his 27-save performance in St. Louis, gets the call in goal. In front of him, the lines are projected to look like this, based on the morning skate:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Iafallo
Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Stanley-Miller
The Kraken had a three-game win streak snapped on Tuesday when they dropped a 3-2 decision to the Colorado Avalanche. Jared McCann and Ryker Evans provided the offence for Seattle, who will be playing the fourth game of a five-game home stand tonight.
Seattle’s new additions from the summer – centre Chandler Stephenson and defenceman Brandon Montour – have already made contributions on the scoresheet, racking up four points in their first seven games in Kraken colours.
“When I look at Seattle’s roster and the adds they made in the off-season, Montour solidifies their back end and adding (Stephenson) is a really quality centre, adds a lot of speed, and stretches their depth throughout their line-up,” said Lowry. “They’re a team that can run four lines and they’re comfortable playing any of those lines against any line – a lot like our team.
“They’re fast, they forecheck, they move the puck quickly, and they have guys that like to get to the net. It’s important that you’re sharp defensively, your reads are good, and you deny the slot areas and where their shooters like to go.”
And on top of defending well, Winnipeg will want to continue to manage the puck well.
“If you make them work below the hashmarks and make them work from there instead of just inside the blue line, that goes a long way,” said Arniel. “When you have teams that can skate, you have to make sure you limit the amount of time they get to be able to make plays with that speed.”
Accomplishing those things will put the Jets in a great spot as they try to continue their undefeated start to the season. That one game at a time mentality remains prevalent and important, even if the current stretch of five of six games away from home may present a unique time zone challenge.
“This is definitely a weird one bouncing to a bunch of different time zones,” Miller said. “I think you’re just trying to do everything you can to maximize your effort for the game tonight. Your sleep is going to get a little messed up, you’re going to fall asleep a little late or early. It’s just making sure you have the most energy for game time.”
Game time tonight is 9 pm CT.
