Jets know what needs to improve on struggling power play

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Who wins in a fight between two wounded animals? We may find out as the year draws to a close over the next couple of days.

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The Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild are among the hottest squads in the NHL these days, both having won seven of their past 10 games.

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The Wild comes to Winnipeg for the first half of the weekend home-and-home on Saturday winners of four straight and in hot pursuit of a playoff spot after a dreadful start to the campaign.

They’ve been cruising along just nicely after replacing Flin Flon’s Dean Evason with former Nashville Predators head coach John Hynes a month ago.

So what’s with this wounded animal talk?

Minnesota, despite its resurgence from the coach’s bump, has allowed power-play goals against in five straight and its leaky penalty-kill entered Friday last in the NHL.

And despite Winnipeg’s trampling 5-on-5 play — some of the best in the NHL this season thanks to a system and a structure that’s carried them to 20 wins and second place in the Central Division as of Friday morning — they own a trundling power-play that’s scored just three times on 25 attempts over their past 10 games.

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“We know what’s wrong with our power play and we’re going to keep harping on it,” Jets head coach Rick Bowness said Friday.

The Jets don’t often open practice with power-play work, but it was the focal point of Friday’s 60-minute skate.

No defenders were trying to shut it down, however.

For the first 10 minutes of the skate, both units simply worked on movement.

“More movement, more shots,” Bowness said. “Did we have one shot on the net in the three-and-a-half power plays? So, yeah. And that means everyone. You’re not out there to just pass the puck. If you get a chance to shoot, you’ve got to be ready to shoot the puck.”

Indeed, the Jets registered a single shot in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.

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In a game where everything else seemed to be working, save for the light behind Chicago starter Petr Mrazek, the Jets power-play once again left points on the board.

Friday morning threw a few new looks into the mix.

For a few reps, at least, Winnipeg’s top unit, often run through Mark Scheifele on the left-side half wall, was working down the right flank with Nikolaj Ehlers as the anchor.

And wouldn’t you know it, a quick couple of passes and it was Scheifele burying a shot past Laurent Brossoit.

At the other end of the ice, a little more deception as Neal Pionk’s cross-ice pass was either intercepted by Nino Niederreiter’s one-timer or allowed through to Cole Perfetti prowling down the right.

“If you can sow a little doubt in their mind early, it’s a strange thing, the confidence thing, where they’re a little fragile and then maybe the reads are a little slower,” captain Adam Lowry said.

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Lowry may not feature on either of Winnipeg’s power-play units, but he’s one of the league’s most prominent penalty-killers.

He’s also defended against Winnipeg’s power play many times on the practice ice.

“Talking from a killer’s standpoint … generally if (the opposition’s power play) has been struggling, you know they’re trying to get pucks to the net, they’re trying to be a little more direct,” Lowry said.

When the direct, get-pucks-to-the-net part fails — as it has for the Jets — teams start to force it.

A good kill against a struggling power play will be one where those penalty-killers are right there in the shooting lanes, taking away the shot or blocking the ones that do come.

It forces a team into a high-risk, high-reward situation.

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“That’s the worst thing they can do,” Lowry said. “You try and force a play through the middle and you break it down and now they’re breaking out.”

Precious seconds tick away and momentum, which Bowness insists the power play conjure if they’re not scoring, dies along with it.

Jets know the stakes

A pair of wins this weekend for Minnesota would close the gap between themselves and the Jets to four points.

The same situation the other way, where Winnipeg takes both victories in regulation, would open up the gap to 12.

To a man in Winnipeg’s dressing room, the process feels right.

The way the Jets played in Chicago deserved a win. It wasn’t dissimilar to the way they played in a 5-1 win over Boston leading into the Christmas break.

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“Real high pressure, hard forechecking and real tight defensively,” Lowry said. “That’s going to be critical against Minnesota.”

As Lowry pointed out, the Wild are, historically, a great defensive team.

Even with their struggles, the Wild have surrendered the eighth fewest attempts against at 5-on-5. The Jets are ranked seventh.

And in terms of goals against, the Wild is right up there again, allowing the eighth fewest.

“They’re a big, physical team,” Lowry said. “It’s going to be important that we battle to get to the front of the net, use our speed and keep up that pressure game.

“We can’t change because we didn’t get the result (in Chicago). We have to trust the structure we have … we now know there’s a critical four points in the next two games.”

sbilleck@postmedia.com

X: @scottbilleck

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