The Winnipeg Jets will put their franchise-record 11-game winning streak on the line when they visit the struggling Nashville Predators on Thursday night.
The Jets, who last were defeated on Jan. 20, have climbed to the top of the NHL standings. That said, they were not fooling themselves on their performance in a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday to kick off a quick two-game road swing.
“It’s not going to be pretty every night,” said forward Cole Perfetti, who opened the scoring against Ottawa. “We’ve won 11 in a row, and not every game is going to be great, but we’re still finding ways to win when we’re not at our best, and I think that says a lot about our group.”
The Ottawa game is a textbook example of the scoresheet not telling the whole story. Even though the Jets scored a pair of first-period goals and posted a 3-0 lead just past the eight-minute mark of the second period, there were flaws.
The usually defense-first Jets surrendered a dozen shots against in the opening period and relied on two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to keep the Senators at bay.
Jets coach Scott Arniel said his team’s play in the first two periods was “sloppy.”
“It’s bound to happen,” he said. “We couldn’t make a play. We weren’t connecting. We did a lot of things uncharacteristic. But at the end of the day we played a lot better in the third period and did a lot of good things.”
Winnipeg is the sixth team in the past five seasons to win 11 consecutive outings. Being the second game on consecutive nights on the road, the Jets likely are to start second-stringer Eric Comrie in net on Thursday.
The Predators will finish a string of five consecutive home games having lost two straight and eight of the past 10 outings overall.
Nashville, which sits 30th overall in the league and 18 points outside of a playoff spot, lost 4-1 to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
The defeat was made all the worse with an upper-body injury suffered by captain Roman Josi when he was hit from behind by Florida’s Sam Bennett.
Josi did not participate in practice on Wednesday, and the team said he was day-to-day, albeit with an ominous qualifier.
“I don’t really know, I’m not a doctor,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette told the Tennessean. “With those things, it’s day-to-day, week-to-week, or it could be season ending. We don’t really know.”
Regardless of how long Josi is out, the window of opportunity for a miracle run that earns the Predators a playoff spot appears to be slamming shut.
The team has scored two or fewer goals in eight of those 10 outings.
“You need to score to win in this league,” defenseman Luke Schenn said. “We get some big saves all the time. But you feel for both goalies, but (Juuse Saros) a lot. He doesn’t get much support. When you’re trying to win a game all the time and you don’t score, it’s obviously extremely challenging, and every play means that much more.”
As much as it may be a grind for the team to keep trying, Nashville’s situation is a mettle test for a club that was expected to make the playoffs.
“Just play with pride … no matter what happens throughout the rest of the year,” forward Michael McCarron said. “As a team, I don’t think we’ve really played too many full 60-minute games this year.”
–Field Level Media
