The Winnipeg Jets have settled elite goaltender Connor Hellebuyck back in the crease after his recovery from knee surgery.
Now the Jets must regain their defensive game to support him. They enter their road game against the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night with just three victories in their last 13 games.
“We need two points,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “We need them bad.”
Breakdowns in the defensive zone led to Winnipeg’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Monday night.
“That is a game that should have been won by us,” Arniel said. “At the end of the day, these are the games you’ve got to learn to win … We’ve got to find a way, however that is. If that’s making the next play so that it gets out of the zone, if that’s blocking a shot, whatever it is, those are the things.”
Jets defenseman Neal Pionk noted that this loss underscored his team’s need to start faster in games.
“I didn’t think our execution was great at the start of the first period, kind of a theme that continued throughout the game,” Pionk said. “I thought we had good spurts, good spurts in the second. (We) played well enough to win, just didn’t get it done.”
This is the first meeting this season between these Central Division rivals, who are fighting to get back into the Western Conference playoff race. The Blues have lost three of their last four games while injuries continued to mount.
“As a group, we know where we can be and we’ve got to focus on what’s ahead,” Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. “That’s coming to the rink, getting better, continue to push each other, playing each other hard in practice and building our team game.”
That task has become more difficult due to roster depletion. Dylan Holloway is the latest key forward to suffer a long-term injury, landing on injured reserve with a sprained ankle. He joins injured forwards Jordan Kyrou (lower body), Jimmy Snuggerud (wrist surgery) and Nathan Walker (upper body).
The Blues signed free agent Robby Fabbri and promoted AHL veterans Matt Luff and Hugh McGing to fill voids. Alexey Toropchenko returned to action Monday after recovering from leg burns in a domestic accident, but Nick Bjugstad has remained sidelined by an upper-body injury,
The injuries could also expedite the Blues’ ongoing youth movement. Top forward prospect Dalibor Dvorsky has assumed a primary offensive role and forward prospect Otto Stenberg got his first call to the NHL.
Dvorsky’s two goals were the sole highlight for the Blues in their 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Monday night.
“You could see it last game that he was coming, that he found his legs again,” Blues head coach Jim Montgomery said. “I talked to him (Monday) morning about it. The fact that he’s recognizing how to handle his body through the grind of an NHL season. This isn’t a normal NHL season, so you’re going to have peaks and valleys. The peak he had (Monday) was all driven by the fact he was moving his feet, he was attacking the net, had a shot-first attitude.
“His shot’s a weapon, and it’s something we encourage him to keep using.”
Since Joel Hofer started the previous two games, Montgomery is likely to go back to Jordan Binnington in goal for this game. In four games this month, Binnington has a 5.63 goals-against average and an .807 save percentage.
–Field Level Media
