There is no room to debate “rest versus rust” when two road-weary teams meet on Friday in Las Vegas, as the host Golden Knights welcome the Winnipeg Jets in a battle of division leaders.
For Vegas, this is its first game back from a long five-game road trip, while the Jets are in the middle of a stretch of games that, once it ends on Sunday in Dallas, will see them play only once at home in 10 contests.
The exhaustion from time-zone hopping and long-distance travel has perhaps caught up to the league-best Winnipeg Jets. After a record-breaking 15-1-0 start, the Jets have dropped four of their last seven games.
“Everybody is ornery. When you lose hockey games, you’re never really happy,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel, lamenting a lack of time to continue maintaining their systems and keeping them sharp. “That’s kind of the schedule we’re all facing right now. We’ll work on things … we’ll get a chance to have a couple of practices this week.”
Another issue the Jets have faced recently is their play away from home ice against determined teams, like the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday. The Kings shut down Winnipeg, holding them to only 14 shots on goal and stifling one of the league’s best offenses in a 4-1 victory.
“We weren’t desperate enough,” Jets forward Nino Niederreiter said following their defeat in L.A. “At the end of the day, we’re a hunted team. We’re the first-place team, and everybody comes after us. We have to make sure we bring our best every single night to be successful … you want to make sure you bounce back and bring that same mentality to the next game going to Vegas.”
The Golden Knights are also a first-place team, holding onto the top spot in the Pacific Division. Despite the fatigue caused by the road trip, Vegas was still able to collect seven of a possible 10 points on the move and gained its final point in a 2-1 shootout loss to Colorado in Denver on Wednesday. Despite that, their head coach wasn’t happy with the game.
“We looked tired. We’re at the end of a long road trip, and we are tired. I’m not going to lie to you,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said following Wednesday’s shootout loss. “We’ll probably be tired Friday (against Winnipeg). So, we just have to find ways to stay in games … Hopefully, Friday (we) will.”
The Jets have two defensemen on injured reserve, Dylan Samberg and Logan Stanley. Stanley is much closer to returning, as he has been skating with the team in a non-contact jersey and is on the trip.
For Vegas, blueliner Zach Whitecloud and winger Victor Olofsson are both day-to-day. The Golden Knights would love to have them both available on Friday for a game that they are taking very seriously against Winnipeg.
“Well, you just look at their record, and you just see how they started their season off,” Vegas forward Cole Schwindt said. “We’ve kind of had them circled for a while. We know who we’re chasing, and it’ll be a fun game for sure.”
–Field Level Media
