The Winnipeg Jets didn’t exactly come storming out of the gates last season, but they did have a good first month. Which is crucial in such a tight division race.
Immediately following the opener with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Winnipeg Jets faced four straight bad teams. Carolina, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. They won the last three after dropping the opener and the second game.
Then they followed that by winning one of their next four games. They sat at 6-3-2 after their first month, which was fine. Fourteen points in eleven games isn’t terrible, but you’d hope for better.
But only four of those games, the aforementioned group, were against teams that would miss the playoffs. Thus, the optimism was born. And it was well placed.
Winnipeg has an interesting start to the year. Things will be tough before they get easy. The first four games: At St. Louis, at Dallas, vs the Kings, at Nashville. Two points will be difficult to come by.
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The last four games of the month: vs the Blues, vs Toronto, at Detroit and at Toronto. So the Red Wings are most likely pushovers, but hey, three out of four.
Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat things. Nashville is really good. Minnesota is adequate, and the Blues and Stars are pretty good. The Avalanche have some players. I’ll ignore Chicago.
So, the boys in Winnipeg need every point they can get. Home ice is important, despite what Nashville’s series would have you believe.
October is a 12 game moth. The first third is really tough. The final third is pretty tough (Two games against Toronto can’t help). The middle third? I’ll take it. All four games are in Manitoba, which is nice.
They’re also against Carolina, Edmonton, Vancouver and Arizona. The Jets will be disappointed if they don’t come away with eight points in those games. As will I. Arizona has Antti Raanta, who apparently is really good.
But still, their roster is….lackluster. Vancouver just lost the Sedins. Carolina traded away Jeff Skinner, and Edmonton has Connor McDavid but still isn’t a functioning franchise. Winnable games.
Especially a team who is firmly a Stanley Cup Contender. But the first month as a whole, won’t be easy. Yes, they’ll probably come away with a lot of points. But if they don’t take care of business in that middle portion, any loss in the first or last third will be exacerbated.