PITTSBURGH \u2013 Last weekend, the Winnipeg Jets (28-29-11) faced a pair of afternoon games against Central Division rivals and came out on top in both of them.<\/p>\n
This weekend, they may not be facing divisional foes, but they\u2019re looking for the exact same result.<\/p>\n
It all starts this afternoon against the Pittsburgh Penguins (34-18-16), a team the Jets beat back in November by a score of 5-2. To sweep the season series, and even their record on the three-game road trip, the Jets know they\u2019ll have to play as a connected group of five in all three zones.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s one of the areas that forward Cole Koepke felt the Jets had trouble with in Thursday\u2019s 6-1 loss in Boston.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little bit inconsistent about what we were doing and working within a structure of five at times,\u201d he said at Friday\u2019s optional practice. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the result we wanted, but the standings are so close and we have to flush it. We have two games back-to-back here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0The ability to park a frustrating result is critical at this point of the season. It can be easy to look at a stat like Natural Stat Trick\u2019s high-danger chances at five-on-five from that game in Boston, where the Jets held a 13-8 advantage, and wonder what could have been if they capitalized on some chances early.<\/p>\n
Over analyzing those chances doesn\u2019t help going into the Pittsburgh game, however. Instead, Koepke is focusing on how those chances were generated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were ending plays quickly in our own zone, we were quick to support one another. We were defending as a group of five and from there transitioning quick,\u201d he said. \u201cEnding plays early, you have so much more energy to go on offence. That\u2019s where those looks came from, we just need to do that for a full game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps those chances will be available against Pittsburgh if the Jets do the same things. Two of the goals the Penguins gave up in a wild 6-5 overtime loss to Carolina on Thursday were rush plays at even strength \u2013 in addition to a shorthanded breakaway.<\/p>\n
Even though the Penguins lost that game, it wasn\u2019t all bad news. They did get a point to help them in their battle with Columbus in the Metropolitan Division and captain Sidney Crosby returned after missing 11 games with the injury he sustained against Czechia at the 2026 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old Crosby had a goal and an assist in his return.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe starts everything for their team. It seems to go through him and revolve around him. He\u2019s obviously a world class player,\u201d said Koepke. \u201cThey\u2019re in the heat of it as well, they\u2019re having a good season. We have to make sure we\u2019re ready. Come out with a game plan and it\u2019s probably going to be a playoff like game here on out from our side. We\u2019re playing teams that are also in the mix, so we expect that both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the Jets holding an optional practice, line-up information won\u2019t be available until warm-up. One of the participants in the optional skate was defenceman Neal Pionk, who has missed the last 23 games with multiple injuries. He initially left the line-up in mid-January with a lower-body injury and was looking set to return following the Olympic break before an undisclosed injury in the second to last practice sidelined him again.<\/p>\n
Jets head coach Scott Arniel said Pionk \u2013 who wore a regular jersey in Thursday\u2019s morning skate and the optional practice \u2013 could be an option as early as this weekend.<\/p>\n
Puck drop is set for noon CT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2013 Last weekend, the Winnipeg Jets (28-29-11) faced a pair of afternoon games against Central Division rivals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-550687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}