MONTREAL \u2013 A four-game road trip comes to an end tonight as the Winnipeg Jets (4-8-3) take on the Montreal Canadiens (9-3-2) in the rematch of the 2026 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic, which took place in Winnipeg last Sunday.<\/p>\n
The difference, of course, is this game will take place inside \u2013 at the Bell Centre in Montreal \u2013 but since that outdoor clash, both teams have gone in opposite directions.<\/p>\n
Montreal has won all three games they\u2019ve played since the 2-1 Heritage Classic victory, while the Jets have struggled, punctuated by the frustrating afternoon in Carolina on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg\u2019s 2-1 loss to Montreal is one of five one-goal losses the Jets have had over the current nine-game skid, but is likely the one they can look at for positives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lot of really good chances, they had a couple good looks and when they did (Stuart Skinner) was fantastic that game,\u201d said Cole Perfetti. \u201cI thought overall we played really good that game. We didn\u2019t get the result, and that\u2019s frustrating, but we should definitely be taking that blueprint or game plan – whatever you want to call it – into (Tuesday\u2019s) game.\u201d<\/p>\n
When things are tough, players and coaches pull out all the stops to turn the tide. Perfetti is a good example. He was on the ice 30 minutes before the scheduled start of Monday\u2019s practice with Skills Coach Matt Larke.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trying to feel good with the puck. Last couple games haven\u2019t been ideal in that sense,\u201d said Perfetti, who has five shots on goal in those last two outings. \u201cThe last couple games it hasn\u2019t been a lot of feeling good, so just trying to get that going again. Get that good mojo going, and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s those little things, over and over, shift by shift, that will all add up to help the Jets find the win column and snap the 0-7-2 run they\u2019re on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consistency part, whether that\u2019s the compete on pucks and doing it for 60 minutes, or it\u2019s the execution – on specialty teams, breakout, forecheck, those kind of things – all those things being together for 60 minutes has been the biggest thing for me that I\u2019ve talked to them about,\u201d said head coach Scott Arniel. \u201cIf everybody plays their role, we\u2019ll be okay. That\u2019s what I\u2019m continuing to harp is be the best version of yourself. You add to the group, you add to the team, then our success will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arniel shuffled his lines at Monday\u2019s practice. Dawson Mercer, who was nicked up in the loss to Carolina, wasn\u2019t on the ice. He\u2019s not ruled out for the road trip finale, however, so morning skate will be the best indication of his availability.<\/p>\n
No matter how the line-up shakes out, getting off to a strong start against Montreal is important. Winnipeg has given up the first goal of the game in six straight contests.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to get off to a good start and get the lead early. Obviously not every game is going to be that way,\u201d said Dylan Samberg. \u201cThey\u2019re a very skilled team, a lot of guys over there that have a lot of speed and skill. For us, it\u2019s just, maybe it might be scoring the first goal. We need something to ignite that spark and get us going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout this mental and physical grind, the Jets haven\u2019t made excuses. Captain Adam Lowry said the game in Carolina \u201cjust wasn\u2019t good enough\u201d and that \u201cno one is going to throw us a life line.\u201d Winnipeg knows it\u2019s on them to find a way out, and they\u2019ll put their best foot forward on Tuesday to try and make the flight back to Winnipeg a bit better.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going our way. It\u2019s not the results we need and we want. We\u2019re definitely frustrated,\u201d said Perfetti. \u201cWe have to try and stick together as a group and get back to doing what we can do, where we can find success. Hopefully it starts (Tuesday).\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013 A four-game road trip comes to an end tonight as the Winnipeg Jets (4-8-3) take on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-956450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956450","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=956450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}