WINNIPEG — Rick Bowness wasn’t planning to stay up late working on his pre-game speech.
Sure, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets was watching Wednesday’s opponent as part of his usual preparation, but given the stakes, there was no need to burn the midnight oil on Tuesday thinking of how he would address his team going into a pivotal matchup with the Calgary Flames.
That message has already been delivered, both to the players and to members of the media during his daily question-and-answer session.
“(Wednesday) is probably going to be like a Game 7 for both teams,” Bowness said after putting his team through the paces Tuesday afternoon. “I think that’s the importance of the game for both teams.”
The schedule shows that it’s Game 78 for the Jets and Game 79 for the Flames, so technically the circumstances aren’t quite as ramped up as they would be if this was a true win-or-go-home scenario during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
But thanks to a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night, it’s going to feel like more of a Game 7 for the Flames, who enter Wednesday’s action the equivalent of being three points behind the Jets with four games left to play.
(Technically, the Flames are just two points back, but the Jets hold the tiebreaker and also have a game in hand going into Wednesday’s marquee matchup.)
“Obviously, I’m sure the NHL’s pretty happy with the way it lined up, schedule-wise. Two Canadian teams, obviously, it raises the stakes a little bit. We know it’s a massive game. There’s no doubt about it,” said Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “A big game for the playoff picture, but we know it’s not the last game of the year so we just have to worry about (Wednesday) and then we have other games to play.
“There’s no place you’d rather be on a Wednesday night, so we’re looking forward to it.”
This will be the third consecutive game the Jets hold a distinct scheduling advantage, facing an opponent that played the night before and had to travel.
In the first two outings on this five-game homestand, the Jets have been able to pounce on their opponents and put them behind the 8-ball.
The Jets will be looking for recent history to repeat itself against the Flames, though a third consecutive six-goal outburst seems a bit more unlikely in this instance.
“The players know. They know the importance of the game,” said Bowness. “They understand where we are. We did talk (Tuesday) morning about the importance of continuing the starts we’ve had and being aggressive. We’re going to have an aggressive mindset (Wednesday) night. That’s how we’ve been successful the last couple of games, and we’re not going to change.”
The Flames aren’t the only team the Jets are paying attention to on the out-of-town scoreboard.
While the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference seems like the most likely path to the post-season for Winnipeg, they haven’t given up hope of catching the Seattle Kraken for the first wild-card berth.
But the Kraken extended their lead in the standings to five points with five games remaining for both teams.
Meanwhile, the Nashville Predators kept their slim playoff hopes alive with an overtime victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, leaving them three points behind the Jets — with a head-to-head meeting on tap for Saturday night in Winnipeg.
Back to the game at hand, even if the Jets didn’t necessarily want to provide any bulletin-board material by making a bold proclamation, this third and final meeting of the regular season against the Flames is a big opportunity for Winnipeg to deliver a knockout punch.
“(Wednesday) is as close to a must-win as you’ll get in the regular season. It’s a huge game,” said Jets centre Adam Lowry, who was asked what the consecutive victories on the weekend did for his team’s mentality going into the final five outings.
“Maybe some of the weight is lifted off of our shoulders. It feels like some of the pucks are going in that we thought would’ve gone in earlier. There’s still pressure. The race is so close. These next couple of games are going to be the pressure release. We’re ready for the challenge.”
One of the biggest developments on the weekend for the Jets, along with the 11 goals scored at even strength, was the fact those markers were spread out nicely over the four lines — something that is essential at a time like this.
“We’ve kind of started to find our groove again. It took a long time to get that bit of swagger back. All four lines are really rolling,” said Lowry. “Our back end is playing great. (Connor Hellebuyck) has been rock-solid back there. It’s nice to see contributions up and down the lineup. That’s going to be important going forward.
“In these tight games, if you can get some secondary scoring (and) you can get some guys chipping in from the back end, it takes a lot of weight off the top-six guys, and usually that’s the difference in a game.”
Hellebuyck is set to make his league-leading 61st start of the season.
The Jets are planning to make one lineup change, inserting winger Saku Maenalanen for Karson Kuhlman on the fourth line.
Maenalanen brings additional size against a heavier team like the Flames, but Bowness made it clear the move had more to do with the role he plays on the penalty kill than anything else.
Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey was welcoming the challenge that comes with going head-to-head with the two teams chasing them in the standings, taking a moment to remember what it was like to essentially be playing out the string at this point last season.
“I mean, everyone goes about dealing with big games differently, but personally it’s fun. It’s fun to play meaningful games this time of year,” said Morrissey.
“A year ago, we were kind of counting the days until the season was over, so, although you’d like to sort of have that cushion into the playoff and have these games not maybe mean as much, these are the big ones and it’s certainly an exciting time as a player. I feel like we have that energy in the locker room now the way we’re playing and sort of that mojo as a team that I think we had for a lot of the season. So, it’s a fun time of the year to play important games.”
