Winnipeg Free Press https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/jets-start-season-with-familiar-special- teams-woes-451167023.html?k=U9WcHs Jets seek more from special teams Working on scoring with man advantage By: Mike McIntyre They spent much of the off-season talking about the need to improve their special teams if they want to be a legitimate playoff contender. But the power play and penalty kill have come limping out of the gate for the Winnipeg Jets. While they’ve managed to string together a 3-2-0 start — thanks mainly to some strong five-on- five play and some stellar goaltending the last three games, all wins — they’re certainly playing with fire if things don’t improve. The Jets are currently second-worst in the NHL when short-handed, killing off 71.4 per cent of all penalties (15 for 21). Their power play isn’t much better, going just 2-for-19 so far. The 10.5 per cent success rate is 23rd overall in the league. "We can do everything a little faster, not force too many things. Try and just get the pucks to the net, get some traffic and just put it in from there," forward Nikolaj Ehlers said Monday of the power play. "When we try and do too much, that’s when it’s not working. So we’re going to have to try and just play simple and get pucks to the net." The Jets now face the additional hurdle of losing forward Mathieu Perreault for an extended period time. He’s a big part of the power play. But his linemate, Bryan Little, believes improvement is coming even if the statistics haven’t shown it yet. "So far, even when we haven’t been scoring, we’ve been getting a lot of good chances and moving the puck around really well, which for long points of the stretch last year, we (had a tough time) even getting the puck set up, let alone moving it around and getting chances," said Little. "I like what I see. I think it’s just a matter of time before we get some luck around the net." Head coach Paul Maurice has been tinkering with his special teams, including using offensive players such as Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler to kill penalties. The original plan was to give most of that work to bottom-six forwards, but surrendering four power-play goals in the first two games prompted changes. "I’m confident with the direction the PK is going. There was a pretty major shift," Maurice said Monday. "It’s a tradeoff. I know when I’m running those guys to kill penalties they don’t have quite the same jump on the power play. We gotta get our PK down. We gave up four in the first two games, which is unacceptable." Matt Hendricks has yet to play in the regular season due to injury, and he’s expected to be a key penalty killer this year. Maurice is hopeful that giving up only two short-handed goals in the past three games is a sign the Jets are trending in the right direction. As for the power play, Maurice said it’s about getting more pucks to the net. Much of Monday’s practice was spent working on that. Missing Dustin Byfuglien for two of the first five games, and net-front presence Adam Lowry for the last game, didn’t help, either. "There’s lots of things. At the end of it I’ll just say that we started to move the puck an awful lot slower on the power play than we did, and that was the focus (Monday), getting back to that speed," said Maurice. In addition to their not-so-special teams, Winnipeg is also functioning right now with almost nothing in the way of bottom-six scoring. A short-handed goal by Brandon Tanev and a short-handed assist by Andrew Copp are the only points accumulated by bottom-six forwards so far this season. Lowry, Shawn Matthias, Marko Dano, Joel Armia and Nic Petan are all still looking for their first contributions to the scoresheet. "Defence is an important, critical piece to what we’re doing. But we still think we can score an awful lot of goals. For, let’s say the bottom-six guys, they need to find a way to play a game that’s slightly different than the top six. Get pucks to the net," said Maurice. "We’re working on getting the other two lines to do that as well. But they’re not going to snap it around the same way, they’re not going to generate the same kind of offence. Those guys gotta get to a pretty meat-and-potatoes style of hockey and get pucks to the net." https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/perreaults-pain-is-young-star-connors- gain-451193483.html Perreault's pain is young star Connor's gain Injury bug bites Jets By: Mike McIntyre Mathieu Perreault’s latest bad break represents a golden opportunity for Kyle Connor. The skilled young forward was called up Monday from the Manitoba Moose to replace Perreault in the Winnipeg Jets lineup. Perreault suffered a lower-body injury while blocking a shot late in the second period of Saturday night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes and is expected to miss up to a month. It’s yet another blow for Perreault, who can’t seem to stay healthy for an extended period of time. Connor, 20, will step right into the lineup by taking Perreault’s spot on a line with Bryan Little and Patrik Laine. "They’re both really great players. I think I can bring some speed to the table and I think our playmaking ability, I think we can all move the puck around and have the ability to finish. It’s going to be exciting and I’m looking forward to it," Connor said following Monday’s Jets practice. Connor, 20, has three goals and two assists in four games with the Moose this season. He skated in 20 games with the Jets last season, putting up two goals and three assists. "It’s been good. I’ve thought I’ve been playing well, I’ve been skating well down there. As a team, too, I think we’ve been playing good hockey, so that helps everybody," Connor said. Jets head coach Paul Maurice said losing Perreault — a player he called part of the "fabric of the team" — to injury once again is a product of how hard he plays the game. "We really need what he brings because he finds a way to get on the puck, knock things down, keep it there," Maurice said. "But we’ve got some young guys that are playing in the minors that maybe two years ago would have started here. So they come with a little more bite and a little more determination they didn’t get handed a job. So we think we have the pieces here to survive an injury like this." The first opportunity goes to Connor. "Now he gets a chance. And it’s a top-six chance and he’s going to have to work really hard to keep that. We’ve got other players there that want that opportunity, too. So he has to perform," said Maurice. "He doesn’t have to put pucks in the net. He has to show that he’s getting chances, but that’s not the big one. He’s going to play on that line, you’re drawing the other team’s better players, you’re drawing the other team’s better defence. So he needs to be able to play at that level." Defenceman Dmitry Kulikov was absent from practice Monday after taking a big hit Saturday and leaving the game early. Maurice said he could miss up to two weeks. Rookie Tucker Poolman is expected to take his spot in the lineup. Ben Chiarot is also an option, having yet to appear in a game this season. Third-line centre Adam Lowry was also held out of practice after missing Saturday’s game with an upper-body injury. He won’t be available for tonight’s home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets but could be ready for Friday’s game against the visiting Minnesota Wild, said Maurice. Centre Matt Hendricks skated Monday in a yellow non-contact jersey and could be available by the end of the week. He is still working his way back from a lower-body injury suffered during the pre-season. ● ● ● He’s one of the hottest goaltenders in the league but Connor Hellebuyck will be parked on the bench for tonight’s game against Columbus. Steve Mason will get the start against the team that drafted him, looking to bounce back from two rough outings to begin his tenure with the Jets after signing a two-year deal that pays him US$4.1 million per season. "The guy’s a good goaltender and based on our schedule we can’t leave him out any longer. I don’t want to. I want him back in the net," Maurice said Monday. Mason was pulled in the Jets’ home opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs after giving up five goals, then was on the wrong end of a 6-3 game against the Flames in Calgary a few nights later. Hellebuyck started the last three games, going 3-0 and stopping 95 of the 100 shots he faced.