8:30 pm CT – TV: Sportsnet; Radio: 680 CJOB/Power 97
WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Jets trail their best-of-seven series 3-1 after falling to the Stars 3-1 in Game 4 on Tuesday night. They have now lost two straight games for the second time these playoffs. Winnipeg will look to avoid elimination on Thursday as they will host the Dallas Stars for Game 5 at Canada Life Centre. It’s the second time these playoffs that they will be faced with an elimination game, the other being Game 7 in their opening round series with the St. Louis Blues.
“Those are all learning curves for us,” said Scott Arniel.
“We talked after Game 1 in the St. Louis about when there is that game – and for some guys that had never been through the White-out and how we got better as that series went on and then had to learn another lesson in that Game 7 and came on the right end of it, it’s no different now.”
Winnipeg played another solid road game in Dallas on Tuesday with 70 shot attempts but outside of Nikolaj Ehlers goal, they could not find a way to beat Jake Oettinger again. The Stars netminder played his best game of the series to put Winnipeg on the brink of elimination.
“I would say that there are a lot of rebounds, there are a lot of second opportunities, there are a lot of unscreened shots, just from (Tuesday),” said Arniel.
“I’m not going to go and look at all the other games, but at the end of the day, when we’re doing a better job in that area, no different than the St Louis series, making it hard on (Jordan) Binnington on him not seeing the puck, no different with Oettinger.”
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The Jets held their morning skate at Canada Life Centre and Arniel has gone back to all the original lines in his forward group.
“Yeah, obviously those guys have played together for most of the year,” said Arniel.
“Through all the injuries and different things that happened, we’ve had a lot of different combinations, not just the playoffs but during the season. Those guys, when they roll out there tonight, we’ve talked about tonight, it’s about straight line, simple hockey.”
Last night, one of the four division winners, Vegas was eliminated in five games by Edmonton. Tonight, Winnipeg (Central) and Washington (Metropolitan) face elimination on home ice.
“You see it some nights through the 82 games, but during the playoffs it’s another animal,” said Arniel.
“It’s a whole different type of hockey. And the teams that can play it consistently the most are the ones who usually are standing at the end.”
Winnipeg will attempt to become the fourth team in the last five playoffs to erase a 3-1 series deficit to win in seven games. Montreal did it in 2021, the Rangers in 2022 and Florida in 2023.
The Jets have already faced elimination in these playoffs, going back to Game 7 against the St. Louis Blues where they trailed 2-0 and 3-1 before their epic comeback.
“We’ve been a resilient group all year. We’ve dealt with adversity all year. Nobody said it’d be easy, obviously we’d love to be up 3-1, or (tied) 2-2 but we’re not,” said Dylan DeMelo.
“So we’ve got to deal with what the situation is and you just try to go day by day and like I said, we’re just focused on right here, right now. Trying to be the best version of ourselves we can be tonight and get a win.”
Luke Schenn, who has won two Stanley Cups, believes it’s as simple as playing for the guy next to you in the dressing room.
“At the end of the day you play for the guy in the room next to you and just leave it all out there. You don’t want to hesitate in a game like this, you want to be on your toes, be aggressive, and just it’s exciting,” said Schenn.
“These are the games that are exciting, you play for, and yeah, just everyone’s got to bring good effort tonight.”
