Jets' Rick Bowness won't reveal the "it" affecting team

Whatever the “it” is — the thing or things ailing the Winnipeg Jets right now — Rick Bowness wasn’t about to let it slip into the public sphere on Thursday.

Article content

“Good try,” was all he offered up when reporters began probing on Wednesday’s latest run-in with their inconsistency nemesis in a 4-2 loss to the Nashville Predators.

Article content

Some 15 hours or so later, another request for information was met with a smirk and a polite “no.”

“I know what’s going on, so we’ll just keep pushing behind the scenes,” the head coach said.

Bowness barked at times during Winnipeg’s rare 30-minute practice session at the downtown barn.

Getting to the bottom of Winnipeg’s inconsistency issues, those that have plagued them since late January, start with those practice reps.

“It starts with addressing it, which we did this morning again,” Bowness said.

“Again” is the keyword here. Bowness’s squad was the belle of the NHL’s ball through their first 44 games this season, a dominant stretch of hockey that amassed a 30-10-4 record, best in the league to that point in the season, including a 34-game run of allowing three goals or fewer.

Article content

Article content

Ever since that came to an end in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Jan. 22, the Jets have found it difficult to return to that form.

There are nights when the team has dictated the pace, including recent shutout wins over Seattle and Washington.

And then there have been the nights, especially against teams above the playoff line, where the team has wilted, and in some cases, returned to old habits they’d rather not revisit.

Winnipeg’s 11-9-1 stretch since that Boston game has revealed some of the underlying issues, even if Bowness won’t reveal them.

“We’re at our best when we commit to team defence and create offence from team defence,” he said.

When his team gets away from that, from their principles and the fundamentals, you get what you saw on Wednesday, and Saturday before that.

Article content

This is a Jets team that went from one of the best in protecting the middle of the ice on the defensive zone to the second-worst since the start of that Boston game.

And so, the natural question is simply why?

Why has a team that became so dominant through its strict adherence to those principles seemingly turned away from it at a time they should be honing and making fine adjustments, not searching for what once was?

How does a consistent team fall into an inconsistent lull?

“Every coach in every sport is trying to figure that out,” Bowness said. “With this group, we do know what we look like when we’re going well. There are lapses and this team has always responded after lapses.”

The Jets used to handle in-game lapses on a period-by-period basis.

Article content

A tough first period would be erased by a solid second, or a good first followed by a bad second would be met with a stellar third.

Wednesday’s game was a gradual slide downward. Those two late goals Winnipeg scored couldn’t mask the 50 or so minutes before when Nashville was running the Jets out of their own building.

“We’ve just got to minimize those lapses,” Bowness said. “All we can do is we have to keep pointing out what is going wrong and what is going well and keep pushing.”

As far as Friday’s game against the lowly Anaheim Ducks, Bowness made one thing crystal clear.

“I expect a full response tomorrow,” he said.

The Jets figured the worst of the flu bug was behind them, then leading scorer Mark Scheifele was forced to miss Wednesday’s game due to it.

Article content

Bowness expressed hope Thursday that Scheifele would play Friday against the Ducks, revealing that the top-line centre was able to hold down some food on Wednesday night and was eating again on Thursday.

Scheifele felt well enough to join his teammates for their annual team photo before Thursday’s practice but left the ice before the skate got underway.

A decision on Scheifele will come on Friday morning.

Gabriel Vilardi, meanwhile, will miss an eighth straight game due to an upper-body injury.

Bowness suggested a better update on Vilardi’s situation could come as early as Friday morning.

[email protected]

X: @scottbilleck

Article content