It was only game five for the Winnipeg Jets, but the 3-2 overtime win in Edmonton on Saturday night was about as significant as an early-season victory could be.
Stop me if you’re heard this before from a hockey coach or player.
“We don’t want to get too high, or too low.”
But as that “alley fight” at Rogers Place unfolded on the weekend, I couldn’t help but think how narrative-altering it would be if the Jets found a way to scrap back from the early hole they dug themselves into after falling behind 2-0 barely six minutes in.
A 2-3 record is still not ideal by any stretch. But when Mark Scheifele neatly re-directed that beautiful pass from Josh Morrissey into the Oilers’ net, it validated the message from Rick Bowness and his players about their body of work not matching their point total in the standings.
Imagine if Connor Hellebuyck hadn’t stopped Warren Foegele or Zach Hyman on those first-period breakaways preventing Edmonton from taking a 3-0 or 3-1 lead.
Or if Hellebuyck didn’t make two big stops in the dying seconds. How much of a gut punch, or even a blow below the belt, would that have been for Winnipeg to absorb — especially in the aftermath of surrendering those late goals to Calgary and Vegas in earlier losses?
Not to mention more questions about the guy between the pipes, and the defensive ability of the team in front of him.
There was nothing soft about that game Saturday night. There were more hard plays made than not.
Now it would be foolish to suggest one win will be the turning point, in the bigger picture.
But for the here and now — being the team that found a way and reversed the small sample trend of the opposite — well, that was huge.
And we shouldn’t have to wait long to determine the immediacy of its impact, when the home team steps out on the ice at Canada Life Centre tomorrow night.