For the Winnipeg Jets’ coaching staff right now, it must feel like they’re standing over a golf shot and wondering what club to play.
For so much of last season, it was routine: driver, iron, putter — easy birdie. This year, however, it’s been more like driver, iron, two chips, two putts — double bogey.
Of course, navigating the hazards in the NHL has never been easy, given the ever-changing topography of the course, which includes travel, injuries, opponent and roster composition.
And for head coach Scott Arniel — with his team teetering at one game above NHL .500 and staring upward at five others in the Central Division standings — the search for that rescue club in his bag has begun in earnest.
Based on where the Jets are on the schedule, there’s still plenty of holes to play and the opportunity for the entire group — players and coaches — to turn their game around definitely lies in front of them.
But given their current placing, it truly comes down to one game at a time since hockey, as we know, only provides two points for a win, unlike a golf round with buddies where a solid hole of bingo-bango-bongo can erase a significant deficit.
Help is likely on the way tonight when the Jets conclude this five-game road trip in Montreal, as defenceman Neal Pionk is expected to return to the lineup after missing four games and forward Cole Koepke — the team’s hits leader — is a safe bet to dress tonight, too.
Both players give the Jets a little more grip-it-and-rip-it type of personality, something Winnipeg desperately needs right now after dropping five of their last six games, many of them finishing like they were sliced to the right and landed out of bounds.
But for the Jets’ coaching staff, standing over that next shot and choosing the right club always provides the chance that your team’s game will turn around, although given the current situation, it’s not likely to be a tap-in.