Regardless of how much the game of hockey has evolved, there is one belief that has endured over all of these years; the one about a team’s best players having to be its best players.
The goal of any NHL team headed for the postseason is to have its game in order. Playing the right way is the “phrase that pays” with the calendar about to flip to April.
An important piece of that pie — perhaps the most significant slice for success — is for the drivers of the team to be leading the charge. All of them.
That is simply not happening down the stretch for the Winnipeg Jets. Far from it.
And bringing up the rear is Mark Scheifele.
Number 55 is a man of faith — who often rationalizes, that good or bad — everything happens for a reason.
One can only wonder what the reason might be for the extreme struggles Scheifele has been going through the last couple of weeks in particular.
Goal-less in eight games. Not managing as much as a single shot on goal in three of those contests. His line being on the ice for all seven times Winnipeg has been scored on first in that eight-game span, which represents a large chunk of Scheifele’s minus-13 rating over that stretch.
Mark Scheifele isn’t alone.
Blake Wheeler hasn’t scored in 20 games. Kyle Connor scored just his second goal in 17 games the other night in Anaheim. Pierre-Luc Dubois’ powerplay goal in LA was just the second in the last dozen games he has been healthy enough to suit up for. Josh Morrissey is closing in on his longest goal-less drought of the season at 10 games.
It’s not a template for triumph for a team — that as Nikolaj Ehlers told us recently — believes it can still do something special this season.
But it will not happen if the Mark Scheifele we have seen over these past eight games is the same we see over the final eight — and beyond.