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Jets try to stretch winning streak to four at Avalanche (Feb 04, 2017)
The Winnipeg Jets are in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race, which is a little surprising because they haven't put together a significant winning streak this season.
They have a chance to change that when the play the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Saturday afternoon.
The Jets (25-25-4) have won three in a row after their 4-3 win in Dallas on Thursday night. It's the first time all season they've won more than two straight, and it kept them within a point of the second wild card in the Western Conference.
"Yeah, finally we can stop talking about (not winning three straight)," Mark Scheifele told The Winnipeg Free Press after scoring two goals in the win over the Stars. "We had a great game (Thursday) and now we got Colorado. We have a chance to make it a pretty good road trip."
The matchup against the Avalanche wraps up Winnipeg's four-game road trip, and it is a chance to end it with a perfect record. After Saturday, the Jets head home for four games, and two of them are against the top two teams in the Central Division -- Minnesota and Chicago.
First, they have to take care of business against the worst team in the NHL. The Avalanche (13-33-2) own the fewest points in the league (28) and are the only team to score fewer than 100 goals (94). They're coming off a two-game road trip in which they were outscored 10-1 by Anaheim and Los Angeles, and the only mystery left in their season is if someone will be dealt.
Colorado has tweaked its roster but has yet to make a major trade. The Avalanche picked up forward Matt Nieto off waivers last month and then plucked defenseman Mark Barberio, who was waived by the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Colorado waived defenseman Eric Gelinas, who has underperformed after he was acquired from New Jersey for a third-round pick last year. Gelinas cleared waivers Friday.
Barberio, 26, said he wants to make an impact with his new team.
"It was kind of a (rollercoaster) 24 hours," Barberio told HockeyBuzz.com. "You kind of go from a low of one team not really wanting you to 24 hours later a team picks you up. It's kind of a fresh start and new life. I'm excited."
Veteran Jarome Iginla is looking for a fresh start, too. After scoring 29 and 22 goals in his first two seasons with Colorado he has slipped to six goals this year. The 39-year-old Iginla told Yahoo! that he would welcome a trade to a contender.
"I would like to, at the deadline, go somewhere," Iginla told Puck Daddy. "I would like to be in the playoffs. I would hope that there is some opportunity to go and play in the playoffs. Those are the best games, the most fun for sure, and you have a chance to win. So no, I haven't given up on that chance to win."
Rumors have swirled around the Avalanche during a 4-24-2 run that ensured they would miss the playoffs for a third straight season. The most often names mentioned are Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog, and Colorado general manager said the only untouchables on the current roster are Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.
Colorado coach Jared Bednar didn't have any issues with what Iginla said about going to a contender. He is in the last year of a three-year deal and could retire before he turns 40 on July 1.
"If he has an opportunity to go and get a chance to win, I mean, I think everyone in the room wants to see that happen, and I don't think it's a bad thing for him to say that at all," Bednar told HockeyBuzz.com. "If we were two points out of a playoff spot, then it'd be a different scenario for me. But I hope he gets an opportunity."
