When training camp began for the Winnipeg Jets about a month ago, the team was quite transparent about the reshaping of their fourth line and how they wanted it to play.
With a perpetual focus on defending first, head coach Scott Arniel also wanted more offence from that trio this season and the organization did its part in satisfying that desire by signing veterans Cole Koepke and Tanner Pearson to play alongside Morgan Barron.
Now — understanding we’re only three games into the new NHL season and pumping the brakes on premature excitement would be prudent — the early returns from that line would indicate the Jets might have found an upgrade in their lineup.
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Thus far, the fourth line has produced seven points in 180 minutes of hockey, with Barron pacing them with two goals and four points and Koepke leading the team in hits, despite missing the last two periods of Monday’s win on Long Island.
For Winnipeg, the improved play and secondary scoring from Barron, Koepke and Pearson shouldn’t be surprising. Early on, it’s exactly what the team was after when it assembled the line in the summer and rolled it out at training camp.
It was especially important for the Jets to get better and deeper in that area because, frankly, the Florida Panthers revealed to the entire league that being four lines deep is a must in winning back-to-back Stanley Cups.
And it’s clear the Jets have had their eye to that successful composition the last two years as well.
Now, of course, we’re only three games into a new season and there is a winter of hockey still to play, but in reshaping their fourth line and witnessing the early results of that strategy, it’s become quite transparent that Winnipeg’s off-season plan might be coming together.
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