Meet the Winnipeg Jets, the NHL’s most mercurial team by the length of Dustin Byfuglien’s stick shaft.
They’ve got it all, as I often say, and they’ve always got nothing to show for it.
Canvass the Penguins’ locker room a few hours before facing these guys — puck drop at PPG Paints Arena is at 7:08 p.m. Thursday — and you’ll hear bona fide raves.
"So much talent," Carl Hagelin was saying after the home team's morning skate. "You look at all the skill they have, especially up front, all the speed they come at you with, how big they are ... it's a challenge."
"They're bigger and physical, but they can also score," Conor Sheary said. "Really a dangerous team."
That might come across as the pandering that’s common in professional sports. Except that it isn’t. Trust me on that. Because the Penguins are plenty aware of the exceptional blend of skill, speed and size of Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler, of the shooting touch of young Patrik Laine that’s been compared to Alexander Ovechkin’s, of how Mark Scheifele is considered by serious hockey evaluators as among the sport’s top five centers, not to mention Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba and Toby Enstrom offering beef and talent on the blue line.
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