Scheifele gets off the schneid

Mark Scheifele insisted he wasn’t worried.

But make no mistake: When a prolific point producer coming off a career-best offensive season puts up zeroes in his first three games, people are going to start talking.

Is this an ominous sign, some fans wondered? Is Father Time starting to catch up, others pondered?

Let the record show the so-called drought officially ended on Wednesday night in a big way when Scheifele assisted on Cole Perfetti’s second-period goal, then set up Kyle Connor’s dramatic game-winner with 60 seconds left in regulation.

“That was pretty special. Not a lot of guys can make those kinds of plays,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said of an incredible seeing-eye dish through traffic as the clock ticked down in the third period of a 2-2 game against the mighty Colorado Avalanche.

“Scheif’s had a lot of great looks, and he’s set up guys. You knew it was going to come.”

The first helper of the night wasn’t one of Scheifele’s patented slick passes to set up an automatic tap-in, the kind he seemingly can make in his sleep. Rather, the 33-year-old showed off some good wheels in circling the opponent’s net, then feeding the puck back to defenceman Neal Pionk whose one-timer was tipped by Perfetti.

There was no over-the-top celebration from Scheifele, no mimicking of shedding the proverbial monkey off his back. But we suspect there was at least a small sense of internal relief that some good work had finally paid off where it counts the most.

“You know what, the thing about it is he’s playing fantastic hockey and he’s been the third guy. If they give out three assists, he’s probably got eight points now,” Arniel said prior to puck drop.

”I am pretty sure that once one goes it’ll all go, but he’s been doing the right things without the puck and helping that line have success.”

That prediction ended up being a spoiler, as the first draft pick of the 2.0 edition sure looked like the Scheifele of old — and not an older version of himself.

“He’s been great and he drove a lot of the play. He’s so good down low making plays,” said Connor, who now leads the team with seven points (5G, 2A). Right behind him is Perfetti with six (3G, 3A).

“On (Perfetti’s) goal, he holds off a guy and goes low to high. You just see him getting his game going and it’s fun to play with him and watch him.”

Scheifele finished fifth in NHL scoring last season with 103 points (36G, 67A) — a whopping 16 point jump over his previous best set one year earlier. There was plenty of pre-season chatter that perhaps the 33-year-old could take a run at matching, or even exceeding that total this time around.

Scheifele was asked about it following the morning skate and, not surprisingly, tried to deflect attention away from himself.

“This is a team sport. We’ve had great contributions from everyone,” he said, noting the club’s hot start which is now at 3-0-1.

“It’s been a great start to the year. We’re happy with where we are. It’s just a matter of getting team wins. That’s the biggest focus.”

Indeed, it should be a welcome sign for the Jets that they gathered five of six points through the first three games without Scheifele showing up on the game-sheet. Now make it seven of eight, although his fingerprints were all over this latest triumph — just as his teammates predicted.

“He’s beyond due,” Pionk said before the game.

“I mean, the chances that he’s had, especially in that Pittsburgh game (on Monday). I mean, five of them he could have had a point on. So he’s doing a lot of other good things too. There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes. There’s a lot of other stuff that doesn’t involve a point, but he’s doing really well. He could have 10 points.”

Two will have to do, for now.

Scheifele is now within 20 points of tying his former junior hockey coach and mentor, Dale Hawerchuk, for the most in franchise history.

Based on what we saw Wednesday, it shouldn’t take him too much longer.

winnipegfreepress.com/mikemcintyre