Boston Bruins: Old Friend Blake Wheeler Fueling The Winnipeg Jets

Based on the statures of the Boston Bruins and Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets franchises a year ago and in the present, their swap of forwards last February figures to go down as a toss-up, if not an indisputable tie.

That could be the best sliver of news for Bruins buffs when Blake Wheeler’s Jets visit the TD Garden Tuesday night for the third installment of their season series. Of those who will be in the lineup, 13 skaters (including five defensemen) plus the goalie will have a firsthand familiarity with Winnipeg’s burgeoning catalyst, having played at least the majority of one season with him.

Last winter, the unripe Wheeler was sacrificed by Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli, along with defenseman Mark Stuart, in exchange for the comparatively seasoned Rich Peverley, who is four years Wheeler’s senior.

The upgraded veteran presence of Peverley and Chris Kelly merely bolstered the Bruins offense on their trek to a Stanley Cup title.

This season, percolating more chemistry with Kelly in defense of the crown, Peverley has already scraped out a 7-21-28 scoring log despite missing four games due to injury. If he stays healthy and stays on pace for the balance of the regular season, this figures to be his most prolific of six NHL campaigns with up to 48 assists and 64 points.

More recently, all Wheeler has done for the relocated Winnipeg franchise is turn on his game as the 2011-12 season plunges into full swing. As has been the case for Peverley in his first full year with the Bruins, Wheeler is producing for his new team at a higher rate than he was with his former club leading up to the swap.

In a sense, Wheeler mirrored his former team with a fairly frostbitten October, then rekindled his acetylene stick in November. The false start is now dead and buried and he is now in a position to co-pilot the Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise to only its second playoff appearance and first since 2007.

Since he tuned the mesh for the first time in Jets’ attire Nov. 17, Wheeler has not brooked a single set of consecutive pointless outings. This comes after mustering a mere seven points, all in the form of helpers, over the first 18 games and being held scoreless in 14 of those.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the Jets got off to a 6-11-1 start amidst Wheeler’s cold spell. But over the subsequent 23 games, whilst receiving eight goals and 16 assists from him, Winnipeg has gone 14-5-4 and enters Tuesday night’s action one point out of a playoff spot.

Wheeler is tied with Evander Kane for the team lead with 31 points and is running away in Winnipeg’s playmaking department with 23 assists. Although, lately, he has begun to scoop up his share of firsthand contributions with three of the Jets’ last eight goals coming off his twig in the last four outings.

As it happens, all three of those recent goals have come on the power play, as have six of his eight tallies through the halfway mark of the regular-season schedule. Wheeler has tuned the mesh with the man-advantage twice as often as any of his Jets’ teammates, who have relied on the power play for 23.1 percent of their total scoring.

Overall, Wheeler has appeared on the score sheet in seven of the last eight games with a 5-5-10 log in that span and his only dry night being last Thursday, when the Jets were shut out altogether in Toronto. That translates to his having a hand in a little more than half of Winnipeg’s last 18 strikes dating back to Dec. 22.

His total shooting accuracy sits at 8.6 percent success, but discounting his protracted goal drought and starting with Nov. 17, his shots on net have entered the net a more respectable 15.7 percent of the time.

As an added bonus, Wheeler is Winnipeg’s plus/minus leader, sitting nine points in the black.

But provided they fluster their old mate in his playmaking endeavors and eschew penalty trouble (which would scratch the locals’ itch for a make-up of Saturday’s Vancouver game), the Bruins should neutralize Wheeler’s influence on his third return trip to his old place of employment.