Four seven years the Winnipeg Jets have been in Winnipeg and for seven years they have had a questionable fourth line…until now. And I will be completely honest, when Mathieu Perreault was on the fourth line last year, they were serviceable. Outside of when Perreault was on the fourth line, they were terrible and could do little more than take up ice time and hit things. This has finally changed recently and it was all an accident.
It all started in Finland when Brendan Lemieux made a stupid hit and eventually received a two game suspension. That suspension forced Paul Maurice to play Nic Petan and Jack Roslovic at the same time. After a lot of line shuffling, Maurice ended up with a fourth line of Jack Roslovic, Nic Petan, and Mathieu Perreault and for the first time ever, the Jets have a fourth line that can do things. The fourth line can now score and is no longer a liability on the ice for the Jets.
The Jets having a fourth line means that they can have more balanced usage of all their forward lines. It also means that they are able to use their fourth line more and the two younger players, Petan and Roslovic, are able to get more playing time than if they were with a less skilled player than Perreault. And while Perreault is under-utilized for his skillset, he is the perfect player for those two as he is good offensively and can help elevate them.
The Winnipeg Jets have a fourth line that helps them instead of hurts them. They can be a mismatch against other teams’ fourth lines and they can score every so often and drive play more often than not. The Jets might not have the defence to win championships, but their fourth line is no longer a liability for them.
