When the parent club has a chaotic start to a new season, you can be sure the farm team is going to encounter a trickle-down effect.

The trials and tribulations of the Winnipeg Jets have been well-documented to date, so it was little surprise when the Manitoba Moose got off to a slow start.

Nobody expected the Moose to be near the bottom of the AHL standings after a strong finish to last season left them just outside of the playoffs.

But that’s precisely where they found themselves, limping out of the gate with a 1-7 record.

However, prior to suffering consecutive losses to the Toronto Marlies on the weekend, the Moose were one of the hottest teams in the AHL after rattling off a seven-game winning streak.

The Moose are 10-10, which leaves them tied for fourth place in the Central Division going into Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Admirals.

I caught up with Moose head coach Pascal Vincent during a bus ride from Chicago to Milwaukee on Monday afternoon to get an update on the club and a read on how some of the Jets’ top prospects have been faring so far.

How was your group able to respond to the slow start and go on that lengthy winning streak?

The group was fine. We were playing some good hockey and we weren’t too low on ourselves. Our older players, Ryan White, Peter Stoykewych, Cam Schilling and Nelson Nogier, they did a really good job at keeping everybody positive. The players in the room and the practices were right. There were a few games that we should have won and we made sure that we showed (the players) what we were doing right. The guys were working hard, so the record wasn’t necessarily showing how we were playing. But still, we weren’t winning. A lot of it has to go to our leadership group. We started to score more goals, our power play got better and our penalty kill got better. Sometimes, just one or two things here or there and it changes the results in a lot of games. There were a few games that we won in the stretch of the seven-game winning streak where we didn’t play as well as we did earlier in the season, but we won the games. We weren’t as good as we think we were during those seven and we weren’t as bad as the record was showing when we weren’t winning.

Going into the season, what impact did the Arizona Coyotes claiming goalie Eric Comrie off waivers have on your group?

That changed a few things here and there with the dynamic of our room. He brings a lot of leadership. You see the product on the ice, but when you’re around the team, he has a real impact in the room, with how the room is working. We needed some adjustment there. And then adjusting to Mikhail Berdin, as far as his game and how he plays the puck. We got a little taste of it last year, but for him to play consistently and for us to adjust – the other teams have to adjust to him, for sure, because he wants to play every single puck. But for our defencemen and our forwards, coming back into the D-zone for breakouts and having our routes being changed a little bit because we had to (adjust). We went from a goalie not playing the puck (Comrie) to a goalie who can make the puck and make plays. So we had to change a few things there.

Even before Eric Comrie was claimed, you knew that you wanted to get Mikhail Berdin some additional work this year, but how is he handling the heavy workload (Berdin has appeared in 18 of 20 games so far)?

He’s been pretty good. We’re trying to do our best to manage his non-game days. We’re not going to be able to (ride him) for a long time, but we wanted to get back on track and give him a lot of minutes. We’ll have to play (Griffen) Outhouse soon and see what he’s got. We believe he is a good goalie and he can help us win some games for us. We wanted to make the switch with (Adam) Carlson, so that both of them are playing. We don’t want to have them sit for too long of a time. It’s been a long time for Griffen right now, so we’re going to find a way (to get him in a game). It was also schedule-related, we were only playing on the weekends early in the season, so (Berdin) had tons of rest. Now, we’re starting to play a bit more. We’ll try to manage (the workload), but we wanted to get Berdin going here.

(Isaiah J. Downing / USA TODAY Sports)

Injuries were a factor during Jets training camp, but how has defenceman Sami Niku been playing?

He’s been good. He’s obviously changing the way that we look on the power play. This is two different leagues. There is a reason why those players are in the NHL, it’s because they’re the best in the world. They’re stronger, quicker and have better sticks. But at this level, Sami is a dominant player when he wants to be. The challenge for him right now is to not get bored when he plays. It’s a really important challenge that he needs to face right now. Our goal was to play him as much as we can, to get him back into game shape. But at the same time, we have a team to coach and we want to make sure that we are fair. We want to get him ready (for the NHL).

He’s been having a good attitude so far, so there’s no issue there. We have a good relationship, him and I, and we keep it pretty honest. He knows what he has to work on. It’s quite clear that it’s his defensive game. It’s not about cross-checking people and playing the same game as Ben Chiarot or Dustin Byfuglien would play, but it’s about being as effective at getting the puck back and making sure you control the front of the net – in a different way, but the results have to be there. This is what he’s working on. Having said that, at our level right now, he gets those first touches and we break out pretty quick. Sometimes, he tries to do a little bit too much, but that’s a byproduct of him being so talented. But his attitude has been right so far. I’ve got no complaints whatsoever. He has to understand that his body language sometimes has to be better, but it’s not towards the team, it’s always towards himself. We had a long talk about that and he’s working on this. If something doesn’t go his way, you can tell. I don’t want to say fix, but we can improve all of those things.

After he was signed as a free agent in the summer out of the Kontinental Hockey League, Andrei Chibisov opened some eyes during Jets training camp. How is he handling the transition to the North American game with the Moose?

He’s improving a lot. When he’s on the puck, when he’s protecting the puck, when he’s driving the puck to the net, he’s a man among kids most nights in our league. He’s been really, really good at creating chances on the power play and winning one-on-one battles to keep the puck in the offensive zone. His attitude is outstanding and he’s got a big smile on his face. Obviously, communicating with him is a bit of a challenge, but he’s saying more words now in English. I know he doesn’t understand everything (I say) but I know he’s a visual learner, so he sees it on the board and you can tell that he understood.

He’s been playing in Russia for so long and I’m not saying that it’s better or worse, but it’s different. There are (fewer) stops and starts and there is more space on the ice (in the KHL), more attempts to go east-west rather than north-south. It’s just a different style of play (in the AHL). He’s been playing that way his whole life. But his ability to adjust in a few weeks to North American hockey has been pretty good. He has such a passion for the game. It’s outstanding. We have to kick him off the ice after practice, he’s always in the gym working out and he’s a big and strong man. There are a lot of good things going on and now, he’s producing and there is some chemistry between him, (Jansen) Harkins and (Seth) Griffith. Those guys are quite productive for us.

Jansen Harkins is a guy who seemed to be turning a corner during the second half of last season, but what has he done to find another level this year (Harkins has 22 points in 20 games so far)?

That’s been a work in progress since he first got here. He’s always been a guy who has been working hard in the gym and working hard in practice. He asks a lot of questions of myself and the assistant coaches, as far as understanding what he needs to do on a daily basis. He’s coachable. When he thinks that he should be doing something, he’s going to share it and we’re going to have conversations about his vision of what needs to be done. That’s a guy who has been investing a lot in himself. One summer, after his first year, he came back after the summer and the mechanics of his shot wasn’t different, but the power and the accuracy was. He said all summer that he took a million shots. You could see it last year. He didn’t produce as much in games, but you could see (the improvement). This guy can shoot the puck, in motion and from different angles and be quite accurate. This year, he’s bringing that to the games.

I’m very, very proud of him. I was pretty tough on him at times and I pushed him. Players don’t always see it, but we do that most of the time with players that there is an extra gear or potential there. We didn’t give him anything. Everything that he’s doing right now has been earned. He’s a great person, he works hard at his craft and now, he’s producing. He went from being a prospect to a guy you think ‘you know what, he’s got the ability and the potential of being a Jet someday.’

(Darcy Finley / NHLI via Getty Images)

The numbers (four goals, 10 points in 20 AHL games) don’t always tell the whole story, with that in mind, how is 2017 first-rounder Kristian Vesalainen playing?

Two things: his maturity level is outstanding. I’ve had a few conversations with him and you talk about the game and what he needs to do. That’s quite a regular thing with the players, but then we started to talk about his game day routine and the night before a game and what he needs to do. And talked about his self-evaluation and what you evaluate yourself. You can score two goals, but if you turn the puck over six times and you’re responsible for four scoring chances against, then how do you evaluate yourself? In talking to him, his maturity level was quite impressive. That’s a guy who has been living on his own since he was 16 years old. He had to take care of himself because he was playing pro hockey back home. He was living in an apartment, doing his laundry and cooking for himself.

That brings me to the portion on the ice. He knows what he needs to work on to become not just a call-up, but an NHL guy. He knows he has to be reliable on both sides of the ice. He can shoot the puck and that’s coming. He’s scoring more and he’s shooting the puck more because he’s moving his feet more and he’s finding ways to get open. That makes a huge difference. When we play 4-on-4 or 3-on-3, (Vesalainen) is a dominant player on the ice. He gets the puck, he’s got time and he can build speed and he’s got the ability to attack the net because he’s got more time and space. He’s learning to play his game with less time and less space. It’s just a learning process, but what I’m very positive about is the way that he’s able to evaluate himself properly when we talk after a game. He knows what he did right and he knows what he did wrong. It may look simple, seem simple or sound simple, but it’s not. He’s very intelligent and he knows what he wants to do. His game has been improving, but these are the things that you don’t see on the stat sheet. It will come, I have no doubt. Right now, he’s moving forward and he’s doing it the right way.

(Photo of Jansen Harkins: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)