How concerned should the Jets be through the first quarter of the season?
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers have dominated the conversation about disappointing teams so far, but there’s another Canadian team that has failed to play up to expectations this season. The Winnipeg Jets, last season’s President Trophy winners, are currently sixth in the Central Division with 24 points in 22 games. They’ve gone 4-7 in the month of November, and are squandering hot starts from forwards Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor.
The worst news might be that their Hart Trophy winning goaltender, Connor Hellebuyck, won’t be back anytime soon after undergoing a minor knee procedure. Backup goalie Eric Comrie has gone 4-4 with a .897 save percentage and a 3.02 goals against average this season. The Jets will have to find a way to stay within striking distance of a playoff spot during Hellebuyck’s absence.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by The Athletic‘s Murat Ates to discuss the level of concern around Winnipeg.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Connor Hellebuyck goes down, the surgery. Eric Comrie gets the crease, they lose three of four. The Jets don’t have their MVP. The West is very competitive right now. These three straight losses, how worried does it have people in Winnipeg?
Murat Ates: I think Winnipeg is worried about it’s current situation. It’s rare for the Jets of this era to look up at the playoff cutline. To make it to U.S. Thanksgiving staring up, having teams to pass just to get to a Wild Card spot. It’s not just the goaltending, either. If you do a season-long look at the Jets’ numbers, they haven’t controlled flow of play. It’s only been a recent uptick where they’re starting to create some things. Over this four games that you mentioned, where they won one of those four games under Eric Comrie, Josh Morrissey, Mark Scheifele, and Kyle Connor have as many points as every other Winnipeg Jet combined. So there are a few issues here in Winnipeg that need to be addressed if these guys are going to be legit this year.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…