No matter who’s in the lineup, the Jets keeping finding ways to stay perfect
The Winnipeg Jets have come out flying this season, starting the year 8-0-0. Their perfect record is a testament to their balanced attack from top to bottom of their lineup, including consistent goaltending from both starter Connor Hellebuyck, and backup Eric Comrie.
The Jets sit atop the league’s standings, they rank second in goals scored per game (4.5), third in goals against per game (2), and have an impressive +20 goal differential. To say their exceeding expectations to start the season would be an understatement.
Their balanced attack offensively includes Nik Ehlers, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk all tallying 10 points through their first eight games. Meanwhile, Winnipeg has at least nine players on the team who have scored two goals or more.
The Jets’ electric start was a topic of conversation on Monday’s Daily Faceoff LIVE episode, as Frank Seravalli was joined by Colby Cohen and dove into the early-season perfection coming out of Winnipeg.
Seravalli: Let’s talk about the Winnipeg Jets, who extended their franchise-best start to remain perfect, 8-0 over the weekend. What I love about watching this Jets team Colby is, it doesn’t really matter who’s in, who’s out. Connor Hellebuyck, you’re on the bench Saturday night, and they don’t miss a beat. This team’s identity, which I really counted out to start the year, that is such a powerful driving force for their start. What do you think?
Cohen: I mean look Frank, when you watch the way that this team is playing, you look a) down the middle, and then you look at their puck management. To me, they’re almost playing a playoff-style of hockey to start this season. I think a lot of teams don’t manage the puck early in the year, and you look at the way Winnipeg is managing the puck, their owning the bluelines, their owning the areas between the tops of the circles. They’re not turning the puck over and look, let’s talk Connor Hellebuyck. The guy has been great, he’s off to a great start.
When you put all of those things together early in a season, you get a team that looks like one of the best teams. Here’s my question, and I kind of learned this the hard way working in Chicago for a couple of years, I didn’t used to watch Winnipeg a lot, then I’m in Chicago, we see Winnipeg pretty frequently, the Winnipeg team that we sometime see early in the year, is not the Winnipeg team we see in January and February – so, how do they keep this up? How do they not have those big peaks and valleys they’ve had in other seasons.
Seravalli: Two points of concern, if you even want to call it that, are one – how much their scoring, 4.5 goals per game, probably not sustainable, the way they’ve defended though is sustainable at two goals against. They proved that last year that it’s an accomplishment to be under 200 goals against on the season, and that’s exactly where the Jets were last season. And then their power play, 43% so far, their power play really struggled last year, and it was kind of on the uptick after they brought in Sean Monahan before the trade deadline, and then it kind of fell off again, and another reason why their playoff run was so short, they couldn’t take advantage of special teams. I’ve been surprised by how much the Jets have scored and low-key, they have some really good offensive players, but it’s been the depth that has seemingly won the day for them.
For more on the Jets hot start, Steven Stamkos returning to Tampa Bay for the first time, and all the latest buzz around the NHL, watch the full episode here.