Winnipeg Jets, Finally on the Road, Take Down Canucks

The Winnipeg Jets have played the fewest home games in the NHL, a stat about which I’m ambivalent. Between now and December 7, the Jets will play just two contests in the cozy confines of the Bell MTS Place.

The Winnipeg Jets should be really good at home, since they have a good roster and were the NHL’s best home team a year ago. I’m not saying they should be the best, but they should be up there.

So when I heard they had played the fewest games on the road this season, I thought “oh, cool, they’ve been playing well, too”. And then I followed that with, “You know they’re not really blowing past anyone in the standings, this could be bad when all the road games come”.

But then I settled on not worrying about it, since the Jets have reached a tie in points for second place in not only the Central Division, but the entire Western Conference. The Nashville Predators are getting old, friends.

Also, the West is crazy. The top five teams? Nashville, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Calgary and San Jose. Only one of those teams would be in the top 3 in the East. But that all deserves a longer look some other time.

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As of now, the Winnipeg Jets are 8-2-2 at home, and 4-3 on the road. Not an ideal split, but things are looking up after the destruction of the Canucks, 6-3, last night. The game was closer than the score would indicate at times, but also it seemed like the game wasn’t as close as the score would indicate at others.

The Jets concerned us at first but are emerging and playing well. They did most of that at home, so that left us wondering whether or not they can do it on the road. And something funny happened during that good stretch: The Jets became the best goal-suppressing team in the league, at least by volume.

On a per game basis, no, but hey, the least amount of goals is the least amount of goals. Last night wasn’t the strongest showing in that regard, but the offense was there to pick them up and snag two points on the west coast.

Their defense was shakier than I’d like, and Connor Hellebuyck looked about ready to cough up a lead again, but they held strong.

As was the case early in the season, the Jets had some breakdowns that led to goals. But as was not the case in the early going, the offense didn’t seem to mind, and put 5 pucks past Jacob Markstrom and another into his vacated basket.

Blake Wheeler miraculously didn’t score a point, and now that’s two without one after an 11 game point streak. Oh well.

Patrik Laine has become Hatrik Laine. His second within a month, after the one in Helsinki in the NHL Global Series. The kid has an unreal release, truly special. You can’t train or teach that, he just…does it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure he trains hard and works at his craft, but he has a talent you can’t teach to others.

He now has 11 goals, and went in with no even strength goals (discounting empty netters), and left with two (plus an extra empty netter). Laine is one of the best snipers I’ve ever watched play, man.

I didn’t like Connor Hellebuyck’s start, but a win is a win. Also, he’s been playing well of late, so I’m not worried about one start with some defensive breakdowns (SH Goal) in front of him. Bryan Little scored less than 90 seconds into the game, as Markstom was out to lunch and set him up with a nice assist.

Mark Scheifele added one and Kyle Connor snuck one in on the man advantage, all three in the first. Then only Patrik Laine scored for the Jets, but it was well enough to win.

It doesn’t get any easier, though, as the Winnipeg Jets follow up this game with the next two in Calgary, where the Flames lead the Pacific, and in Minnesota, who is tied with Winnipeg for second in the Central. It’s a nice litmus test to see how Winnipeg is playing right now, and how they stack up with the other contenders so far.

The most interesting stat to me about last night’s game? Markstrom allowed 5 goals and Hellebuyck 3, yet Markstrom had a higher save percentage.

We know the offense is clicking, but these next two games won’t be easy. Then they’ll face two teams that fired their coaches and another that’s lost 9 of their last 10 (St. Louis, Chicago and Pittsburgh).