Winnipeg Jets: 3 Talking Points from the Jets 5-1 Preseason Win vs EDM

2. The Line of Perfetti, Harkins, and Svechnikov Leads the Way

Many Winnipeg supporters were excited to see the line of Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, and Blake Wheeler make their preseason debuts, but the combination of Cole Perfetti, Jansen Harkins, and Evgeny Svechnikov stole the show yesterday.

This line made a terrific play just over a minute and a half into the game to propel and Harkins slotted the puck home to give the Jets an early lead. (The goal is talked about more in-depth on the next slide.)

This combination of roster hopefuls then doubled the Jets’ lead at the beginning of the second period. Harkins made a nice play in the right corner of the offensive zone to shield off a defender and fed a diagonal pass to Logan Stanley who was on the left point.

Both Svechnikov and Perfetti got to the front of the net to provide a double screen in front of Edmonton’s netminder and Stanley delivered the perfect shot only a couple of feet off of the ice service. Svechnikov made a beautiful tip to redirect the puck into the net. This was one goal where every player on the ice for the Jets did his job to perfection and they were rewarded for their efforts with a goal.

Near the end of the second period, this line was able to contribute one more goal to Winnipeg’s lead.

This goal started on a breakout by Dylan DeMelo and the Jets attacked the neutral zone with speed. DeMelo passed the puck to Svechnikov who was standing in front of the penalty boxes.

Svechnikov then delivered an area pass to the offensive blue line where Harkins was skating full speed en route to. Harkins was able to beat Cody Ceci to the 50/50 puck and chipped it around him to create a mini-breakaway for himself.

Harkins was able to finish the great play by delivering a wicked wrist shot over the goaltender’s blocker to extend the Jets lead to 4-0.

Harkins and Svechnikov finished the game tied for the team lead in points with three. Perfetti’s lone point was an assist on Harkins’ first goal.

This newly formed line of Harkins, Perfetti, and Svechnikov was extremely fun to watch in yesterday’s contest. There was great chemistry between these players and they had a good feeling of where each other would be throughout the game.

I would not be surprised to see Paul Maurice keep this combination together for the foreseeable future in camp.