Despite loss, Winnipeg remains in playoff position

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/12/2014 (3999 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Yeah, the home side found a way Sunday night at the MTS Centre to turn two points into one point and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

But even while Winnipeg Jets Nation licks its wounds after a disappointing 4-3 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, there is reason for celebration as well this morning.

That’s because that lone point the Jets picked up gives Winnipeg 41 points this season, second only to the Montreal Canadiens’ 44 points among Canadian teams.

At 17-10-7 this morning, Winnipeg remains in a playoff position in the Western Conference and is now tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for 11th overall in the league standings, ahead of Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton (in that order).

Now, none of this excuses the Jets gassing a 3-1 third-period lead — and especially not to a Flyers team that was playing its second games in as many nights.

But the bigger picture remains a Jets team that is still a far cry from where most prognosticators thought this Winnipeg team would be heading into Christmas week — and also a far cry from where they were at this time last year.

Consider:

On Dec. 22, 2013, the Jets were 16-16-5, which is four points less than they have today despite having played three more games. And the Jets on this day last year were also out of a playoff spot and languishing at 19th in the league standings.

All of which is to say — You’ve come a long way, baby. But…

“We don’t want to get satisfied,” Jets forward Michael Frolik said Sunday night. “We still want to keep building, we still want to get better. That’s the mindset here…

“We’ve had a few mistakes and you want to learn from it and get better.”

The good news is the Jets have shown themselves to be pretty good at doing just that this season — which was why head coach Paul Maurice was in a more forgiving mood last night than you might otherwise have expected after the way his team had just blown a two-goal lead late in the game.

“I’m not going to take the team to task over that. We’ve been pretty solid…,” said Maurice. “It wasn’t our best, obviously. But we’ll learn from it and get better.”

So what’s changed this season for a Jets team that sits eight places higher in the standings on this day than they did last year? Well, nothing and everything. In terms of roster, the Jets team that started this season is essentially the same as the one that ended last season, with the notable additions of Mathieu Perreault and Adam Lowry.

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But while the players are much the same, the way they’re playing is not. A team that once struggled to keep the puck out of their own net had the league’s fourth-best goals-against average heading into Sunday, behind only Chicago, Nashville and Pittsburgh.

What’s more, while these Jets don’t score often, they do score early and it’s been a big part of their success. Winnipeg has scored first in 22 of 34 games this season and they have a dominating 13-5-4 record when they do just that.

Put it together — the sparkling defensive play and the quick-strike offence — and the result is there for all to see.

The Jets are 7-1-4 in their last 12 games, 10-3-4 against the Eastern Conference and still unbeaten in regulation against the Metropolitan Division at 6-0-3.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek