Connor fills his hat against Preds

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/11/2023 (700 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets are quickly rounding into form and looking like a hockey club poised to make some serious noise this season.

A 6-3 victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night at Canada Life Centre was a relatively stress-free affair and continues a recent hot streak that has them surging up the NHL standings.

Winnipeg is now 7-4-2 on the year, with three straight wins and just one regulation loss in the past nine games (6-1-2). They are also now 4-0-0 within the Central Division this year. Nashville falls to 5-8-0.

Kyle Connor led the way with his fifth-career hat trick and also added an assist. Mason Appleton, Cole Perfetti and Brenden Dillon had the other goals for the home team, while Mark Scheifele (four assists), Alex Iafallo (two assists) and Dylan DeMelo (two assists) had multi-point games.

Filip Forsberg scored twice for the visitors, while Phillip Tomasino had the other.

“Great way to start a homestand, for sure,” Connor said of coming out with two points in the first of five straight at the downtown barn. “We had contributions from everybody. I thought we played our systems really well. Five-on-five we played really well.”

As has been the case over the past few weeks, there was plenty to like about Winnipeg’s effort and execution. Let’s review some of the finer points, shall we:

1) KFC is cooking: Connor is coming off a season that, by his lofty offensive standards, would be considered a major disappointment. He scored just 31 goals during the 2022-23 campaign, a far cry from the career-high 47 a year earlier.

A return to form as one of the NHL’s best pure snipers is great news for the Jets — and bad news for their opponents.

Connor struck twice in a 2:43 span early in the second period, breaking open a tie game in the process. His first came after Nashville left him all alone in the slot — that’s never a good idea — and Scheifele fed him a perfect pass. Connor ripped a shot past Juuse Saros for his team-leading ninth of the year.

His second will likely end up on his career highlight reel, a dazzling individual effort in which he left several Predators in his wake and ultimately slid the puck past Saros on a nifty deke.

“Turned it over, and I had a ton of speed coming down that left wing. Mark made a great pass to me and kind of sprung me,” said Connor.

“I kind of saw, I think it was (Roman) Jose over-committed, maybe thought I was going to shoot the puck, and I just took that ice on the other side and wasn’t really able to get a good backhand shot off right away, so figured I’d out-wait him.”

The third, into an empty-net, sealed the deal. Connor now has lit the lamp five times in the past two games, and his 11 goals are tied for second in the NHL, just two off the NHL lead currently held by Auston Matthews.

Connor also played set-up man in the middle frame, getting an assist on Perfetti’s 5-on-3 power play goal which gave Winnipeg a 4-1 lead.

Connor now has seven points in the last two games (five goals, two assists), while linemates Scheifele (one goal, six assists) and Alex Iafallo (six assists) are red-hot as well.

“I think we’re using our feet to create turnovers, and we’re playing well in our system, too. That’s something we can always fall back on and know that if we do that well we’re going to have turnovers and have the puck more, which is obviously what we want to do to – have possession and create as much offence as we can.”

2) Third time was the charm: Backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit earned his first victory of his second stint with the Jets.

He wasn’t terribly busy — facing just 23 shots — and he’d likely want the first two goals back, as Forsberg beat him through the five-hole in the first period and then from the top of the circle in the second period. He had no chance on the third, a beautiful deflection by Tomasino.

Still, after his two previous starts ended in a loss (in regulation to Vegas and in a shootout to Montreal), perhaps Brossoit will be able to use this as a confidence booster going forward.

Expect him to get another start at the end of this five-game homestand as the Jets close it out with back-to-back games next Friday (Buffalo Sabres) and Saturday (Arizona Coyotes).

3) He’s gonna be sore: The Jets blocked 15 shots against the Predators, which is a fairly routine number in an NHL game. Nobody had more than one — except for defenceman Dylan Samberg, who incredibly had nine. That is quite something.

Several of them were of the painful variety, which got both his teammates the crowd erupting in cheers.

“I don’t think you can say enough about what it takes to step in front of some of those shots,” said captain Adam Lowry. “As a defenceman, it’s a thankless job sometimes on the PK for five-on-five.”

Give that man an ice bath.

4) Was it something he said? Lowry found himself on the proverbial dance floor twice in the first period. First, he dropped the gloves with Jeremy Lauzon after the Nashville defenceman laid a big hit on Jets forward Rasmus Kupari. Lowry slipped and fell immediately, then got back up and got the better of the tilt.

“The first one, (Kupari) goes down in the corner. I don’t really see the contact, just that he goes down,” said Lowry. “Pretty respectful by him to let me up right off the bat.”

Shortly after serving his five-minute sentence, Lowry delivered a crushing bodyecheck of his own on Predators defencemen Marc Del Gaizo. Nashville forward Cole Smith instantly came after him, a move he likely regretted after Lowry dropped him with a couple punches. Smith was given an instigator penalty for the being the aggressor.

“I think it’s just a young guy getting in the lineup. I would have appreciated being able to get my gloves off, but that’s what happens,” said Lowry. “You play hard and things like that happen. I don’t think I anticipate fighting twice in a period too often”

5) Extra, Extra: A crowd of 12,199 took in the action, which is actually the second-largest crowd of the year through the first six home games. Only the home-opener against the Florida Panthers drew more.

Winnipeg’s power play went 1-for-4, while Nashville went 0-for-5. Two of those Jets penalties came on consecutive too-many-men infractions in a 199-second span.

The Jets went with the same lineup, with Logan Stanley and Declan Chisholm the healthy scratches, but they did make one slight tweak. David Gustafsson moved to centre on the fourth line, while Kupari shifted to right-wing.

There was some good news Thursday morning as Gabriel Vilardi, who suffered a sprained MCL in the third game of the year on Oct. 17, skated on his own for the first time. Next Tuesday marks four weeks since the injury, which had an expected recovery time of four-to-six weeks. The next step will be getting him on the ice with the team for a full practice.

Speaking of which, the Jets will hold an on-ice workout on Friday and get ready to face the Dallas Stars on Saturday afternoon.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg