Scheifele makes history as Jets drop division rivals

Mark Scheifele wasted no time making history.

The first draft pick of the 2.0 Winnipeg Jets became the all-time franchise leader in points Saturday night, firing a perfect one-timer past Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros just 159 seconds into the game.

His milestone marker — officially point No. 813 — would set the tone for a fun one at Canada Life Centre for the 14,309 fans in attendance, who watched the home team skate away with a 4-1 victory over their Central Division rivals.

“An unbelievable pass by KC (Kyle Connor). He’s good, isn’t he? He’s amazing,” said Scheifele, who is always quick to dish out verbal assists to his linemates.

“I’m tremendously honoured. I wouldn’t be here without the guys, especially the guy I went ahead of. He helped me throughout my career and he also gave me a lot of tap-ins, so I’m very lucky about the guys I play with currently and that I played with in the past and I owe it all to them.”

Winnipeg has now won four straight games to improve to 4-1-0 on the year. Nashville falls to 2-2-2.

“It’s obviously great to see (Scheifele) get it at home here. In front of the hometown crowd is awesome,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel.

“He’s been such a consistent player. He has such great offensive skills and instincts. That was a great play, a real highlight-reel goal. A great pass from KC. Nice to see him get it over and done with real quick.”

Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck had his best outing of the young season, stopping 30 of 31 shots he faced. The reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner was 64 seconds away from his first shutout but lost it due to some bad luck — Nashville’s Michael Bunting banked a shot in off Jets forward Gustav Nyquist.

Jonathan Toews recorded his first multi-point game since returning to the NHL by registering a pair of assists — and also hit a post — while Vlad Namestnikov and Nino Niederreiter each chipped in with a goal and a helper.

Logan Stanley had the other tally, already his second of the year which sets a new career high. The crowd celebrated his feat by chanting “Stanley, Stanley” in unison — just as they did earlier in the contest when the 6-7 defenceman dropped the gloves with 6-6 Nashville forward Michael McCarron.

“I think it’s a first, so yeah, it felt good, I’ll take it,” Stanley joked after the game.

Yeah, it was that kind of night at the downtown barn.

MAKING HIS MARK: Scheifele sure looks like a player who wants to go to the Olympics. He’s been driving the bus for the Jets, now with points in all five games and nine in total (6G, 3A) to put him among the league leaders.

If he keeps this up, there’s no way Team Canada brass can leave him off the club which will go to Milan in February.

After making local hockey history, Scheifele was greeted with a standing ovation by the appreciative crowd during the first television timeout.

“That was really special. The fans here are incredible. They give us so much extra motivation,” said Scheifele.

“We really do have amazing fans. I am lucky to be a part of such a tremendous organization and tremendous community and I’m very honoured to be here.”

There was also a video message from good friend and former teammate Blake Wheeler, who had held the record of 812 points.

“The day we knew was coming has come,” Wheeler began.

“I remember in 2018, when I broke the record, we got back to the bench and you were congratulating me and I let you know that I was going to hold onto this one for you for a little bit. And now that time has come.”

Scheifele, who turns 33 next March and still has six more years on his contract, now has his sets sight on the 1.0 Jets record held for former junior coach and beloved mentor Dale Hawerchuk. He is 37 goals, 79 assists and 116 points from passing “Ducky” in all three categories.

There’s also the matter of the 1,000 point benchmark, which Scheifele should eventually surpass.

POWER KILL: The penalty kill continues to be one of the biggest surprises of the season. Winnipeg went a perfect 4-for-4 while shorthanded on Saturday, including nearly a minute where Nashville had a 5-on-3 advantage, and they are now 21-for-22 on the year.

Only the Buffalo Sabres, who are 22-for-23, have a better rate in the league.

“It’s been great,” said Stanley. “Your best penalty killer has got to be your goalie and he has been. And we’ve got lots of pressure and some veteran guys out there that know what’s going on.”

One of the penalties the Jets had to kill was a strange one. Josh Morrissey was called late in the second period for a rare “playing without a helmet” infraction. Predators forward Filip Forsberg had delivered a big hit along the boards which caused Morrissey to lose his lid.

The NHL rule states he’s required to immediately head off the ice. Instead, Morrissey jumped back into the play, which was quickly whistled down.

On the flipside, Winnipeg went 2-for-3 on the power play against the Predators and are now 5-for-15 on the year.

UNDER THE HOOD: The underlying numbers suggest the Jets weren’t as solid as the final score indicated.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Nashville had a whopping 18 high-danger chances in all situations (even strength and special teams) compared to 12 for Winnipeg. The Predators also had 5.34 expected goals versus just 2.99 for the Jets.

All of this underscores how good Hellebuyck was, especially in the second period where the ice was severely tilted with Winnipeg making a parade to the penalty box. High-danger chances alone were 11-4 for the visitors in the middle frame, while shots on goal were 15-4.

“I still don’t think we’ve played a solid 60 minutes yet,” said Scheifele.

“I think that’s very exciting. Even tonight, we came out great, obviously got an early goal on the power play and then they kind of turned the tides on us, started to buzz on us and got a couple power plays. There are still a lot of things to fix and there are always things to get better at, but we have a group that wants to do that.”

KEY PLAY: Stanley’s slapper early in the third gave the Jets some additional breathing room and essentially put this one to bed.

“It’s kind of weird when you have that much time, so just head down and hammer it,” the towering defenceman said of his snipe.

THREE STARS

1. WPG G Connor Hellebuyck: 30 saves

2. WPG D Logan Stanley: 1 goal, 1 fight

3. WPG C Mark Scheifele: 1 goal

EXTRA, EXTRA: Jets captain Adam Lowry joined his teammates for the first time this season during the morning skate, which is another step in his eventual return from offseason hip surgery.

“You notice him? I don’t know if you noticed him. Six-foot-six in a yellow jersey,” Arniel joked. “But yeah, that’s day one. He’ll be starting practice with us again.”

The end of October remains the earliest possible timeline for a Lowry return, so we’ll see how things develop over the next couple of weeks.

The Jets made one roster move on Saturday, calling up Brad Lambert from the Manitoba Moose. He joined forward Nikita Chibrikov and defenceman Colin Miller as the healthy scratches.

Veteran Nashville forward Jonathan Marchessault was a late scratch for the Predators due to a lower-body injury.

Winnipeg now hits the road for a one-game trip to Calgary on Monday night.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg