Jets riding early wave of success Undefeated team off to best start in club history By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 6:07 PM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024

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This article was published 15/10/2024 (720 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They don’t hand out trophies in October. The Winnipeg Jets, however, are savouring a hot start to the season, one that has them hanging near the top of the NHL standings and looking like a potential hockey heavyweight.

“The mood is great,” veteran forward Nino Niederreiter said following Tuesday’s up-tempo practice that came after a well-deserved Thanksgiving Monday off for the 3-0-0 squad.

“It’s such a long season and you’ve got to make hay when the sun is shining. There’s going to be tough times during the season in which things are not going well, so it’s good to have a good start and a few early points.”

The Jets are one of five teams to win three in a row out of the gate this season, joining the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, Calgary Flames and Utah’s yet-to-be named club. According to the NHL, there have been 91 teams to go three-for-three since 2005-06, with 60 of them going on to make the playoffs.

“It’s such a long season and you’ve got to make hay when the sun is shining … so it’s good to have a good start and a few early points.”–Jets forward Nino Niederreiter

It’s the first time the Jets have opened the season with three consecutive wins.

Winnipeg leads the league in fewest goals against (two) and also owns a share of the best power play (42.9 per cent) and penalty kill (100 per cent) so far.

Life is pretty good. In fact, the only real complaint has to do with the long wait between games. The Jets don’t play again until Friday when the San Jose Sharks come to town.

“It’s not ideal, that’s for sure. Once you get going you kinda want to keep playing,” said defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “But it’s an opportunity for us to utilize this time to maybe iron some things out that maybe we want to improve on from the past three games.”

Indeed, you won’t see this group doing a victory lap at this stage. Not with 79 regular season games remaining and the expected ebbs and flows that typically come over the course of a lengthy campaign. There’s enough to like over this small sample size to suggest it might be sustainable.

“There’s lots of good things that happened, a lot of positive stuff,” said coach Scott Arniel.

The team’s two foundational players, Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele, are leading the way as they are in the early stages of their identical seven-year, US$59.5-million contract extensions. Hellebuyck has stopped 81 of 83 shots he’s faced, while Scheifele has been directly involved in six of Winnipeg’s 10 goals.

“Those are players that drive themselves, just with their preparation and how they approach games. They want to be difference makers. That’s what they’re doing right now,” Arniel said.

Other highlights include Adam Lowry’s so-called shutdown line leading by example and the sterling special teams, which were a focal point during training camp given how lacklustre they were last season.

If you’re looking for areas of improvement, generating more offence is at the top of the list.

“We definitely can be quicker throughout the neutral zone,” said Niederreiter.

“I think that’s something which we emphasize in practice right now to make sure we get between the blue lines and make sure we get pucks in deep and gotta find a way to get ‘em back, also, and not just be like a rush team and be one-and-done.”

Sure, they lit up the Edmonton Oilers for six goals in their season opener, but they’ve only managed one regulation goal in each of the last two outings against the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild. Some three-on-three overtime magic accounted for the other two tallies.

“The one thing is we’re nowhere close to what we consider our best,” said DeMelo, who described a “workmanlike” attitude from the group despite this early success.

“To get these points early when we feel we still have lots to give is important. These points are important. I don’t care if it’s October and Game 3 out of 82. We’re trying to get wins, we’re trying to rack up as many as possible. We’re happy with it, but we understand we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us here.”

Getting the line of Vlad Namestnikov, Cole Perfetti and Nikolaj Ehlers going would also be a welcome development. There were some positive signs in the third period against the Wild, but that trio is still looking for its first goal of the season.

Arniel is using this week as an extension of training camp, with plenty of teaching and video review sprinkled in between some rest. Winnipeg’s schedule is about to become very heavy, and you have to go all the way to Nov. 10 and 11 to find the next multi-day break between games starting Friday. The Jets will play 12 times in 23 days during that stretch.

“It’s going to be an absolute grind after the homestand here,” said DeMelo.

After hosting the Sharks on Friday, the Pittsburgh Penguins come to town on Sunday afternoon.

The Jets won the Jennings Trophy as the stingiest defensive squad in the league last year, which played a huge role in their 52-24-6 record that was fourth-best in the regular season. So far, they seem to be sticking to that identity.

“That’s our bread and butter,” said DeMelo.

“That’s what’s going to keep us in games. That’s what going to give us success. That’s a non-negotiable for our group. We have to follow that up. We can’t just walk in and expect it’s going to be there. We have to continue to work at it every day, make sure we take a lot of pride in it. That’s our calling card.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

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