The Winnipeg Jets opened their 2024-25 season by posting a touchdown against the Edmonton Oilers. A convincing 6-0 win propelled the Jets to 1-0 on the season, with plenty of positives to draw from it.
Connor Hellebuyck begins the year with a shutout
Connor Hellebuyck opened up his season with a 30-save shutout. His status for this game was initially in doubt due to family/personal reasons earlier in the week. After the game, he spoke about how much more this win meant to him.
It’s been a crazy week,” Hellebuyck said post-game. “It’s been tough on the whole family, but the boys played great for me, and they’ve been really supportive this entire time. I really cherish these moments, and I cherish my time with family, so I hope they’re doing alright.”
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
The Jets in front of Hellebuyck blocked 29 shots in this game compared to the Oilers’ 8. The Jets committed to strong team defence and elite goaltending last season, earning them 110 points during the regular season. At the risk of overreacting to one game, it’s clear that the Jets’ team identity won’t be changing this year.
“He’s been so incredible throughout his career for us and we don’t expect any different but under the circumstances,” Adam Lowry said about his goaltender on Wednesday night. “I think it’s extra special and I’m glad we were able to preserve the shutout for him.”
It is officially Connor Hellebuyck’s 38th career shutout, as he picks up right where he left off a season ago. While the goaltending looked the part, the same can also be said about a familiar forward line.
Lowry line picks up where they left off last season
The trio of Nino Niederreiter, Adam Lowry, and Mason Appleton outscored their opponents 23-15 at five-on-five last season in over 700 minutes together. Tonight against the Oilers, they stuffed the stat sheet while playing tough minutes against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Lowry and Appleton opened the scoring for the Jets, and in the second period, Appleton fired a crisp pass to Dylan Samberg, who gave the Jets a 4-0 lead at the time. Jets fans have become familiar with this line’s style of play, and on this night, they won their minutes handily.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“They can do it all,” Hellebuyck said about the third line. “They just proved that tonight, sky’s the limit for them. When they’re clicking and chemistry is going they can have multiple sides of their game, and it’s fun to watch.”
In addition to contributing three goals as a line, according to Natural Stat Trick, that trio controlled 81.44% of the expected goals at five-on-five. Their dominance tonight, and over their past 650+ minutes as a line together, is no fluke.
“It’s a tough recipe with those guys,” Scott Arniel said about the Lowry line post-game. “Get pucks in and get after ‘em, and make people turn pucks over with their pressure. The best part too, is you can always rely on them when they don’t have it. They’re doing a great job when they don’t spend a lot of time in their own end of the rink, and then the offence comes from it.”
Power play goes 2/3 in their first regular season test
The new-look power play was a focal point of training camp, and on opening night, the Jets gave their fans hope that the adjustments may prove to be valuable this season.
Kyle Connor scored on the Jets’ first power-play attempt of the season, and made some NHL history in the process. With that goal, he now has scored a goal in 7 straight season-opening games, surpassing the previous record of six which was held by Cam Atkinson (2014-19), Yvon Cournoyer (1973-78) and Mud Bruneteau (1940-45). He scored from his usual spot on the power play with a subtle wrist shot past Stuart Skinner.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“The mindset Davis (Payne) is throwing at them is to attack the net as quick as possible,” Arniel said during the post-game. “Don’t let the penalty kill get in their structure. Once that shot happens it creates the explosion that happens off of that. So a great example, KC, that shot coming off of there that’s a good look with Fly (Ehlers) being right there and Gabe (Vilardi) being on that back door, so we had numbers and that was a great shot.
The second power-play goal of the evening was a great example of the first line from Arniel’s quote above, where the Jets entered the zone and quickly attacked the net as Mark Scheifele deflected a Nikolaj Ehlers pass over the shoulder of Calvin Pickard. The Jets’ zone entry has been a constant struggle over the years, and to see them enter the zone and attack the net with purpose was surely a welcome sight for the coaching staff (and fans).
Up next:
The Jets will now look to follow up their dominant 1-0 start to the season on Friday night for their home opener when they take on Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks. That’s the first of a four-game stretch inside Canada Life Centre, as the fans will look to cheer as much as they did from home tonight inside the arena.
