Next Day Takeaways: 3 Thoughts as the Winnipeg Jets are off to their best start in franchise history

The Winnipeg Jets are off to their best start in franchise history, as a 2-1 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild pushed them to 3-0 on the new season. There were plenty of positives to take away from Sunday’s contest at Canada Life Centre. 

Jets’ overtime success continues

For a second straight game, the Jets carried a 1-1 game into overtime, ending on the stick of one of their top-line forwards. Kyle Connor ripped a shot over Filip Gustavsson’s left shoulder, a release and wrist shot that few players in the NHL can do. Scott Arniel was incredibly impressed with the overtime winner, as I’m sure many Jets fans were also.

“Yeah, he’s a shot volume guy,” Arniel said of Connor’s performance. “And then you see that… not many guys can stand still like he does to score that goal. But he’s a guy that shoots from all angles, all places. He did it the other night, actually. He had a couple off of the mask, I think he threw a couple off the shoulder. His release is so good that you want him to do that.”

Mark Scheifele played in his 800th game yesterday, and on the 4-on-3 power play in overtime, he fired the pass over to Connor, who buried the OT winner. He’s up to 6 points in 3 games to begin the 2024-25 season, one where he has already recorded a handful of milestones. Scheifele was full of gratitude when asked about hitting the 800-game milestone tonight. 

“Yeah, it’s obviously special,” Scheifele said in the post-game. “I’m very honoured and blessed to play in this league for this long. It’s a tremendous honour and I’ve been lucky to be with (the Jets) I’m very thankful to Winnipeg for having me for this long, and it’s very humbling and I’m very honoured to play 800 games in the NHL.”

Special teams are off to a positive start

Both special teams units were heavily scrutinized last season, and so far, through three games, the Jets special teams are off to a great start. 

The power play is clicking along at 42.9%, good for 3/8 in the 2024-25 campaign, with one of those including Connor’s OT winner from Sunday night.

That’s a very solid start for the power play, and the penalty kill has almost certainly been more impressive. They are a perfect 5/5 through the first three games, convincingly killing off penalty after penalty. 

Last season, it felt as though the Jets were taking a hope-and-pray approach that Hellebuyck would bail the unit out, and they would survive the two-minutes rather than kill it off. It’s still early, but stylistically, the penalty kill feels like a big change. Scheifele and Connor killing penalties gives them an element they haven’t had before, taking the “power kill” approach, and Dylan Samberg has been exceptional at blocking shots and clearing pucks.

The Jets were first in goals against last season with the 22nd-ranked penalty kill. Not to argue that this team could be even better defensively, but killing penalties in big moments, such as the one with 5:39 left in a 1-1 game on Sunday, could buy them some extra valuable points in the standings. Adam Lowry highlighted the early changes to the special teams units when asked about it post-game. 

“Yeah, I think last year the story was we’d always come out on the wrong side of that, or we’d win in spite of the special teams,” Lowry said on Sunday evening.  “It was nice to have them contribute in a positive manner. I think with both the changes we’ve made, it will still take time to be running smoothly all the time… but I think the aggressiveness on the PK and our (defence) did a great job jumping the half wall, knocking pucks down, really not allowing them time to make a play. And we were really good on our clears.”

Ehlers-Namestnikov-Perfetti trio plays their best game of the season Sunday

There’s no hiding that it has been a slow start for the Jets’ secondary scoring line of Nikolaj Ehlers, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Cole Perfetti. 

On Sunday, they took a small step forward into providing quality minutes, drawing near-even on shot attempts 11-9. They still lost the scoring chances battle at five-on-five 2-3, but this is a huge step forward from what we had seen so far this season. Scott Arniel admitted in the post-game that his secondary scoring line is struggling right now, but they’re making progress. 

“I thought they played faster tonight as a group,” Arniel said after the game. “There’s a lot of situations where they attack and lanes were filled coming through the neutral zone. But you’re right, there was some building there. We met yesterday, and those guys have taken full ownership of where they’re at, but we’re three games into it. And I think that they’re still growing amongst each other. The biggest thing is they just need to get rewarded. That’s a great tip (from Perfetti) there in third. I thought maybe that would be the one that might boost it, but, just keep doing what they’re doing and hopefully they’ll get  it done.”

While that line got closer to where they want to eventually be, the Barron-Kupari-Iafallo trio continued their early-season success, outshooting the Wild 5-1 at even strength and winning the scoring chances battle 2-0. Not only are they generating chances, but they are also suppressing them, which is exactly what Arniel wants out of his fourth line. 

Up next:

The Jets will be able to sit with their best start in franchise history for four days before continuing their home stand against the San Jose Sharks on Friday, Oct 18.