Late Thursday evening, Nikolaj Ehlers beat Joey Daccord with a wrist shot from the high slot to give the Winnipeg Jets their seventh straight victory to begin the 2024-25 season.
Dating back to last year, the Jets have won 15 straight regular season games. Here’s what to take away from the Jets’ 4-3 OT win over the Seattle Kraken, as they remained perfect on the season.
Nino Niederreiter and his line remain red-hot
Nino Niederreiter added two goals to his season total tonight, which is now up to 4, all of which have come in the last three games. It was Niederreiter last night, but that line has been dominant to begin 2024-25.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
Lowry’s line is usually tasked with shutting down the opponents’ best players. Not only are they doing that, but they are chipping in at a high rate to begin the year. Scott Arniel was once again impressed with that line as they once again provided solid minutes.
“Yeah, those guys are straight-line players,” Arniel said post-game. “They push the puck forward in a straight line and they get after it. They score a lot of goals in that blue paint area. And that was a big one, Nino driving the net and the other goal, that was a great play by (Cole Perfetti).”
While the Jets kept their record perfect to begin the season, so did the Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton trio, who has outscored their opponents 6-0 at five-on-five this season. They have been nothing short of elite through seven games.
Gabriel Vilardi scores his first of the season
For all the scoring the Jets have done this season, sitting at third in the league in goals for with 31, Gabriel Vilardi had yet to get on the scoresheet.
That changed late in the second period on Thursday night, as Vilardi used his elite set of hands that we have become accustomed to seeing to step across the crease and wait out Joey Daccord giving Winnipeg a 2-1 lead at the time. There were many layers to this goal, as Arniel pointed out after the game.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“We talked about when you don’t have the puck, go get it. And (Kyle Connor) tracks back and pops that stick and gets the puck, and Scheifele makes the play, but I’m so glad for Gabe. He’s been squeezing the stick, he’s a goal scorer, and he wanted to get that goal. That was a great power move for him; he used his length and his reach to get around the goalie, and it was nice to get that weight off his back.”
Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele have picked up the goal-scoring slack early in the season, but could this be the start of a run for Vilardi? Vilardi was hot and cold with his goal-scoring streaks last year.
That line still needs to produce more at five-on-five, as they got outscored 2-1 tonight, bringing their season-long number at even strength to two goals for and six against.
Can we call them the second line again?
Much was made of the Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton trio being given second-line deployment to begin the season, but over the last two contests, the Ehlers-Namestnikov-Perfetti trio has re-taken that spot.
Whether it is because of their performance as of late, which was full of production, or the fact that Arniel and the Jets coaching staff don’t control the matchups on the road.
The Ehlers line had 12:27 of even-strength ice time tonight, while the Lowry line finished with 9:00 in even-strength minutes.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
It’s too early to declare that they have stolen the second-line role back, but there is no questioning that their play as of late has earned them a bump in ice time. Cole Perfetti continued his hot streak tonight, assisting on Nino Niederretier’s second goal of the evening, which put the Jets up 3-1 at the time.
While we can get caught up in the numbering of lines, it’s clear that the Jets are looking for a balanced attack this season, with six players currently above a point per game. Mark Schefiele (10), Nikolaj Ehlers (9), Kyle Connor, Cole Perfetti, Neal Pionk (8), and Josh Morrissey (7). That sort of depth up front can buy you a lot of points in the standings, and so far, the Jets have earned 14 of a possible 14.
Up next:
Next up is a battle on Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada, between the Jets and Calgary Flames (5-1-1), another team who has gotten off to a hot start to begin this season and just suffered their first regulation loss of the season.
