It was the Winnipeg Jets’ third straight Saturday night with a home game, and they came away with a victory for a third straight time. Led by their star players, the Jets defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-2 inside Canada Life Centre.
Connor Hellebuyck steps up once again:
Connor Hellebuyck had another strong game on this night, stopping 33 of the 35 shots sent his way.
No save was more important than the one he made off of Josh Norris after Ottawa had scored on the first power play of a double-minor, Hellebuyck denied Norris with the left pad on a high-danger chance, one that would’ve given Ottawa a 3-0 lead at the time.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
With this win, Hellebuyck is first in every single major statistical category for goaltenders. His 23 wins rank first, with the next closest being Jacob Markstrom with 19. He is currently rocking a 2.08 goals against average (GAA) and a .928 save percentage (SV%) and has stopped 20.4 goals above expected, all of which rank first in the league.
Hellebuyck should be the runaway favourite to win the Vezina Trophy once again, but with numbers as staggering as these, I wonder if he is building a case for the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player. There is plenty of season remaining, but Hellebuyck is posting far and away the best numbers of his career and is arguably the biggest reason for the Jets currently sitting in the top spot in the NHL.
The Jets top line + Ehlers dominate:
The top line of Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi had another fantastic night, as all three members scored, with two goals coming at five-on-five and Gabriel Vilardi adding one on the power play.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
The three goals this line scored were all of the highlight-reel variety, with Nikolaj Ehlers getting the primary assist on two of them.
The Jets got down 2-0 in this game, but as Scott Arniel mentioned in the post-game press conference, the Jets didn’t panic.
“I think that’s one of the things where this group has really grown over the last few years, is that as we get down two, we don’t panic, we don’t start cheating, we don’t start trying to do things that are away from sort of our structure.”
Ehlers also added his own goal on this night, giving the Jets some insurance and making it a 4-2 game at the time. His 11th of the season came off of an entry where he was gliding into the zone. The defenders backed up, respecting his speed, and he took the space and made no mistake.
I asked Arniel if the threat of Ehlers’ speed can be used as an advantage for him, and he said: “He’s a guy that when the opposition defence sees him coming, they’re not real keen on keeping a tight gap, they don’t want to get embarrassed by getting beat wide. When he does it enough, when he does it consistently, all of a sudden, kinda the sea parted there and he had the wide open ice to get inside the blue line and even closer to the goalie. His speed is a weapon, and when he uses it, it’s really so effective for us.”
It was a three-point night for Ehlers, his second 3+ point game of his 2024-25 season. He has fully shaken the rust off from his nine-game absence and is back to providing plenty of offence for the Jets.
Up next
It’s back to the grind for the Jets, who are set to take on the Nashville Predators on Monday night, another Amazon Prime Hockey game with a 6:30 PM CT puck drop, before hitting the road to take on the Colorado Avalanche in Denver the very next night.
They will then return home for an eight-game homestand, by far their longest of the season.
Stay tuned to Illegalcurve.com for all the latest news regarding the Jets and Moose through this busy stretch of hockey.
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