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Categories: Winnipeg Jets

Next day takeaways: 3 thoughts as the Winnipeg Jets winning streak reaches seven games

The Winnipeg Jets picked up their seventh straight win on Tuesday night, defeating one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, the Carolina Hurricanes, by a score of 3-0. It was a team effort from the Jets with a handful of standout performances, and maybe none more important than a video coach who had a major impact on the game.

Eric Comrie gets his first shutout of the season

Eric Comrie got the start, and he was perfect, stopping all 29 shots and recording his first shutout of the season.

“It feels great. It’s always fun to get a shutout. I mean I’m never going to complain about that,” Comrie said after the game.

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)

The Hurricanes had 30 scoring chances and 3.31 expected goals in this game according to Natural Stat Trick. While the Jets played a solid game in front of Comrie, this by no means was a shutdown performance, and Comrie had to make a few big stops on some incredibly talented players.

While the process had been right for Comrie, he had lost eight straight games and had only gotten 12 combined goals in those games from the team in front of him. Now he’s won two straight and is happy to see the results.

“Results are always fun to get, aren’t they?” Comrie said with a smile after the game. “We’re always worrying about the process to get the result. When you get the results you’ve got to make sure you celebrate results,”

Scott Arniel admitted after the game that Connor Hellebuyck will start on Friday night against the New York Islanders.

The Jets’ second power-play unit is red-hot

The Jets’ league-best (and historically good) power play was the difference once again last night, going 2/4 against the top penalty kill in the NHL in the Hurricanes, who were at 86.3% coming into last night’s game.

However, it wasn’t the top players that got it done, it was the second unit that accounted for both power-play goals. One from Nino Niederreiter on a great play on the entry from Alex Iafallo, and a blast of a slapshot from Neal Pionk on the other one.

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)

That’s now three straight games with a power play goal for the second unit, which has played a huge role in contributing to the NHL’s best power play.

“The mindset is that if it’s a faceoff, we’re attacking,” Head Coach Scott Arniel said after the game on his second unit. “If it’s an entry, we’re trying to attack. Once you get set, then you’re sort of going into the sequence. That group, they all can make plays and that’s what you’re seeing.”

We will have more on the historic power play that we are seeing later on Wednesday afternoon right here on Illegalcurve.com.

“He’s the Connor McDavid of video coaches”

There was a major behind-the-scenes element to Tuesday night’s game, as the Winnipeg Jets challenged, and won two separate video reviews.

Matt Prefontaine, video and analytics coach with the Winnipeg Jets, got plenty of credit from Comrie in the post-game, as Comrie went as far as to say that he is the “Connor McDavid of video coaches” in what was a hilarious soundbite.

“Matty’s the best in the business,” Comrie said with a wide grin. “When I was in Buffalo, our video coach there, we’re talking about Matty like he’s the greatest thing ever. He’s the Connor McDavid of video coaches. This is an actual conversation with video coach Justin White. He goes, ‘You know Matty Prefontaine? What’s he like as a guy, how good is he?’ I was like, OK, now I understand how good he is. When they had their analytics meeting, he’s the one leading the charge. He’s the best in the business. We’re lucky to have him.”

The biggest challenge was late in the game, as Rasmus Kupari had a goal waived off that would have made it 3-0 at the time. Leading 2-0, with 3:43 remaining in the third period, the Jets would have been on the penalty kill had that challenge been unsuccessful. They decided to challenge, and it paid off, as Kupari got his fifth goal of the season and the Jets held on to a 3-0 win.