Next day takeaways: 4 thoughts as the Winnipeg Jets dominate the Canucks 6-1

Looking to build off of Saturday’s 3-0 win over the Avalanche, the Winnipeg Jets welcomed the Vancouver Canucks to town on Tuesday evening and ran away with this game early. Kyle Connor scored a hat trick in the first period as the Jets took home a 6-1 win, as they are the first team in the NHL to reach the 30-win mark this season.

Kyle Connor is coming for his career-high in goals

Kyle Connor scored a natural hat trick to begin the game, scoring three goals in a span of 6:38. Winnipeg jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never looked back. 

At the time of his third goal, he had more goals (3) than the Canucks had shots (2). Connor’s third goal was an incredible move on a breakaway, one that Scott Arniel was jealous of. 

“I was always jealous because you hear about those skill guys, those great players, they say it’s like they slow down and go in slow motion. I was the opposite.” Arniel said. “My brain was going 100 miles an hour. But it’s exactly what they say. He’s thinking about probably three different moves that he might try.”

With this performance, Kyle Connor is in a position to take a run at his previous career-high in goals. His career high is 47, which he reached in 2021-22, and that’s the same number he is on pace for this season. 

Per @NHLStats on X, Connor’s hat trick was the second-fastest hat trick to begin a game in Jets/Thrashers history, following Sean Monahan, who scored three goals in the first 11:24 of a game on Feb 19, 2024. 

Connor has been playing the best hockey of his career, not only on the offensive end, where he’s on pace for a career-high 107 points, but also on the defensive end. 

Gabriel Vilardi is due for a major raise this offseason

Gabriel Vilardi is playing his way into a major raise this offseason as a pending RFA. On this night, he matched his previous career-high in points (41) in 18 fewer games than it took in the 2022-23 season.

He’s now up to 19 goals and 22 assists on the season, which is an 82-game of 34 goals and 40 assists. 

Not only is he making high-talent-level plays leading to scoring chances and goals, but he’s also dynamic on the forecheck with knocking pucks down, as Scott Arniel mentioned in the post-game.  

“Yeah. I don’t know if he played baseball or not but he has good hand-eye, that’s for sure,” Arniel said. “We’ve talked often about him. In tight areas, he can make plays. You saw that goal in New York where he knocked it out of the air and made that great play to Fly. You see lots of it. Again, another guy that has a skill set that it’s hard to teach.”

Ehlers/Lowry duo has earned a longer look

Between their dominance over the Avalanche on Saturday against Nathan MacKinnon, and their strong play on Tuesday night against Elias Pettersson, the Ehlers-Lowry-Iafallo trio is making a strong case to remain the Jets’ second-line for an extended stretch. 

With Adam Lowry playing his usual shutdown role, and Nikolaj Ehlers leaning into his transition and skating strengths, it’s clear that this duo has the potential to be a force at five-on-five. With Mason Appleton and Vladislav Namestnikov hurt up front, it will be interesting to see how Arniel handles his bench upon those players’ return. 

With two strong performances in a row, this line has earned a longer look, which could open up more opportunities down the lineup, such as Nino Niederreiter and Cole Perfetti playing together…

Cole Perfetti hits 100 career points

With his second assist of the game on Nino Niederreiter’s tally to make it 5-0, Cole Perfetti recorded his 100th point in his 185th career game. It took Kyle Connor 178 games, Mark Scheifele 173, and Nikolaj Ehlers 159 to each hit 100 points. The 23-year-old Perfetti is a few games behind the pace that Scheifele and Connor reached the milestone at, and that bodes well for his future success.  

Perfetti has been in a points slump as of late, as he snapped a nine-game pointless streak with a two-goal performance on this night. It was one of his best performances of the past month alongside Nino Niederretier and Rasmus Kupari on the third line. 

Arniel mentioned after the game that Perfetti’s details have been right as of late, and his being rewarded with a two-assist night tonight was a product of that. 

“As I mentioned this morning, last year he went through a stretch where he was having a tough time, whether it was scoring or getting points and it felt like he was getting farther and farther away from the net. Now, he’s staying in the fight and he’s winning a lot of his one-on-one confrontations or battles and again, he’s making plays, getting in there and when he does that, that’s when he’s at his best.”

It is also worth noting that with Ehlers and Perfetti apart from one another, both players have played strong in their minutes. Limited sample, but similar to the Ehlers and Lowry duo, the Jets would be wise to explore the Niederreiter and Perfetti duo further given their limited success.  

Up next

There are two games remaining on this homestand for the Jets, Thursday against the Seattle Kraken and Saturday against the Calgary Flames. Stay tuned to Illegalcurve.com for all the latest news regarding the Jets and Moose throughout the week.