Winnipeg Jets 2016-17: Evaluating games 71-80

After the first 70 games of the season the Jets were sporting a 30-33-7 record.  In the eighth segment of ten games the Jets have put up their best block of ten going 8-2-0 to give them an overall record of 38-35-7 on the season, which includes five straight wins.  Broken down as follows:

Games 01-10:  4-6-0
Games 11-20:  5-3-2
Games 21-30: 4-5-1
Games 31-40: 5-5-0
Games 41-50: 4-5-1
Games 51-60: 4-5-1
Games 61-70: 4-4-2
Games 71-80: 8-2-0

Goal scoring:

Games 01-10: Laine (6), Scheifele (5), Wheeler (3), Ehlers (2), Matthias (2),  Myers (2).
Games 11-20: Laine (12), Scheifele (10), Wheeler (6), Lowry (5), Ehlers (4), Dano (3).
Games 21-30: Laine (17), Scheifele (14), Wheeler (8), Lowry (6), Ehlers (4), Copp (4).
Games 31-40: Laine (20), Scheifele (16), Ehlers (12), Wheeler (11), Lowry (7), Little (6).
Games 41-50: Laine (21), Scheifele (21), Ehlers (17), Wheeler (15), Little (10), Lowry (7).
Games 51-60: Laine (27), Scheifele (25), Ehlers (19), Wheeler (17), Little (16), Lowry (10).
Games 61-70: Laine (33), Scheifele (28), Ehlers (22), Wheeler (21), Little (18), Lowry (11).
Games 71-80: Laine (36), Scheifele (31), Ehlers (25), Wheeler (25), Little (20), Lowry (15).

Another consistent block of ten games for the Jets group of five who have essentially led this team in scoring all season long.  As Blake Wheeler has said a number of times this season, putting the puck in the opposition net isn’t a problem for this Jets team.  Patrik Laine was in a bit of a “slump” but ended with a two goal game to maintain his lead in this category.  Mark Scheifele scored his 30th goal against the Ducks which was the first time in his career that he has hit the 30 goal plateau.  Nikolaj Ehlers 24th goal of the season gave the sophomore forward 100 points in 151 NHL games, a total he increased in game 80.  Adam Lowry, who has been good down the home stretch, also added four goals.

Goaltending:

After seeing Connor Hellebuyck for the entire last block of ten games coach Maurice actually gave Michael Hutchinson the majority of the starts and he was certainly rewarded for that faith as the backup secured more wins in this block of ten than he had in all of the previous seven blocks of ten combined.

Connor Hellebuyck:
1-10:  2 wins, 3 losses, .914 save %, 2.63 GAA
11-20:  5 wins, 2 losses, .906 save%, 2.55 GAA
21-30: 3 wins, 4 losses, 1 SOL, .911 save %, 2.81 GAA
31-40: 4 wins, 3 losses, .903 save %, 3.01 GAA
41-50: 2 wins, 1 loss, .899 save %, 3.25 GAA
51-60: 2 wins, 2 losses, 1 OTL, .920 save %, 2.70 GAA
61-70: 4 wins, 3 losses, 1 OTL, .891 save %, 3.46 GAA
71-80: 3 wins, 1 loss, .896 save %, 3.37 GAA

Overall: 25 wins, 19 losses, 2 OTL, 1 SOL, .906 save %, 2.93 GAA

Michael Hutchinson:
1-10:  2 wins, 3 losses, .906 save %, 3.09 GAA
11-20:  0 wins, 1 loss, 2 OTL, .888 save %, 3.59 GAA
21-30: 1 win, 1 loss, .920 save %, 1.83 GAA
31-40: 1 win, 2 losses, .875 save %, 3.95GAA
41-50: 0 wins, 3 losses, 1 OTL, .895 save %, 3.44 GAA
51-60: Did not play.
61-70: 0 wins, 1 loss, .875 save %, 3.31 GAA
71-80: 5 wins, 1 loss,  .935 save %, 1.86 GAA

Overall: 9 wins, 12 losses, 3 OTL, .903 save%, 2.92 GAA

Ondrej Pavelec:
41-50:  2 wins, 1 loss, .907 save%, 3.05 GAA
51-60:  2 wins, 3 losses..875 save %, 3.88 GAA
61-70:  Did not play.

Overall:  4 wins, 4 loss, .888 save%, 3.55 GAA

Special teams:

The Jets had made some changes to the structure of their special teams before this block of ten began and when it comes to the power play they saw some improvement climbing from 23rd in the NHL up to 21st.  However the penalty kill didn’t see any boost remaining at 28th overall in the NHL although they did manage to stay out of the box more than usual which is a good trend.

Penalty kill:

Games 1-10:  7/36
Games 11-10: 5/32
Games 21-30: 11/41
Games 31-40: 11/36
Games 41-50: 6/34
Games 51-60: 6/23
Games 61-70: 10/40
Games 71-80: 5/27

Power play:

Games 1-10:  5/44
Games 11-20: 6/27
Games 21-30: 4/29
Games 31-40: 7/29
Games 41-50: 7/32
Games 51-60: 5/28
Games 61-70: 5/35
Games 71-80: 7/34

Injuries:

This block of ten began with Shawn Matthias getting injured in game 71 which turned out to be a pre-existing labral tear that he ended up having to deal with via surgery which ended his season.  It seemed like the entire Jets D core were out with injury which ended up necessitating calls down to the Moose to get some of the available defenceman to fill in.  In game 72 Ben Chiarot was having himself a nice little Sunday before he was injured in the 3rd period and listed with an upper-body injury that was labelled day-to-day but he has yet to play for the Jets.  With news that Paul Postma wasn’t healing quickly, the decision was made to have hernia surgery (on both sides) for the blueliner.  This had been preceded by Tobias Enstrom also having his season ended with knee surgery.  While Tyler Myers took the road trip with the Jets it seems unlikely that he will play before the end of the season.

To date this season the Jets have lost 337 man games to injury.