How the Winnipeg Jets have managed to shut down Nathan MacKinnon this season

Frank Seravalli was joined by Jon Goyens to discuss how the Winnipeg Jets were able to shut down the Colorado Avalanche this season on the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live.

Frank Seravalli: Jon, look it’s a fascinating turn of events for the Winnipeg Jets. They were a team that have been counted out by many and they have now rallied in the last couple weeks of the season and have flipped what had been a significant advantage for the Colorado Avalanche this season with their home record. And the Jets are gunning for home ice advantage with the Winnipeg whiteout. So when you take a look at the season series and how lopsided it’s been, it’s been incredible, the Jets have a 3-0 advantage and a significant advantage on the scoreboard with their 7-0 win over the weekend.

How have the Jets outscored Colorado, which is the number one scoring team in the league, by such a wide margin (17-4)?

Jon Goyens: Team, team, team. Five guys on the same page every single shift. This is a team that’s been counted out for the last few years ever since their D-core went from being a D-core everyone wanted to the D-core that would lose player after player every year. And then a change in captaincy and all kinds of stuff. Now you see a team that plays such a full team game and as we look at some of the other stats to go along with the head-to-head.

It’s the crazy stats like the 17 goals for versus four for Colorado, they’re outscoring them 12-3 at 5v5, odd-man rushes are in Winnipeg’s favour, power play and penalty kill are also significantly in Winnipeg’s favour. So how are they doing this? It’s called catching Colorado “cheating”, it seems like all of Colorado’s rushes are all or nothing so the Jets are able to capitalize on those.

You can watch the rest of the episode here: