Where did the Winnipeg Jets’ offense come from this season?
The incredible start for the Winnipeg Jets continues.
Following a 1-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche, the team that knocked them out of last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Jets became just the second team in NHL history to started 13-1. There is no question it has been an impressive start. Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck is playing well and, surprisingly enough, Winnipeg’s offense is one of the best in the league.
Through 14 games, the Jets have scored 63 goals as a team, far beyond the rest of the NHL. Kyle Connor is off to a terrific start with 19 points, while Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers are also putting up big number with 18 and 17 points respectively.
On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk explain what has been so impressive about the Jets through the first month of the season.
Frank Seravalli: Where the heck did this offense come from? This is mostly the same collection of players that was there last year. I’m looking at this [forward group], was there even one player that wasn’t there last year? They didn’t have this kind of success last year, offensively, their power play really struggled. This is a massive change. So, either this is a team that’s on an incredible heater that will regress, they’ve got 20 more goals than the average NHL team so far this year…We’ve only played 13-14 games, that’s bananas.
They don’t have one of the league leaders in goals, they don’t have one of the league leaders in points. They’ve got 10 guys that have already hit double digits in points. It’s insanse to see what this team offensively has done. Look, will there be some kind of regression? Yes, absolutely. We know there will be, but right now I have the Jets in my Inner Circle.
Tyler Yaremchuk: They could have as much as $8.5 million in cap space at the trade deadline…With that cap space you can go and have the luxury of adding guys without having to add a third-party broker…they can still do some damage.
Frank: I think they’re really well-prepared, no matter which way they want to play it. I don’t know how much tinkering you want to do right now…I think sometimes teams get twisted in terms of having to absolutely feel like they have to go out and do something, I don’t know how much it really increases your chances to win.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…