Connor Hellebuyck made his return to the Winnipeg Jets lineup Saturday night. Winnipeg defeated Washington Capitals, 5-1, at the Canada Life Centre. It was the
best game played by the Jets so far this season. Hellebuyck was originally slated to need four to six weeks return timeline from his minor knee surgery.
Instead, he made his return in three weeks. The defending Hart and Vezina winner looked to be in fine form.
Silver Stick: 1,000 games for Nino
Nino Niederreiter played in his 1,000th NHL game on Saturday night. He is the first Swiss-born player to attain the coveted Silver Stick milestone. There was a nice pregame ceremony to honour him with a video tribute. The video included a special message from Tennis legend Roger Federer.
Congratulations go out to Niederreiter on a great accomplishment.
Jets finally get healthy
It took 31 games into the regular season for the Jets to finally ice a fully healthy lineup. The result of Saturday’s game was more in line with style of play of the President’s Trophy winning team from last year.
Winnipeg did not give up much defensively. When they did, Hellebuyck was there to shut the door. If not for a late 5-on-3 goal by Jakob Chychrun, Hellebuyck likely would have completed a shutout.
Jets reunite the Scheifele line
Scott Arniel put the top line back together in this game. The recent attempt to spread the wealth met with limited success. The reunited top trio combined for six points.
Gabe Vilardi scored two goals. One came on the power play. Vilardi and Mark Scheifele are now tied for the team lead with 16 goals apiece. Kyle Connor is right behind them with 15 goals. The line remains one of the highest scoring trios in the NHL.
There’s a lesson to be learned here. When one thrives, leave it alone. The desire to split up the line in order to spread the offensive production more often serves to create a weakened version of that line. Meanwhile, team scoring on the whole doesn’t necessarily spike, either.
Build a second line that clicks. Don’t weaken the one that’s the most reliable trio.
Secondary scoring
In addition to the top line buzzing, the Jets finally got some much-needed secondary scoring against a quality opponent. The newly formed line of Morgan Barron-Adam Lowry-Alex Iafallo scored twice.
The Jets also got another goal from Logan Stanley. He has now scored five goals on the year. Coming into this season, he had never scored more than one goal in any previous season. If the Jets were to become sellers at the trade deadline, he may bring back a solid return as he is a free agent on July 1.
Central Division got tougher
If the Central division wasn’t already the toughest division in the league with perennial powers like the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars, it just got even tougher. On Saturday, the Minnesota Wild acquired superstar offensive defenceman Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks.
Although it had been anticipated for a while that Vancouver would eventually trade Hughes, the timing came as a surprise. Meanwhile, most analysts believed Hughes would be traded to the Eastern Conference.
Hughes is 18 months away from UFA status. Time will tell if the Wild are able to extend him long term.(That’s far from certain). Meanwhile, the Jets’ path to climb back to the top of the Central Division standings just got more difficult.
Next up for the Jets: Ottawa
Winnipeg is right back in action Monday night. The team finishes its four-game homestand with a match against the Ottawa Senators. The game will be televised on Amazon Prime.
