It was one of the worst weeks the Winnipeg Jets have had in quite some time, going 1-2 and getting absolutely dominated in their most recent game against the Carolina Hurricanes. The defensive zone breakdowns the team has been having problems with are starting to rear their heads a lot more as of late.
The Jets have given up 14 goals in their last three games and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is seeing his numbers slowly dip. That is not to say the goals against are solely his fault – there were many issues that took place prior to a lot of the goals – if anything, Hellebuyck made the games he was in that much closer.
Related: Jets Weekly: Scheifele, Hellebuyck, Perreault & More
With that said, let’s get started with another edition of “Jets’ 3 Stars of the Week” – we have a new appearance for the first star this week; this player has not made this list yet this season.
Third Star: Kyle Connor
Kyle Connor finished the three-game slate with three goals and one assist. His best performance came last Thursday in the Jets’ 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings where he notched both of the team’s goals and fired eight shots on net. He was named the second star of the game in that one for his stellar play.
Connor now has 31 points on the season which is currently third-best on the team behind Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine. He currently has 114 shots on goal this season which is tops on the Jets – Nikolaj Ehlers is second with 99 shots on goal.
Second Star: Mark Scheifele
Scheifele continued his strong play from last week with another solid set of games this week. He tallied two goals and four assists over the three games and was able to register a point in each contest. His best performance came against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday where he scored one goal on one shot and added two assists.
Scheifele currently leads the Jets with a shooting percentage of 19 percent. He as the most game-winning goals so far with five on the season and he is second in power-play points to defenseman Neal Pionk.
The 26-year-old is currently on a seven-game point streak and he is shooting the puck with a ton of confidence over the last few weeks.
First Star: Blake Wheeler
This is the first appearance on “Jets’ 3 Stars of the Week” for the captain Blake Wheeler. He has turned his play up a few notches this past week and is getting noticed for his efforts. He finished the tough week with one goal and four assists with three of those points coming on the power play.
I really liked both his and his lines effort in their most recent game against the Hurricanes on Tuesday. Wheeler finished with two assists in that contest and operated at 56.52 Corsi For Percentage (CF%). His line finished the game with a CF% of 59.09 at even strength. To put that into comparison, the top line of Scheifele, Laine, and Connor operated at a CF% just 39.29 in the 6-3 loss.
Related: Jets’ 3 Stars of the Week: Dec. 5-11
Wheeler is climbing his way back up the stat sheet and currently sits 28 points through 34 games played. In his last 11 games, he has racked up 16 points and a plus-six rating.
Season Totals
We are going to be keeping a tally on who earns player of the week throughout the 2019-20 season – first star gets you three points, second star gets you two points, and third star gets you one point. Here is our current total thus far with Scheifele continuing to gain ground on the top two leaders.
- Connor Hellebuyck: 20 points
- Nikolaj Ehlers: 13 points
- Mark Scheifele: 8 points
- Patrik Laine: 5 points
- Andrew Copp: 4 points
- Kyle Connor: 4 points
- Blake Wheeler: 3 points
- Bryan Little: 2 points
- Jack Roslovic: 2 points
- Neal Pionk: 1 point
- Mathieu Perreault: 1 point
- Josh Morrissey: 1 point
- Adam Lowry: 1 point
- Ville Heinola: 1 point
