The Winnipeg Jets kept things rolling this week with wins against the Columbus Blue Jackets and San Jose Sharks. They now sit with a 15-9-1 record – good for 31 points. Their away record improves to 9-4 and they are 6-1 on the road in the month of November thus far.
Things are looking a lot better for the Jets this month than the previous month and head coach Paul Maurice has the team playing some really solid hockey. They’re playing complete games and Maurice is getting strong performances from the forwards, defence, and goaltenders.
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This was a tough week to pick just three players as many had strong showings over the last three games. Honourable mentions go out to Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey, and David Gustafsson who registered his first career National Hockey League point, scoring the game-winning goal against the Sharks on Nov. 27.
3rd Star: Connor Hellebuyck
Connor Hellebuyck started the week with a rocky performance against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 21. He got beat for four goals against and he could not do enough to get the win after the Jets came back to tie the game at three.
Hellebuyck made a quick appearance in the game against the Blue Jackets after starting goaltender Laurent Brossoit had to leave due to muscle cramps. Hellebuyck stopped all five shots he faced and earned the win thanks to Andrew Copp’s late game-winning goal.
The highlight of the week for Hellebuyck came in the team’s 5-1 win over the Sharks on Nov. 28. He stopped 32 of 33 shots in that one while facing many high-danger chances. Everyone is wondering when this strong play by Hellebuyck will wear off but it looks like it could very well be a regular thing this season – similar to what we saw from him in the 2017-18 season.
2nd Star: Patrik Laine
Patrik Laine started the week off with a goal in Dallas against the Stars. He turned things up a notch in their most recent game against the Sharks, registering one goal and two assists. He ripped home a one-timer on the power play in that one and had many other good looks in-tight to the net.
Over the last three games, Laine has registered four points, seven shots on goal, five hits, and three blocked shots. His complete game is becoming a regular thing like what we are seeing from goaltender Hellebuyck. Everyone is wondering when Laine will go cold but even when he is not putting up big numbers on the scoresheet he is still doing some really good things away from the puck.
1st Star: Andrew Copp
Copp has been one of the hottest Jets as of late and he kept that going into this week. He registered one goal and two assists over the last three games, including his game-winner against the Blue Jackets that I mentioned earlier.
He went plus-three in that game on Nov. 23 and added three shots on goal, two hits, and one blocked shot in 19:59 of ice time.
Copp has seen a heavy increase in average ice time per game over the last two weeks and he has points in seven of his last 10 games played. Even when he has a quiet night on the scoresheet you know he is shutting players down defensively. He and Adam Lowry are becoming real solid defensive players that Maurice keeps relying on more and more.
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Copp has earned the first star of the week to finish things off and he now sits in fourth place amongst my list of players for season totals.
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 Hellebuyck still leading the way and not slowing down.
- Connor Hellebuyck: 16 points
- Nikolaj Ehlers: 10 points
- Patrik Laine: 5 points
- Andrew Copp: 4 points
- Mark Scheifele: 3 points
- Kyle Connor: 2 points
- Bryan Little: 2 points
- Jack Roslovic: 2 points
- Mathieu Perreault: 1 point
- Ville Heinola: 1 point
- Josh Morrissey: 1 point
- Adam Lowry: 1 point
