The Winnipeg Jets are scoring by committee and it’s helped them not only survive, but thrive, since sniper Kyle Connor went down with injury nearly a month ago.
Connor Goes Down, Jets Go Streaking
Connor, who was injured Dec. 10 after the Anaheim Ducks’ Ryan Strome hit him knee on knee, had 17 goals in 26 games and still leads the team in that category. After it was announced he would be out six to eight weeks, questions rightfully arose about where the offence would come for a team that was just starting to excel.
It turns out, the answer is from everyone. In the 10 games Connor has missed, the Jets are 7-1-2, are currently riding a nine-game point streak, and have 36 goals (3.6 per game.)
Related: Jets’ Top 3 Performers From December
What’s even more impressive is how many different players they’ve gotten those tallies from. Their increased forward depth — something GM Kevin Cheveldayoff worked hard to bolster in the offseason — is shining and everyone’s taking their turn lighting the lamp, as the list below shows.
Goals since Connor’s injury
- Gabriel Vilardi — 6
- Nino Niederreiter — 5
- Nikolaj Ehlers — 5
- Mark Scheifele — 3
- Alex Iafallo — 3
- Morgan Barron — 2
- Axel Jonsson-Fjallby — 2
- Vladislav Namestnikov — 2
- Adam Lowry — 2
- Six Others — 1 each
You know you’re doing well when an opposing coach acknowledges your balanced attack.
“They’ve all got belief in their system. They get timely goals, the big thing is that both goalies stand pretty tall for them and I think they’re pretty well balanced all the way through, to be honest,” longtime Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said prior to the clubs’ clash on Jan. 2. “What’s impressive to me is you pull Connor out of the lineup and they haven’t really missed a beat. That’s probably a sign of a pretty darn good team.” (From ‘Jets complete season sweep of Lightning with 4-2 win,’ Winnipeg Free Press, Jan. 2, 2023.)
Indeed, the Jets are looking like a darn good team — if not a total wagon — as they are 23-9-4 and battling for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference nearing the halfway point of the 2023-24 season.
Top Line Cools After Christmas, Second and Third Lines Steps Up
The new-look top line of Ehlers, Scheifele, and Vilardi were the first to carry the offensive mail after Connor went down. They had a dominant five-game stretch prior to the Christmas break, combining for 12 goals (63 per cent of the Jets’ tallies in those games) and 13 assists for 25 points and putting up ridiculous underlying numbers.
Related: Jets’ Top Line of Ehlers, Scheifele, & Vilardi Dominating
That line has cooled down since, with Scheifele and Vilardi going without a point in the four games since the Christmas break and Ehlers recording just one (a goal against the Lightning.) However, the second and third lines have stepped up in a big way.
The second-line trio of Cole Perfetti, Namestnikov, and Iafallo has picked up the most slack (especially in the past four games.) Namestnikov has two goals and six assists since Connor’s injury, while Perfetti has one goal and five assists.
Namestnikov, a versatile centre who right now is proving he can play up the lineup and make his teammates better, “settles in with whoever he plays with,” head coach Rick Bowness said recently, and is now on pace to record nearly 50 points this season. Cheveldayoff got him for just a fourth-round pick — that’s larceny for someone Bowness said he “trust(s) in every situation.”
Iafallo, who went through a 13-game pointless streak from mid-November through mid-December after a scorching offensive start, is also finding the scoresheet again, with three goals and an assist.
The third line, meanwhile, is proving to be one of the best “bottom six” lines in the NHL and is the most offensively adept third line in Jets 2.0 history. Niederreiter, fresh off signing a three-year extension last month, is excelling on the wing and providing the Jets tremendous return on the second-round pick they sent the Nashville Predators last February to get him. He leads the third line in scoring with five goals and an assist since Connor’s injury.
Meanwhile, captain Adam Lowry — who is known more for his ruggedness than his offensive ability, although he does have some offensive upside — has two goals and one assist and recently scored his 100th-career goal. Mason Appleton hasn’t scored since Connor’s injury but has four assists.
Fourth Line Riding Four-Game Goal Streak
Jets’ fourth lines of past seasons have been offensive black holes, but the current combination of Barron, Dominic Toninato, and Jonsson-Fjallby are ensuring the team remains a threat to score when they’re on the ice.
The trio — put together after usual fourth-liner David Gustafsson suffered an injury — have produced a goal in each of their four games together and have been relentless on the forecheck in all zones, leading to nice results.
Barron has two goals and two assists (one goal was an empty netter against the Lightning but the fact the fourth line was out at such a crucial moment against a strong opponent shows the faith Bowness has in them,) Jonsson-Fjallby has one goal and one assist, and Toninato has one goal and three assists in his first four NHL games of the season.
It shows how much the Jets’ culture has improved that a player such as Toninato — who had spent his entire season up to last week either with the Manitoba Moose or as the Jets’ extra forward — can jump onto a line and mesh immediately.
“He knows what he has to do to help this team win,” Bowness said of Toninato. “Play his game. That’s why he’s here. We won’t expect him to try to do too much out there. Just, ‘This is what you do well to help us win. The team comes first and winning is all that matters.’ And he buys into that every time.”
Jets Don’t Need to Rush Connor Back
Although the Jets would certainly like Connor — their best pure goal scorer — back in the lineup, they don’t have to rush him. He’s been skating recently, but his injury timeline of six-to-eight weeks remains.
The Jets are not only producing enough without him, they’re also historically stingy. Thanks to stellar goaltending from Connor Hellebuyck — who was named the NHL’s third star of December — and Laurent Brossoit and a renewed commitment to team defence, the Jets have allowed three or fewer goals in 26 straight games (a two-month span.)
“This team is committed, this team is a smart hockey team, they are,” Bowness said after beating the Lightning 4-2. “We’re playing the right way for the most part, and they see it as well as I do. They’re pros. They know.”
“When we got our legs going and started to play Winnipeg Jet hockey, when we get committed to that, there’s not a team in this league we can’t beat,” he continued later.
If the Jets can continue to score by committee and keep up their stout defensive structure, they should still be in a good spot when Connor returns (most likely just after the All-Star Break.) They have 11 games before then, followed by a nine-day break.
