The Winnipeg Jets have won a franchise-record 10 games in a row and continue to sit in first place in the Western Conference and entire NHL. Now sporting a ridiculous 41-14-3 record, they have not lost a game in more than a calendar month.
Here, we’ll dive into five takeaways from their 10-game winning streak.
1: Jets Find Ways to Overcome Adversity to Win
The Jets have not played their best hockey during every single game of the streak, but have found ways to win.
The past two contests are perfect examples. Both nights, they laughed in the face of defeat by digging deep to score the tying goal with less than 30 seconds to go with their goalie pulled and then winning in extra time. They are the first team in NHL history to do that in consecutive games.
First, it was Gabriel Vilardi knotting things at 3-3 with 27 second left in Saturday’s game against the St. Louis Blues. The goal came a few minutes after the Blues scored in the first half of a four-minute power play to take a 3-2 lead. The Jets won in a shootout.
Then, not to be outdone, it was Josh Morrissey finally beating San Jose Sharks goaltender Vitek Vanecek — who had stoned them all night to the tune of 31 saves — with 25.9 seconds left to tie Monday’s game 1-1. The Jets won in overtime on Mark Scheifele’s franchise-record-setting 329th goal.
There is a fine line between victory and defeat and the Jets have become experts at knowing where that line is and finding a way to stay on the right side of it. They have won in overtime or a shootout four times in the streak (also winning in overtime against the Colorado Avalanche in the first game of the streak Jan. 22 and against the Washington Capitals on Feb. 1.)
The four extra-time wins, along with with the 4-3 regulation win over the New York Islanders on Feb. 7 to go into the 4 Nations Face-Off break on a strong note, means half their wins in the streak are by a one-goal margin. It’s this ability to come through in the tight ones and use their depth that may be the most-encouraging signs they are finally ready for a long playoff run.
2: 4 Nations Face-Off Has Benefitted Jets For a Number of Reasons
Speaking of the 4 Nations, there was some debate as to whether the 15-day hiatus would benefit the Jets or be a momentum killer. It now appears it came at a perfect time.
The 15-day break cut down the number of games Adam Lowry missed with an upper-body injury to eight. The Jets’ captain suffered the ailment against the Utah Hockey Club on Jan. 20 but was able to return for the first game out of the break against the Blues. While the Jets leaned on their depth to power them to eight-straight wins without Lowry, they’re a more complete team — and more difficult to play against — with their stalwart third-line centre.
It’s a similar story with Morgan Barron, who has missed the past six games with an upper body injury he suffered when dishing out a huge hit on Kirby Dach on Jan. 28, but would have missed more not for the break. He could return as early as Wednesday, head coach Scott Arniel said Monday.
How the 4 Nations shook out for Kyle Connor and Morrissey should give them some extra motivation to raise their games even higher down the stretch.
Related: Reviewing Jets Players’ 4 Nations Face-Off Performances
Connor, despite having 30 goals and 69 points entering the 4 Nations to lead the Jets and sit tied for sixth in points league wide, played a limited role on USA head coach Mike Sullivan’s squad. He received bottom-six minutes and was controversially scratched for the final in favour of Chris Kreider, who had 49 fewer points at the time. The scratch was even more curious considering Matthew Tkachuk’s ongoing injury that forced him to leave the final early.
“For sure, frustrating. I felt I could have made an impact, obviously,” Connor said of being sat for the final. “The tournament, personally, wasn’t what I forecasted. Stuff like that happens, it’s such a short tournament. They went a different route. I’m proud to be a part of that team. It’s a learning experience. Something that motivates you to get better and get back on that stage and know that you can make a difference.” (From ‘Scheifele’s OT heroics set franchise goal-scoring record,’ Winnipeg Free Press, Feb. 24, 2025.)
Morrissey came down with a nasty flu bug on the morning of the final and was unable to play or even leave his hotel room. In a testament to just how meaningful the 4 Nations was to the participants, Morrissey said it was “crushing” for him to miss “the biggest game of (his) life.”
3: Hellebuyck’s Been Great, But Comrie Deserves His Flowers Too
It’s no surprise Connor Hellebuyck, the runaway favourite to win his third Vezina and also a potential Hart Trophy candidate, has been good during the streak, with seven wins and only 15 goals against. However, backup Eric Comrie also deserves his flowers.
Comrie has picked up three wins in the streak — against the Calgary Flames on Jan. 26, Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 4, and the Blues on Saturday — and only allowed five goals in those three starts to improve his record to 6-7-1, goals against average to 2.59, save percentage to .910, and goals saved above expected to 3.3. His shutout against the Hurricanes was his first since 2022-23.
There were some concerns about Comrie coming into this season considering he struggled with the Buffalo Sabres last season while Laurent Brossoit was playing lights out behind Hellebuyck, but Comrie has been more than serviceable.
His 3-7-1 record prior to his personal three-game winning streak was more due to the lack of scoring in front of him than his play. Prior to the victory over Flames, the team seemed to forget how to score in front of Comrie, potting just 12 goals during his personal seven-game losing streak. They have scored 12 in his past three starts, more in line with their 3.57 goal per game average this season.
The Jets have 24 games to go and Comrie will have a role to play in the chase to win the Western Conference. Hellebuyck has already started 44 games for the Jets plus three at the 4 Nations, and Arniel needs to make sure his number-one goalie is not burnt out by the time playoffs come around. If Arniel wants to avoid the mistake his predecessors made of riding Hellebuyck too hard, he will give Comrie eight to 10 more starts.
4: Special Teams Are Clicking Enough
The Jets’ revamped and now-formidable power play hasn’t struck for a goal in the past three, going zero for six, but that is just a blip in what’s been impressive season-long showings by each unit. In the first seven games of the streak, they went seven for 17 and still own a league-leading 32.89 per cent efficiency on the season; they lead the league in power-play goals with 51 despite having the 14th-fewest power-play opportunities.
Related: What’s Behind the Jets’ Lack of Power-Play Opportunities?
Unlike the power play, the Jets’ penalty kill has not been elite this season, consistently sitting in the middle of the pack, but has been good enough in the streak to not be a liability. They have gone 19 for 24 for a 79.14 per cent efficiency, right in line with their 79.33 per cent efficiency on the season (better than last season’s 77.13 per cent.)
A contending team wants their combined power-play and penalty-killing percentages to equal 100 or greater, and the Jets’ currently sits at 112.03.
5: Franchise-Long Winning Streak Is Partly Result of One Bad Night & Perfectly Timed Call-Out by Arniel
The last time the Jets lost, 5-2 against Utah on Jan. 20, they put it an uninspired and sloppy performance. Although that type of no-show non-effort was atypical of his club to that point, head coach Scott Arniel called them out anyway.
“That was embarrassing,” a spitting-mad Arniel said after the game. “That was, of all the games this year, that was the most embarrassing game for me, for our players. I take full credit I gotta be the one that holds these guys accountable and make sure we’re better. That was embarrassing. From top to bottom, we did a horseshit job.”
A head coach can only pull the “put-your-team-on-blast-publicly” move out of the playbook a few times per season as that type of scorched-earth messaging either gets stale fast or is simply ignored by a lazy team. In this case, though, it worked to perfection.
The Jets’ culture under Arniel, Lowry, and the leadership group is strong and proud, and that’s why Arniel’s tactic worked. They recognized their coach was right in his assessment and responded in the right way, first in word, and then in deed by coming out with a much better effort two nights later against the Avalanche to begin the streak.
That’s a true testament to how mature this group is compared to even two seasons ago, when everyone got their hackles up and shirked responsibility after former head coach Rick Bowness said he was “disappointed and disgusted” with them after they got lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in first round of the 2023 playoffs and no-showed in the elimination Game 5.
The rebuild that seemed inevitable after that 2023 series loss never had to happen as an on-the-fly-retool has the Jets looking like a serious wagon this season. They’ll aim for their 11th-straight win Wednesday in Ottawa against the Senators.