The Winnipeg Jets won 52 games this season, only the second time they have reached the 50-win plateau in the 2.0 era.
Every win’s a good thing, obviously but ultimately, the details of most of them will be forgotten. However, other won’t leave the collective mind of Jets fans so easily, whether that was due to a great individual performance, all-around team domination, or the matchup living up to the hype going into it.
It was not easy to decide on just five victories to highlight, but here, we’ll take a look at what were, in this author’s opinion, the Top 5 Jets games of 2023-24.
5: Toffoli Scores First Goals as a Jet in Duck Hunt — March 15, 2024
Tyler Toffoli, acquired from the New Jersey Devils at the trade deadline, hadn’t recorded a point as a Jet through two games. However, against the Anaheim Ducks in a sold-out Friday night matchup, he potted his first two goals with the team and sent Canada Life Centre into a frenzy in the process.
The 31 year old Toffoli, tapped by head coach Rick Bowness to play right wing on the second line with Sean Monahan and a rotating cast of wingers, had no points through his first eight periods but received a standing ovation after his pair of tallies in the third period. The Jets entered the final frame leading 3-0 thanks to goals from Kyle Connor in the first, Nate Schmidt in the second, and a Dylan DeMelo blast in the third.
First, Toffoli activated off a Monahan faceoff win and ripped a shot past John Gibson’s glove side to make the score 4-0.
Then, a few minutes later, lit the lamp on the power play in net-front role he took over from Gabriel Vilardi, who was out indefinitely with both an undisclosed injury and an enlarged spleen at the time. Toffoli, who is known for his nose for the net, went straight to the front of the blue paint and redirected a hard pass from Mark Scheifele home.
The author, who was in attendance, can testify the ovation for Toffoli may have been the loudest the downtown arena has been all season, with the scoreboard decibel-level reader displaying a high of 111.9. Mason Appleton scored a “bonus” goal with six seconds left to give the Jets a half-dozen tallies on the night, and Laurent Brossoit stopped all 21 shots he faced for his second-straight shutout.
4: Scheifele, Vilardi Lead Charge as Jets Down Canucks in Marquee Matchup — Feb. 17, 2024
Under the bright Saturday-night prime-time lights, the Jets put on a shining display after a sputtering stretch.
The Jets entered the matchup in Vancouver against the Canucks winners two straight, but did not win convincingly in either game. They’d squeaked out 2-1 and 1-0 victories over the Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose Sharks after a five-game losing streak that had many wondering if the seemingly-annual second-half slump had arrived; the Jets seemed in tough to extend the streak to three against the Pacific-Division leading Canucks in enemy territory.
The Jets’ power play, which was zero-for-21 in its previous eight games, came through for two second-period goals to erase an early second-period deficit. First, Vilardi took a pass from Scheifele and tucked a nifty backhander home from his office. Then, Monahan finished off a picture-perfect tic-tac-toe play with Scheifele and Vilardi for the second man-advantage marker of the frame. It was Monahan’s first goal and point since being acquired from the Montreal Canadiens earlier in the month.
The Scheifele and Vilardi duo put the team their back in the third after Tyler Myers tied the game late in the second. They scored the go-ahead goal thanks to Scheifele selflessly taking a big hit along the offensive blue line’s side boards to get the puck to Connor, who zipped it to Vilardi for an easy net-front tap in. Scheifele scored a goal of his own less than two minutes later on a sweet give and go with Connor to make the score 4-2; Connor Hellebuyck kept the Canucks off the scoresheet the rest of the way.
“Our specialty teams came through for us tonight finally and they won a big game for us,” head coach Rick Bowness said after the game. “It’s nice to see the power play get a couple because we all know we’ve been in a bit of a drought there, and the penalty killers were outstanding (going four-for-four in the game), and (Hellebuyck) made the big saves and we got the timely goals.”
The win seemed to restore some of the Jets’ mojo as they won seven of their next 10 games.
3: Jets Orchestrate Third-Period Comeback in Carolina — March 2, 2024
Losing 3-0 after the second to one of the Metropolitan Division’s top teams means you’re toast, right? Usually, but not on this afternoon. As the Jets posted on X, previously known as Twitter, after the game: they “Raleighed back” against the Hurricanes, shocking the home side by scoring five straight.
The Jets seemed to forget about Martin Necas’, Teuvo Teravainen’s, and Sebastian Aho’s second-period markers and got the third-period start they needed via a sneaky goal from Connor at 1:36. Then, at 3:02, Nino Niederreiter made it a one-goal game by taking a Nate Schmidt centring pass and depositing it deftly into the net on the backhand. At 5:40, Scheifele tied the game on a slick power-play goal from in tight after Josh Morrissey displayed his tremendous offensive awareness by smartly poking the puck to him.
The game remained tied until late in the frame, when Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov strayed way out of his net but had a disastrous time with his attempted poke check, allowing Monahan to score on the vacated net. The Hurricanes pulled Kochetkov for the extra attacker, but Niederreiter scored his second of the game to cement the comeback.
It was just their eighth three-goal, third period comeback win in franchise history, and their first was their first since Oct. 4, 2019, which ended in a 5-4 shootout win against the New Jersey Devils in New Jersey.
2: Jets Give Early Christmas Present to Fans by Bashing Bruins — Dec. 22, 2023
A victory over the Boston Bruins was not something Santa Claus could provide, so the Jets had to give it to themselves.
The Jets entered their final game before Christmas Day 7-2-1 in their past 10, and left it having put up their most impressive performance of the season thus far.
The Jets had lost six in a row to the Beantown team, but ensured the streak didn’t go to seven. Josh Morrissey, after having a goal disallowed earlier in the first period, scored in the dying seconds of the frame to give his team a well-deserved lead. That set the stage for two second period goals, one from Vilardi — who was scorching at the time on a dominant line with Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers and scored in his fifth-straight by tucking in a tremendous cross-crease pass from Scheifele — and Niederreiter on the power play.
They kept swinging in the third, with Adam Lowry scoring early to push the lead to 4-0. Brandon Carlo spoiled Hellebuyck’s shutout bid with less than six minutes to go, but Niederreiter scored his second goal of the game with just 19 seconds left to restore the four-goal lead for good measure and ensure all Jets fans would be happy all snug in their beds after departing a raucous Canada Life Centre.
1: Jets Demolish Avalanche 7-0, Get Leg up in Quest for Second in Central — April 13, 2024
The teams came into the most recent matchup with identical 49-24-6 records and three games each to go, with the winner getting a significant leg-up on a second-place finish and therefore home-ice advantage in the first round (at the time, the first-round series was increasingly likely, but not a 100 per cent certainty, to be between the Jets and Avalanche.)
The highly-anticipated game turned out to be a total laugher, with the Jets scoring goal after goal and Avalanche fans rendered stunned and silent. The Jets, who had executed their game plan to perfection two night earlier with a 3-0 statement win over the Central-leading Dallas Stars, continued to play at a high level and adhere to their blueprint for success.
The Jets exploded for four goals in the first period, with Monahan, Vilardi, Morrissey, and Lowry all bulging twine behind Georgiev. Morrissey and Lowry’s goals came just 10 seconds apart, the fastest two goals in Thrashers/Jets franchise history. “Bang bang,” as former TSN Jets announcer Dennis Beyak would have said.
The Jets kept swinging in the second even after Justus Annunen took over in Colorado’s crease, scoring three more courtesy of Tyler Toffoli, Monahan again, and Lowry again.
Scoring 10 goals in a game, something the Jets 2.0 have never done, appeared to be a distinct possibility as the third period began but the frame went by scoreless. Connor Hellebuyck captured the 37th shutout of his career, six Jets had multi-point nights — it was the second-straight game against the Avalanche they accomplished that feat — Nathan MacKinnon was held off the scoresheet at home for just the second time in 40 games, and the Jets swept the season series.
An Avalanche overtime loss the following day to the Vegas Golden Knights reduced their Jets’ magic number to one, and the Jets claimed second place and home-ice advantage with a 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on April 16.
Unfortunately, that home-ice advantage didn’t help the Jets much. The Avalanche played much better against the Jets in the playoffs than they did in the regular season, easily dispatching Winnipeg in five games in the first round.
Honourable Mentions
- Jets erase 2-0 deficit, defeat Oilers in overtime for first win of season — Oct. 21, 2023
- Connor scores fifth-career hat trick as Jets double up Predators 6-3 — Nov. 9, 2023
- Jets blank Panthers in Bowness’ return from leave of absence — Nov. 24, 2023
- Jets Snow Avalanche Under on South Asian Heritage Night — Dec. 16, 2023
- Jets come back on Wild in third period to sweep home-and-home — Dec. 31, 2024
- Vilardi notches hat trick, Jets clinch playoff berth versus Flames — April 4, 2024
