The Winnipeg Jets’ February was bookended by losses, but was still a fairly-successful month from a standings point-of-view, even though their highly-touted even-strength play showed some cracks.
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The Jets went 7-4-0 in the month, winning seven of eight after dropping their first two before ending with a loss to the Dallas Stars, and sit second in the Central Division with 79 points. Here, before they begin a whirlwind 16-game March, we’ll take a look at their top three performers of February.
3: Mark Scheifele
Mark Scheifele wasn’t the most consistent producer, with points in six of 12 games, but did will the team to a couple of victories almost singlehandedly.
The Jets’ number-one centre, who missed the final six games of January with a suspected groin issue but came out of the bye week and All-Star Break healthy, had four-point nights on Feb. 17 against the Vancouver Canucks and on Feb. 25 against the Arizona Coyotes. They were the 10th and 11th four-point games of his career.
He factored into all his team’s goals in both games. Against the Canucks, the alternate captain sparked his squad to their first three-plus goal game in a month by recording a goal and three assists, drawing the primary assist on the game-opening goal and scoring a dagger in the mid-third to extend a 3-2 lead to 4-2.
A one goal, three assist performance deserves another and he did that again against the Coyotes, once again factoring into every goal in a 4-3 overtime win. He fired the opening salvo just 2:06 into the contest and was part of a perfectly-executed three-on-one in overtime that culminated in Kyle Connor’s game winner.
Overall, Scheifele had 11 points in the month (three goals, eight assists) and continues to lead the team with 52 points in 52 games. He has remained much more committed to his defensive play, and is plus-17 this season compared to minus-16 last season. If he can maintain his point-per-game pace through the final 24, it will be the seventh point-per-game campaign of the 2011 first-rounder’s career. He is also just three points away from 700 on his career.
2: Gabriel Vilardi
After a slow start to the month, the back half was a Vilardi party.
The 24-year-old didn’t record a point in his four games (that was during lean times for the team as a whole when they scored only nine times in eight games) but then popped off for five goals and five assists for 10 points in a five-game span.
Vilardi was actually the catalyst for the Jets breaking out of their overall scoring slump and for their power play emerging from the dead after a one-for-33 stretch. He scored two on Feb. 17 against the Canucks, including their first power play goal in nine games, and added an assist. After a two-assist afternoon against the Calgary Flames on Feb. 19, he had another three-point night on Feb. 20 against the Minnesota Wild, where he potted a pair on the man advantage and added an even-strength assist.
The Jets’ power play has gone nine-for-19 in their last seven games, and there are a number of reasons they’ve finally found success after being subpar for most of the season, but a big one is their fundamental shift in the way they choose to channel the offense: they have put a big focus on getting the puck to Vilardi net front, where he absolutely cooks. His slick mitts and awareness open up a lot of options for passes or even scoring chances for himself, as his impressive power-play goal against the Coyotes, his fourth of the month, shows.
Unfortunately for the Jets, Vilardi may be unavailable to begin March. He suffered an upper-body injury in the most recent game against the Stars that kept him stapled to the bench for the back half of the contest, a 4-1 loss. Head coach Rick Bowness said Vilardi could well miss the games against the Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres on March 2 and 3.
The knock against Vilardi has always been his durability and this is his third injury of the season after dealing with injuries playing just 63 games in 2022-23. The Jets will hope he’s able to get back into the lineup soon, as he has 30 points in 38 games and is just seven goals and 11 points away from matching his career highs, which he set last season with the Los Angeles Kings.
1: Josh Morrissey
Just call him Josh More-assist. (Sorry.)
Josh Morrissey was an assist-collecting machine, piling up 11 in the final six games and 12 apples in the month. The defender put his skating skills, transition ability, and passing prowess on display during a four-game multi-assist streak between Feb. 20 against the Wild and Feb. 27 against the St. Louis Blues, which included a pair of three-assist performances.
The offensive surge was welcome for the 28-year-old, who put up 10 goals and 66 assists in a breakout 2022-23. He started the new year slowly from an offensive standpoint, recording just four assists in 12 January games.
“I felt, honestly, there’s been a lot of times this year, especially from Christmas to the bye week (prior to the All-Star Game) I was playing really well and I couldn’t buy a point. Sometimes it comes in bunches”, Morrissey said recently. (From ‘Morrissey is making magnificence mundane,’ Winnipeg Free Press, Feb. 25, 2024.)
“He’s just been fantastic,” Scheifele said. “He’s making a lot of great plays. He’s great in the D-zone, he cuts things off quick and gets it going the other way. A lot of unheralded plays that he’s making from his own end that not a lot people will see. He’s making a lot of great plays all over the ice.”
Bunches indeed — Morrissey now has seven goals and 39 assists for 46 points in 58 games, which is second on the Jets and ninth among NHL defenseman. While he is not on pace to match the 76 points he put up in 78 games last season, he continues to operate at a high level overall and eat up big minutes alongside Dylan DeMelo on the first defensive pairing. He is logging a career-high 24:20 and has posted a plus 21-rating and the strongest possession metrics of his career.
