Jets midseason review: Top line proves skeptics wrong

WINNIPEG – A dark cloud was hanging over the Winnipeg Jets heading into the season.

They were coming off a 110-point overall season that amounted to an implosion in the first round. They swung and missed several free agents, including deadline acquisition Sean Monahan, and let Brenden Dillon walk. And then there were concerns about attendance, with pockets of empty seats becoming commonplace in the NHL’s smallest market.

There wasn’t much to be excited about.

How could this team remain competitive? Would we even see a blackout in the spring? Would your attendance be even more affected? The anguish in this city was palpable.

And that’s what makes the first half of Winnipeg’s season even more rewarding.

No one wins the Stanley Cup in January, something this franchise knows all too well, but watching this team take second place in the NHL standings at the 41-game mark has reaffirmed just how viable this team is as a contender.

For the most part, everything that needed to go right has, and then some. Connor Hellebuyck is on track to claim his third Vezina Trophy. Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor are playing the best hockey of their careers. The third line is still elite. Neal Pionk is having a bounce-back year. Dylan Samberg has established himself as a top four defenseman. And the team is averaging 14,124 fans per night (up from 13,490).

The sky is not falling. At least for now.

Goals per game: 3.59 (3rd)

Goals against per game: 2.54 (3rd)

power play: 31.5 percent (1st)

Penalty: 77.6 percent (22nd)

Best surprise: the front line has silenced the critics

It had more to do with keeping Scheifele and Connor together than anything else. Since Connor burst into the league in 2017-18, he and Scheifele have remained inseparable despite continually being outshot and outscored during five-on-five play. The offense they created wasn’t enough to make up for what they gave up on the other end.

From Day 1 of this season, Scott Arniel made it clear that he was in favor of keeping those two together. And he wanted Vilardi riding shotgun.

His decision to stick with those three has paid off. After struggling mightily in their first nine games, where they controlled just 33.3 percent of five-on-five high-danger shot attempts, the Jets’ top line has been fantastic over the last 32 games.

Night after night, Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi have put on a clinic in puck possession in the offensive zone.

Connor and Scheifele have continued to take advantage of failed plays and are practically automatic in the two against one. Their respective world-class traits feed off each other nicely, which is why the Jets have been steadfast in keeping them together, and Scheifele’s ability to hold the puck and find seams is a perfect match for a versatile scorer like Connor. And Vilardi is the perfect complementary piece for those two. Not only is he excellent at hanging the puck along the wall and making plays in tight spaces, but he has also become one of the NHL’s most dangerous scorers from the inside slot.

Now that they can get out of the defensive zone and into the offensive zone more efficiently, something they struggled to do in their first nine games, there’s no doubt this line has what it takes to make a difference in the postseason. season.

Biggest disappointment: Jets’ second line

Aside from the Nov. 3 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, or Nov. 9 against the Dallas Stars, when do you have that line? In fact delivered for this team? Sure, “a goal is a goal,” but it’s worth noting that five of the 14 five-on-five goals they scored came during losses to the San Jose Sharks and Columbus Blue Jackets.

If we go back and look at the goals that line scored, many of them have been the product of individual efforts, rather than the three making positive plays to create offense. The underlying numbers aren’t pretty either. While they generated 2.96 five-on-five goals per 60 minutes, the Jets’ second line only posted 2.13 expected goals per 60 minutes, ranking them 51st among 56 lines that have played at least 150 minutes. this season. according to MoneyPuck.com.

There is simply no cohesion.

Stylistically, this is not a great combination of players to match. None of the three are overly effective at fishing discs along the wall, applying pressure to the forefoot, or crashing the net.

In some ways, every player is wrong on this line.

Namestnikov is not a second-line center back. He’s filled in as best he can, but lacks the creativity, offensive firepower and size needed in a ‘2C’, which is why Winnipeg acquired Monahan last year.

Ehlers is at his best when he creates in a hurry, but neither Perfetti nor Namestnikov thrive on it.

Perfetti is at his best when facilitating along the wall in the offensive zone, but his linemates have struggled to become viable shooting threats. Ehlers, for all his raw talent, is an unpredictable player who is difficult to read, which is part of the reason those two haven’t clicked.

Something has to give. Winnipeg won’t have a meaningful playoff run if they rely solely on their top line for a five-on-five offense.

Big question: When will Kevin Cheveldayoff start doing business?

Aside from when they acquired Monahan a little over a month before last year’s deadline, most of Cheveldyoff’s (Paul Statsny, Kevin Hayes and Tyler Toffoli) big hits came at the deadline. Of course, sellers usually hold on to their assets until the last moment as a means of driving up the price.

With three months to go until the deadline, it remains to be seen which teams are selling, making it difficult for Cheveldayoff to get a leg up on acquiring reinforcements. But there should be a sense of urgency.

It’s a quick turnaround when you acquire a deadline rental, and the more time you have to merge a player and figure out where he’ll fit in your lineup, the better.

Especially for a team like Winnipeg, which projects to have $9,716,622 in cap space on deadline day, according to PuckPedia.com, could be in the market for both a second-line center and a top-four defenseman.

While it may be outside your comfort zone to pay for a large package so soon for fear of overpaying and ending up looking foolish, making a move sooner could pay dividends. There’s no doubt that the amount of extra time Monahan got (he played in 16 more games than Toffoli) played a big role in him becoming a key piece for the Jets at five-on-five and on the power play.