Ups and downs have been the story of the 2023-24 season for the Winnipeg Jets, and their latest five-game homestand was no different. Their season-long losing streak reached six games, and they followed it up with back-to-back impressive victories. Here are my three main takeaways from the Jets’ play over their past five home games, which ended with them clinching a spot in the 2023-24 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Jets’ Reunite Dynamic Trio of Ehlers, Scheifele, & Vilardi
The Jets reunited their most dynamic line, as Gabriel Vilardi overcame his enlarged spleen and rejoined the top line. It wasn’t long after that when Rick Bowness moved Nikolaj Ehlers up to that line with Vilardi and Mark Scheifele, and Winnipeg saw immediate results.
In their 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames, Vilardi recorded his first-career hat trick. It’s incredibly evident that not only is Vilardi one of the best power play threats in the entire NHL, but the top line at five-on-five with Ehlers, Scheifele, and himself are dynamic in their own right.
They have now outscored their opponents 16-5 at five-on-five this season, a number that places them among the NHL’s elite and gives the Jets an option they simply didn’t have when Vilardi was out of the lineup.
When asked about his first career hat trick, Vilardi deferred to the team and the task ahead: “A great night for me, but a better night for the team. Make the playoffs. Still got a long way to go. A lot of work that needs to be done still. But definitely a good night.”
An interesting layer to the Jets reuniting that line is that during the Flames game, Bowness went back to the combo of Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi. When I asked him about it after the game, he didn’t like what he saw from those lines: “Well you saw Cole (Perfetti) set up Nik (Ehlers), and we had them together earlier and it didn’t work, so I said let’s just try it a little bit and see if it’s gonna work… and it didn’t work.”
It was only a small fraction of the homestand where these three players were together, but from a big-picture perspective, it’s important to note that their dominance puts the Jets in the upper echelon of contenders in the Western Conference. Something needed to happen, as Bowness put it: “We can’t keep running back the same pairs and the same lines. We’ve lost six in a row.”
2-2-1 Record Doesn’t Do the Jets’ Play Justice
Despite the mediocre 2-2-1 record in the five-game homestand, the analytics would say the Jets ‘deserved’ a better outcome in the majority of those games. They got outplayed in their 4-3 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers, but in their losses to the Vegas Golden Knights and Ottawa Senators, it feels as though they played ‘Winnipeg Jets hockey’ as Bowness often referred to, but failed to get the two points.
Bowness after the Senators game, the Jets sixth-straight loss, outlined how this team was finding ways to lose: “It’s disappointing that we had to battle back to make it 2-2, to start with. Again, we’re just finding ways to beat ourselves. Not enough offence for a few periods. Uncharacteristic odd-man rushes against us again, just guys trying to do too much or just making a bad read, it’s one or the other”
The process improved in the Golden Knights and Senators games from Winnipeg’s perspective, and the wins shortly followed. They only allowed 5 high-danger chances in their 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings. That ties their best mark of the season, having done it only two other times this season – (Jan. 7 vs. ARZ, March 11 vs. WSH).
Then in their 5-2 win over the Flames, the power play scored twice and they continued their five-on-five dominance, further improving their ‘process’ and this time getting rewarded with the win in the process. For that reason, I’d say the mediocre record doesn’t do their play justice, as the process is improving and that is paramount.
Cole Perfetti Re-Emerges as a Top-Six Option For Stretch Run
Cole Perfetti was inserted into the lineup when Tyler Toffoli missed the game against the Kings due to illness, and he took full advantage, scoring two goals and adding an assist in a top-six role alongside Kyle Connor and Sean Monahan.
After his impressive performance, Bowness said he wanted to give the 22-year-old some run on that line given how well he played: “Well yeah, we’re not going to take him off that line now. He’s earned it, we told him when you get back in we’ll try to get you more time with the top six, and he took full advantage of it… The game’s all about adjustments. When you see something you like, you let it go. You see something you don’t like, you change it. So right now we’ll take a look at this and go from there.
Perfetti, who’s been in-and-out of the lineup over the past month, had this to say about his confidence levels following that three-point performance: “It was huge for my confidence… really happy that I could contribute, and help, and get back into that. I missed that for a little bit. Just feels really good to get back and help this team win.”
If Perfetti can be a top-six option down the stretch for the Jets, like he was the first half of the season, that would greatly open up the options the Jets have for their forward group. The early returns from the line of Connor-Monahan-Perfetti have been positive, and they have six games left in the regular season to really cement themselves as a solid second-line, led by the resurgence of Perfetti.
The Jets Have Clinched a Spot in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs
With their win over the Flames, the Jets have officially clinched a spot in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s looking more and more likely by the day that their first-round opponent will be the Colorado Avalanche, and their trio of stars in Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Mikko Rantanen. A lot can change over their final six games, but that’s the most likely outcome.
Related: Jets Clinch Playoff Spot After 5-2 Win Over Flames
It’s the Jets’ sixth playoff appearance in the past seven seasons, an incredible run of regular season success that has transferred into little postseason success, and they will look to change that starting on April 20 when the Playoffs begin.
In the meantime, they will be battling for home-ice advantage over these final six games as they find themselves four points back of the Avalanche for the #2 seed in the Central Division. It all starts with a four-game divisional road-trip, where they will take on the Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, Dallas Stars, and the Avalanche. That will be a great playoff primer for Winnipeg who looks to shape their game heading into the postseason.
After these six games, the ‘whiteout’ is returning to Winnipeg. It is undoubtedly one of the best playoff atmospheres in all of professional sports, and it will be in full force as the Jets faithful look to give their Stanley Cup contender a boost in the postseason.