It happened again, the Jets were out shot and out chanced at a high danger level yet they still won, and convincingly. However they were no out-possessed. It wasn't all to do with Connor Hellebuyck but again he sure had a lot to do with the win again.
Scoring first is a good thing, especially when it's within the first minute of game, adding another goal not long after on the PP is even better. However adding a third late in the period was the cherry on top for the Jets who left the first period with a 3-0 lead.
In yesterday's piece I talked about the idea that the Jets might be allowing shots from further out, less dangerous situations because of the likelihood that Hellebuyck would stop them. Below is a look at the comparison between the Jets shots and Stars shots from last night.
The interesting thing about last night is the Stars may have had more shots than that Jets but in all situations the Jets won the possession battle. That's a good thing especially given the Stars PP unit and home ice advantage for line matching. What is striking is that in a 3rd period coming in down two goals the Jets were able to keep the possession in their favour as well as limit the Stars to just 9 shots on net and only 12 shot attempts total.
With most things Jets right now if the scoring does not involve Scheifele or Wheeler something is up and again the two combined 7 points and the line of Connor Scheifele Wheeler had 9 points between them.
After Perreault's injury when Connor was called up there were many questioning where he should be on the roster; what line. Your truly suggested he needed to be used further down so as not to upset the apple cart of hierarchy and chemistry. Wrong. Has the Connor looked out of place at all? He's still got work to do but when you are playing with two talents like Schiefele and Wheeler learning from them should be easy if you have a certain level of skill already, and Connor does.
His rise with Scheifele and Wheeler will present an interesting problem when Perreault comes back. Does Matty P drop to the third line and force the Jets to risk losing a player on waivers so they can keep Connor up?
The basic fact remains that at even strength the Jets managed to win the possession battle on all of their lines. That in itself is a least change and one that will only help the team. What likely is helping the Jets too is penalties. The Jets are 15th in the league for total PIMs and 15th for total penalties drawn but are the 10th worst team for PIM/game. That is a marked improvement from how they finished last year.
Considering how special teams changes the dynamic of lines keeping out of the box is only going help the Jets because it gives the coach less of a chance to revert back to his 'role' players usage in those situations.
It's hard to believe that the Jets sit 6th overall in the league but with the surging Scheifele and Wheeler (8th and 3rd in scoring respectively) and with Laine and Ehlers heating up there's reason to be optimistic going forward for the Jets. There will be some bumps, there will be some regression but if the lessons stay learned and the players stay disciplined there's a lot to like about what this team is doing right now.