Better Than Anybody Thought

The Winnipeg Jets are 13-3-2 since Nov. 1. When the Jets were 6-7-0 in October did anyone in Winnipeg think their beloveds would find themselves in third place in the Central Division before Christmas? Probably not. Sure there are plenty of true believers, but I just can't imagine that even the true believers would have believed this. Playing with a makeshift defence, a fourth line that barely survives its occasional short shifts without being scored against and a carload of good players who aren't around anymore -- Tyler Myers, Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba, Brandon Tanev and Ben Chiarot -- the Jets have overcome injuries, made waiver-wire picks into decent D-men and gone 19-10-2 over the first 31 games. The Jets are third in the West and have gone 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. They are 9-5-1 at home and 10-5-1 on the road. They play well no matter where they play. But how? Why? The defence is Josh Morrissey, Neal Pionk, Luca Sbisa, Tucker Poolman, Nathan Beaulieu and Anthony Bitetto. With that defence, Connor Hellebuyck still leads the NHL with 15 wins. He has a goals against average of 2.24 and a save percentage of .933. He's fourth in the league in save percentage and has played more games than any other goaltender in the Top 20. He's sixth in goals against average and has played more games than any other goaltender in the Top 40. Up front, the Jets have been led by their stars and unlike many of the stars of the NHL, the Jets' stars are actually playing like stars. Mark Scheifele has 14 goals and 30 points, Patrik Laine has nine goals and 29 points, Kyle Connor has 11 goals and 27 points, Nikolaj Ehlers has 13 goals and 24 points and Blake Wheeler has eight goals and 23 points. Barring injury all five will score 20 goals and have the skills to score 30. None of them are among the NHL's leading scorers but all of them are playing 200-foot games and all of them pitch when they need to pitch in. Think about how incredible this run has been. Bryan Little, who was playing very well, suffered a terrible injury (hit in the ear with a slapshot) and yet, without him, the Jets have played wonderfully. Dmitry Kulikov is injured, Mason Appleton is injured, Mark Letestu is done for the year. And still, the Jets have played tremendous hockey. After most of the first three lines, the goalie and a couple of the defensemen, this team has been held together by binder twine and crazy glue ... and Paul Maurice. Yeah, the head coach that Twitter always wants to fire because, well, that's what Twitter is, has kept this team focused on playing hard in the all three zones, being responsible in its own end and doing the best it can to focus on puck control and defense before scoring. The Jets are winning because they score more than the opposition and they've been successful doing that because, as Hellebuyck's numbers illustrate, the Jets have stopped the opposition from scoring. Listen, we all know that the Jets have played 31 games and there are 51 left. The whole thing could go for a big giant dump before the second week of April. But if the Jets can find a way to keep doing what they're doing now, this team might surprise a lot of people before the 2019-20 season is over. Regardless, as the Jets get set to head into Detroit on Thursday night, they've certainly made the first three months of the season a netful of fun and frankly, I'm pretty excited about the next 4 1/2 months.