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Season Preview: The Offence

The Winnipeg Jets are entering this season with some known commodities at forward which should help them move up in the standings if their depth comes through this year unlike previous seasons.

The key pieces to the Jets offensive success are tied to Mark Scheifele being able to elevate those on his line, Blake Wheeler being able to drive play, Patrik Laine improving to be more than a goalscorer, showing he can also drive play a bit, and Mathieu Perreault returning to the form that made him so valuable to the Jets when he first came here.

More importantly, the Jets offence relies on the defences ability to get the puck out of the zone and into the correct forwards hands. The defence, mostly Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien, Josh Morrissey, and Tobias Enstrom, will have to work together to make sure that the puck is not just lifted out of the zone and into the enemies hands. There is no reason why the Jets should not want to get the puck to a player like Wheeler who can back teams up with his speed when he has the puck. Enstrom is the wild card in this group of defencemen; he has started to fall off in recent seasons. However, he can still move the puck and it might be a benefit to the Jets to play him in easier minutes so he can better help drive play.

The Jets offence should not be a sore spot this year. They have the right pieces to be able to match other teams goal for goal if those pieces are used correctly. However, most of their offence will rely on the ability of the defence to get the puck to the forwards in a timely manner. If the Jets are able to reduce Enstrom’s workload this year, he might be able to provide a better start to the attack on the third pair instead of being worn down and injured in the top four.

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