So I woke up on Saturday to see the Winnipeg Jets sitting atop the entire NHL, with 54 points in 38 games. Not sure if it’s related or not, but my lower back is also feeling the best it has since the whole “pencil” incident. Without any Jets game to watch today, I instead spent some time making a wonderful pork chop, wild rice, and roasted brussel sprout lunch and settled in to watch the Manitoba Moose. I felt today’s AHL matinee match between the Moose and the Belleville Senators promised to be a low event affair due to the franchises being among the most defensive orientated teams in the minors. And I was absolutely correct as the visiting Senators stifled the hometown Moose, coming away with an insomnia curing 3 to 1 victory. On the brighter side of things, Brad Lambert picked up another assist, propelling him to 24 points on the campaign.
The boring hockey game also allowed me the opportunity to hop in my eco-friendly BigOlJetAirliner to take a cruise around the Winnipeg Jets universe….or as I perhaps lamely tagged the Winni-Verse in this article’s title. Since this category can include pretty much anything with even the slightest link to the Winnipeg Jets franchise, I had some distance to travel so I was thankful that my cats Moose & Lambo wouldn’t be a distraction during their catnip-induced nap.
The first thing I decided to look into was how the fans of other NHL teams were taking the news that the NHL backwater Winnipeg Jets were leading the league. I quickly discovered that it really wasn’t a topic of conversation for most of the fanbases, though some of our division rivals’ fans were quite certain that our Jets would once again tank in the second half of the season. Like most Winnipeg Jets’ fans, my belief in the team is pretty fragile after a history filled with disappointing results, so I had to do a comparison between the two teams in the hopes that it would make me feel better.
The 2022-23 Winnipeg Jets were led vocally by Blake Wheeler and Pierre-Luc Dubois and started off the season fantastically. The PL Wheeler squad had a 26-13-1-0 record after the January 8th, 2023 games, giving them 53 points in 40 games. This season’s version of the Winnipeg Jets has a new captain in Adam Lowry and a trio of new players in Alex Iafallo, Gabriel Vilardi, and Rasmus Kupari. As of January 5th, 2024, our Jets have put up a 25-9-4 record through 38 games and a league-leading 54 points. I also saw that the PL Wheeler squad’s record started to falter during the January 9th to February 20th stretch, with them only slightly better than .500 (9-8-0). The collapse was completed during the February 21st to March 19th span, as Winnipeg struggled with a 4-8-1-1 record.
Ok, since the early comparison was pretty close and didn’t make me feel like a potential collapse was less possible, I determinedly dug a bit further. This time I focused on goals for, goals against, and goal differential to see if there were any noticeable differences between the two teams. Here is how the first two months compared…
Once again, the numbers are very alike between the two seasons and last year’s squad was actually allowing less goals against early in the season. This year’s group had improved on a middle-of-the-pack offense in the opening months, but not by a whole lot. If anything, the PL Wheeler’s were out-performing the Lowry-led Jets by a small margin at this point of the season. Let’s move on and add December and early January to the mix…
By this point in my review, I started to see some differences between the teams, despite the near identical records. The most apparent from the above table would be in the goal differential category, where this year’s Winnipeg team has been much better (especially in the month of December). Last year’s team relied heavily on out-scoring opponents after the first 2 months, despite routinely giving up more scoring chances than they got. The 2023-24 Jets don’t play like that at all, instead happy to play in low scoring affairs in the knowledge that their skill at 5 on 5 will eventually shine through. The playing style differences show up in how the two versions of the Winnipeg Jets were losing games. The PL Wheeler’s lost 9 of the first 40 games by 3 goals or more, while the 23-24 version has only lost 2 “blow outs” to date.
When I add those slight differences to the fact that this year’s Jets are doing so well in spite of their down-right awful special teams, I start to feel more committed to believing what my eyes are telling me….this team IS different from last season. While I won’t go as far as saying that Winnipeg is destined for playoff success this season, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did happen. Lots of time to go before then, it will be fun to watch it all play out. If you are interested in the full season’s stats, check them out below:
Hopping back in my airplane, I decided to do a fly by of the Manitoba Moose again on the way to the ECHL. With a fairly young and inexperienced squad, it isn’t surprising to see that only four regulars have a positive plus-minus rating at this point in the season. Two of them are under contract with the Moose exclusively, small grinding forward Nicholas Jones (+2) and Manitoba-born defenseman Dean Stewart (+1). The other two are signed by the Winnipeg Jets, defenseman Kyle Capobianco (+6) and Brad Lambert (+2). Another Moose related fact is that Lambert is currently holding on to the 6th spot in AHL Rookie scoring and 40th overall with 24 pts, while Nikita Chibrikov is tied for 7th in rookie scoring with 23 pts.
Eventually I arrived in the ECHL to visit with the Winnipeg Jets other professional affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals. Jets’ goalie prospect Thomas Milic has found success with the Navy men, posting a 9-2-2 record with a 2.44 GAA and a .910 save %. The “small for NHL standards” tender has continued to succeed at every level and it will be interesting to see if he spends more time with the Moose in the second half of the season.
Before making my way back to the Peg, I figured I might as well spend time visiting with one of the Winnipeg Jets’ prospects playing elsewhere. I really went out of my way to stop in on Dmitri Rashevsky, a 5th round selection in the 2021 draft, playing in the KHL with the Dynamo. The talented forward lit the league up in his rookie campaign, scoring at a .729 pt per game pace. His sophomore season was less successful, with only 38 pts in 67 games (.567), but the Russian has bounced back in 2023-24. Rashevsky’s 32 pts in 46 KHL games has him much closer to his career best production with .696 pts per game.
Onto the non-professional ranks, I wanted to see how Colby Barlow and Dominic DiVincentiis were doing post-injuries. I discovered that Barlow hadn’t played since Nov 8th, but the 1st round draft pick recently returned to action on Dec 30th and seems to be in good form. With 4 goals and an assist in 4 games, the talented winger looks to be primed for a strong finish to the OHL season. Goaltender DiVincentiis started the year off hot, but since then injuries have led to some pretty poor statistics. Perhaps a positive sign that Dom is back to full health, he has gone 3-1 in his last 4 games with save percentages of .917, .871, .926, & .913. I couldn’t leave my look at the Juniors without checking out Jacob Julien. The big center was selected by Kevin Cheveldayoff in the 5th round after putting up 16 pts in 40 games with London last year. Julien has absolutely exploded onto the scene in 2023-24, with 45 pts in 36 games. The pivot has shown some scoring touch with 15 goals and hasn’t slowed down since the Christmas break (goal and 6 assists in last 3 games).
After all that flying, I ended up landing back in River Heights just in time to feed my hungry cats and start to think about my own supper. Hope you enjoyed taking this flight with me….oh yeah, the WINNIPEG JETS ARE FIRST IN THE NHL and Colorado lost another game today. Have a great weekend 🙂
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