The Winnipeg Jets were given no chance to ease into the 2024-25 NHL campaign when the schedulers booked the Edmonton Oilers for the season opener.
The Connor McDavid-led franchise came within a whisker of lifting the Stanley Cup last year, coming back from a 3-0 deficit to force a game 7 against the eventual champions, Florida Panthers. The Jets on the other hand had a fabulous regular season, but found very little to be happy about in the playoffs.
Here is how coach Scott Arniel deployed his players versus the Oilers (courtesy of PuckPedia):
The starting tenders for Wednesday’s clash saw Edmonton put Stuart Skinner in the crease, while Winnipeg went with the defending Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck in the blue ice. Had to stay up pretty late to discover how these two Canadian franchises began the campaign, so this is what my tired ol’ eyes picked up….
RECAP
When the pre-game ceremonies were finally over, the Oilers & Jets were finally able to get down to work. In what would end up a fairly even period chance-wise, it was Winnipeg’s 3rd line that was the difference between the two squads. They first created a turnover high in the Edmonton zone and got the puck to Nino Niederreiter behind the net, leading to a nice pass out front to Adam Lowry in the low slot. It took the big guy two tries to beat Stuart Skinner and give the Jets a lead with 5 minutes to play. Three & a half minutes later, Neal Pionk stretched a pass from his end to Niederreiter at the offensive blueline. The Swiss forward gained the zone before spinning quickly and sending a backhand pass across the ice. Lowry ignored the puck and continued driving to the net and took the defenseman with him, allowing Mason Appleton to pick up the pass before walking in and labelling a wrister by the goalie on the far side.
Connor Hellebuyck had to stone a couple Oilers early in the middle period before the Jets took control of this game. Two quick goals in 20 seconds (Rasmus Kupari & Dylan Samberg) saw Winnipeg extend the lead to 4 and then Kyle Connor sniped another one when the Jets had their first powerplay of the contest. That was the end of Skinner’s night as the Oilers’ coach put in the backup. Edmonton really pressed for the remainder of the 2nd period looking for their first goal of the game, but even a man-advantage couldn’t help them solve Hellebuyck.
The Winnipeg Jets did a good job of clogging things up in the final frame (shots 5-5), but Bucky was still required to make a few more quality saves before the match ended. Our squad was able to add one more on their 3rd powerplay of the game, when Nikolaj Ehlers made a lovely shot/pass that Mark Scheifele was able to deflect by Calvin Pickard to make it 6-0 WPG.
SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN
SHOT CHART from MoneyPuck & NaturalStatTrick
ADVANCED STATS from MoneyPuck & NaturalStatTrick
If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:
MoneyPuck: Winnipeg Jets vs. Edmonton Oilers – Wednesday October 9 2024 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: Winnipeg Jets @ Edmonton Oilers, 2024-10-09 (naturalstattrick.com)
BOJA’s Observations:
- Mr. Vezina started off this season like he wants to keep that title. Connor Hellebuyck was fantastic in containing a high-powered offense, turning aside all 30 shots he faced on route to his 38th career shut-out. Pretty solid when you consider the Oilers had 2.78 expected goals on the night.
- Couple interesting things mentioned during the broadcast….Kyle Connor has now scored a goal in seven straight opening day contests, while his center Mark Scheifele has at least a point in 11 straight openers.
- Other than Bucky, the 3rd line of Adam Lowry, Nino Niederreiter, & Mason Appleton was the key to victory. 7 shots, 2 goals, and 7 points for the trio against Edmonton. Apples led the way with a goal and 2 assists.
- The bottom six was the highlight in this game, as both the 3rd and 4th lines (Rasmus Kupari, Alex Iafallo, & Morgan Barron) had more expected goals for than against (see 5 on 5 stats above). The checkers also represented all 4 of Winnipeg’s even strength goals in the match.
- I won’t dwell too much on the advanced stats in this game since the Jets had a healthy lead at the mid-point, so didn’t actually push offensively for a good chunk of the contest. Overall, the Oilers had a large advantage in most categories, but the “W” certainly wasn’t in question for the majority of the opener.
- Winnipeg’s top forward line was what it is…created a bunch of chances at even strength, but gave up even more. The 2nd line of Nikolaj Ehlers, Cole Perfetti, & Vladislav Namestnikov were pretty horrible in this one, creating just .04 expected goals, while allowing .416 against.
- Thought the defensemen played good for the most part….nice passing by Josh Morrissey (2 assts), a surprising goal by Dylan Samberg, and Haydn Fleury sacrificing the body (and face) with some key blocks. I guess they were all doing that, since the defensive six combined for 16 blocked shots against the Oilers. When you add 13 by the forwards, you can see that the Jets were ready to help out their goaltender whenever they could.
- The Jets needed to improve their special teams this season…well, Winnipeg is off to a good start with the powerplay going 2 for 3 on the night, while the penalty killers kept the Oilers off the board on the one man-advantage Edmonton had.
Well, Winnipeg is now tied for 1st place in the Central Division with a string of last year’s non-playoff teams on the near horizon. Up first is the Hawks and young superstar Connor Bedard coming to visit the Canada Life Centre for the Jets’ home opener.
UP NEXT: Chicago Blackhawks (0-1-0) @ Winnipeg Jets (1-0-0) – Friday, October 11th
