This Winnipeg Jets season is worth celebrating — whatever its final chapter holds

When Paul Maurice stepped down from the Jets No.

1 job in December 2021, Winnipeg held on to a playoff spot but a lot was going wrong.

Blake Wheelers captaincy took a top-down approach.

Maurices coaching tenure had outlasted its effectiveness.

Winnipegs players didnt play for each other as much as they could a sentiment articulated by Paul Stastny when the Jets missed the playoffs at the end of the season.

Advertisement Winnipeg is so far clear of that misery that it may seem strange to talk about it now.

These Jets love playing together, winning together, putting the best power play in the NHL together, and playing good team defence in front of the presumptive three-time Vezina Trophy winner together.

Theyre earning their wins collectively, while getting star turns at key moments from Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey, Mark Scheifele, Gabriel Vilardi and Nikolaj Ehlers, among many others.

This invocation of 2021-22 is done with purpose, however.

The seeds of Winnipegs growth were made possible by that teams playoff-missing misery.

Winnipeg needed accountability.

Rick Bowness transformed the Jets leadership group, then talked about how the players who wore the Jets uniform wanted to be in Winnipeg.

He grew more emphatic about this point after Pierre-Luc Dubois was traded and Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck signed matching eight-year extensions.

Winnipeg had bought in and just in time, in a way.

Without Scheifele and Hellebuyck, these Jets could be stepping gingerly through a rebuild as opposed to leading the Western Conference by 9 points.

Scott Arniels coaching impact has been a refinement of what worked, improving upon a better foundation than the one Bowness was given.

These Jets have won eight games in a row at a time those Jets often faltered.

These Jets have an elite power play credit Davis Payne for that and a 14th-ranked penalty kill.

Arniels ability to improve upon the Jets pre-existing accountability to one another and to their own standards of what makes elite teams tick should not be overlooked.

When he seethed after the Jets loss to Utah, Winnipegs players didnt sulk.

They took it upon themselves to re-establish their own standards the standards they came up with in that overlong summer.

Advertisement Theres an alternate version of this story where the Jets players dont have the maturity to accept their former associate coach as their No.

1.

This is not that Winnipeg story.

Can it last? Will it last? Will the Jets fade down the stretch, fumbling toward a first-round exit the same way the previous two editions did? These are important questions but obsessing over them comes at a cost.

Whether its Hellebuyck and Scheifeles age, the teams good health or the sheer number of Jets contracts set to end this summer, theres a chance this is the best version of the Jets we see for a number of years.

It makes Kevin Cheveldayoffs trade deadline plans fraught with risk.

Some of the players who play enormous roles in Winnipegs success are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents when the season is over.

The concept of a self-rental makes sense for a team trying to win the Stanley Cup, but the Jets have to balance their best shot at winning the Cup this season with an eye on sustainable franchise success.

Take Ehlers.

The power play wouldnt be what it is without him hes factored in on a higher percentage of Jets power-play goals while hes been on the ice than any other player.

Hes second to Connor in points per minute at five-on-five; combine those feats and Ehlers is on pace for a career high in points despite slumping upon return from midseason injury.

Ehlers power-play success hasnt been about zone entries, as one may have expected.

Its come from his commitment to puck recoveries and most notably his ability to read PK setups and pick them apart with his teammates.

Ehlers saw this play opening up against Ottawa before the faceoff that led to this goal: Tic-tac-whoa: pic.twitter.com/R06Yq1UQWE Murat Ates (@WPGMurat) December 29, 2024 That kind of chemistry is difficult to replace.

Vilardis contract expires this summer; his cap hit is about to double.

Dylan Samberg is heading for a big raise on his next contract, too.

Winnipeg may not be able to sign Ehlers when the season ends.

At the same time, hes too big a piece of their success to send away on a whim.

Enjoy the zone exits, the chaos and the elite production while you can; Ehlers on-ice idiosyncrasies include various kick plays, the willingness to dive to keep pucks in or get them out, and an unpredictable series of high-speed, neutral-zone jazz notes that flatfoot teammates and defenders alike.

Ehlers is not everybodys favourite music and thats fine; without him, the second line would still lose its most effective note.

Advertisement Ehlers is not the only player who may be 26 games plus playoffs away from the end of his Jets career.

Mason Appleton helps make Adam Lowrys shutdown line the best version of that line in the NHL.

Alex Iafallo is scoring or setting up highlight reel goals almost nightly since getting off the fourth line.

Neal Pionk reads his coverage and gets shots through block attempts as well as anyone; only Connor has gotten more first assists per minute than Pionk at even strength.

Vladislav Namestnikov has reclaimed his offence with Ehlers and Cole Perfetti, giving the Jets two viable scoring lines and contributing to eight straight wins.

Most of these players are heading for substantial raises whether or not they stay in Winnipeg.

This edition of the Jets its quality, cap space and star power may be difficult to repeat.

Thats why Cheveldayoff talks about Ehlers future in terms of hoping to win the Stanley Cup and then stops himself there.

Theres nothing more that Id love to do than raise a Cup with him, Cheveldayoff said last month.

The business side will be the business side.

Where that goes ...

that storys still unfolding.

This is different than his approach to discussing Scheifele and Hellebuyck prior to those extensions.

Cheveldayoffs tonal shift to Helle and Scheif are big parts of our franchise at the 2023 draft implied a greater organizational commitment to those players than what hes expressing for Ehlers now.

It seems as though the Jets are still trying to decide if they want to make that kind of bet on Ehlers, who must in turn decide if he wants to make that kind of bet on Winnipeg.

The uncertainty only emphasizes how important it is to appreciate the moment and the opportunity that the Jets have now.

I opened this opinion piece with a reference to Jets coaching and leadership.

Even if all of Winnipegs free agents walk this summer, there is a strong foundation in place.

Theres a lot on the line for the Jets down the stretch and into the spring, just as there was last year.

The players know it now as they knew it then.

So let me turn your attention to a conversation I had with Morrissey on a quiet day before last years playoffs began.

The Jets had won eight games in a row to finish the season the best streak among any NHL team and were favourites against the Avalanche, whom theyd swept in the season series.

Morrissey understood last years Jets were a special group.

This ones really exciting.

Everyone in that room really believes we have a chance to do something special.

Everyone believes we can play and beat anyone, he said that day in April.

Weve had a great regular season.

Weve done it this year in a different way, probably, than we ever have in the past.

What did it was our depth and our defensive play and our team game.

Everyone knows, in the playoffs, that those things are massively important.

Advertisement The belief was there.

Morrisseys reflection was well-placed, and it was clear it was the product of soul-searching.

Hed even spoken to mentors and respected friends (Cup champions chief among them) to establish Winnipegs legitimate chance to win.

When you talk to guys that have won Cups, a common theme Ive heard is you dont always know, he said.

You dont go into the playoffs, This is the year were going to win.

You dont always know when its going to come.

But the more opportunities you give yourself, if you do it the right way and have good teams, you also never know when it might come, too.

So why couldnt it be our year? Winnipegs season ended five games later.

These Jets are better than those Jets.

Theyve avoided many of their pratfalls, improved upon their special teams, gotten another standard-bearing season from Hellebuyck, and have jelled in ways previous iterations of this team did not match.

But its still hockey.

The next 26 games could bring anything the Jets way.

You learn your lessons as you play the games.

The biggest thing this group has done is put stuff behind us, Arniel said before the break.

Whether a win or loss, whether you individually had a great game or bad game.

Whether its a shift, we talk more game to game.

How we respond the next night is what Ive always tried to pound away here.

Just making sure that you do your homework.

We do our teaching and whatnot when things dont go well.

Even when things go well.

And then you just move on to the next opponent.

The guys have done a fantastic job of staying focused and being in the now.

We had talked about this season being in three segments getting off to a good start, getting to Christmas, (then) get out in front of people and hopefully eliminate people.

Because youre chasing that playoff run.

Then, the second half Christmas to now can be, like you mentioned, the January doldrums.

We had a lot of games at home and I love the fact we didnt take that for granted.

We played really well here.

Now the big push comes.

The last 26 are going to be the stuff that prepares us for game 83.

Advertisement The Jets have given themselves a reason to believe and their fans a reason to dream.

The NHL is won by teams who give themselves a chance.

This pause before the regular seasons final chapter gave me time to reflect; Winnipeg has given itself a chance and looks like it will keep giving itself a chance as the stretch run begins.

What more could its fans or a writer who dreams of covering greatness have asked for so far? (Top photo of Gabriel Vilardi, Vladislav Namestnikov and Connor Hellebuyck: James Carey Lauder / Imagn Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.