Injuries Are Mounting, But the Winnipeg Jets Keep Winning

Despite injuries testing the depth of the Winnipeg Jets, they're putting the rest of the Western Conference on watch with their strong performances.

The Winnipeg Jets have the best points percentage in the Western Conference.

Two days after losing forward Blake Wheeler and defenseman Nate Schmidt to injury, the undermanned Jets skated out of Rogers Arena with a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.

Winnipeg improved to 9-4-1 on the road and, overall, to 20-9-1 for 41 points in 30 games. Rick Bowness's squad sits one point behind Central Division-leading Dallas, but has two games in hand. And the Jets' .683 points percentage is a hair better than the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights, who fell 5-2 at home to the New York Islanders on Saturday and now sit at .682.

"Every single guy brought their 'A' game tonight," said goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who picked up his 16th win of the year. "Our details were right, they were battling so hard, and we were controlling the game."

The 2020 Vezina Trophy winner, Hellebuyck is in a familiar position — leading all goalies in minutes played, shots faced and total saves. He was also 5:24 away from recording his league-leading fourth shutout of the season before Bo Horvat beat him with a power-play redirect for his 22nd of the year and Vancouver's only goal of the night, in garbage time. 

With a large and rowdy group of their own supporters in the stands, the road team took control of the game right from the opening faceoff. Jansen Harkins peppered two quick shots at Canucks goaltender Spencer Martin on the first shift of the game, and after Tyler Myers was whistled for interfering with Axel Jonsson-Fjallby at 2:20 into the game, it took just 31 seconds for Kyle Connor to get his team on the board with his 13th of the year.

"If we can, we like to attack and try to create some chances off the rush," Connor explained of the Jets' power-play strategy. "(Pierre-Luc Dubois) made a great pass and I had a lot of time there. Just picked low blocker."

Last season, Connor broke out with 47 goals and 93 points. He also picked up an assist on Saturday as he extended his personal point streak to eight games and moved into a tie with Josh Morrissey for the Jets' scoring lead with 34 points — once again, a 93-point pace.

Dubois finished with three assists and first-star honors against Vancouver. The 24-year-old is now up to 33 points for the year — a career-best pace for him.

So the Jets' stars came to play. But their right-wing position is decimated with Nikolaj Ehlers, Mason Appleton and Saku Maenalanen all on the shelf, along with Wheeler. On the blueline, Logan Stanley has been available for just seven games this season and Schmidt is now out with a shoulder ailment. On Saturday, Bowness said that none of his injured players are expected back for at least four weeks.

The hole on the right side opened up an opportunity for 33-year-old journeyman Sam Gagner to log his first multi-point game of the year. He picked up a goal and an assist while skating on a top-six line with Connor and Dubois. And Schmidt's injury gave defenseman Kyle Capobianco a chance to chip in the game-winning goal. An off-season free-agent signing, the 25-year-old was playing in his first game since Nov. 19 and just his fourth in a Jets uniform when he fired a slap shot from the right point past an unsuspecting Martin at 5:30 of the second period. 

Later in the second, Neal Pionk added another blueline blast, this time from the left point, and increased Winnipeg's lead to 3-0. Gagner and Jonsson-Fjallby added the insurance goals in the third before Horvat closed out the scoring.

The Jets' turnaround this season is particularly impressive considering they settled on Rick Bowness as their new coach following the failed courtship of their first choice, Barry Trotz.

After spending three seasons as an assistant coach and 28 games as interim head coach with Jets 1.0 way back in the 80s, Bowness returned to town this fall with guns blazing, stripping Wheeler of the captaincy and challenging his leadership group to help improve the club's culture. 

It's working. Even in the face of adversity, Winnipeg is playing well at both ends of the ice and finding ways to win.

"I think we're playing really fast this year and that's a big part of it," Connor said. "You're going back, you have outlets for the D-men, you know where the puck's going. Play simple, play quick and once we get the puck, you have different skill sets to be able to make choices."

Always important, a strong start can be especially crucial when a team is undermanned. The Jets outshot Vancouver 11-3 in the first period and, as Bowness pointed out, didn't give up a single scoring chance in the first 20 minutes.

"Starts have been a focal point," Connor said. "We had a couple of stretches there where we didn't come out right, so we've been stressing that recently. It's a lot easier playing with the lead than it is chasing the game."

In a season of comebacks and lead changes across the league, Winnipeg is rock solid. The Jets are now 9-0-0 when leading after one period and 13-0-0 when ahead after 40 minutes.

Now. they'll be challenged to keep that positive momentum alive through a busy stretch — and a lot of travel — leading into the three-day Christmas break. Sunday, they'll finish off their road back-to-back at Climate Pledge Arena against the Seattle Kraken. Then, it's home to Canada Life Centre to face the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday before heading east to visit Boston on Thursday and Washington on Friday.