Last June, during the Florida Panthers’ celebration after winning the Stanley Cup, there was a memorable moment when coach Paul Maurice was being interviewed by the Canadian television network Sportsnet. Maurice was talking about what winning the title meant for him and his family when he suddenly paused.
“If I could have one thing more,” Maurice said, looking directly into the camera, “it’d be for the Winnipeg Jets to win the next Stanley Cup.”
To explain further: Maurice does want his Panthers to win again. However, Winnipeg — his previous coaching team before joining Florida — is a team he still cares about and has great hope for.
The Jets, even after losing two of their last three games, have a 16-3-0 record. They have been at the top of the NHL standings every day for the last four weeks.
If they win on Friday in Pittsburgh, the Jets will tie for the fifth-most points after 20 games in NHL history with 34 points. Only four teams have had more, with the most recent being the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks (37 points).
“You’re pretty amazed, a little bit,” said Jets coach Scott Arniel. “At the same time, these players, they do have to recognize that it’s an amazing feat what they’ve done so far. But we’d like to just keep this going a little bit longer.
At the end of the day, they’ve got to be awfully proud of what they’ve done. It’s historic, but I can’t stress enough … it’s how we let the last game go and get on to the next opponent.”
The record itself is impressive, showing how well the Jets have played so far this season.
There are many other stats that show how great the Jets have been. They are 15-0-0 when they allow three goals or fewer. They score on 35.7% of their power plays, which is the best in the league. They are winning by an average of 1.79 goals per game, another top stat. They are second in the league for goals per game and fifth for goals-against average. They also have great balance as a team, with 11 players having at least 10 points, the most in the NHL. The average for the rest of the league is six players with 10 points or more.
The Jets’ goalie, Connor Hellebuyck, the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner, is even performing better this year. Last year, Hellebuyck finished with a 37-19-4 record, a 2.39 GAA, and a .921 save percentage. This year, he’s 13-2-0 with a 2.20 GAA and a .923 save percentage.
“Winning is hard work,” Hellebuyck said. “You can tell the guys have really bought into it.”
While winning is hard work, the Jets — who started 14-1-0, the first team in NHL history to win 14 of their first 15 games — are making it seem easy.
They lost games against Tampa Bay and Florida last week, but then returned home and beat the Panthers 6-3 on Tuesday. The two empty-net goals made the win look more one-sided, but the Jets were leading 3-0 early and had control of the game.
“It’s just a sign of a lot of good character in this room that we wanted to bounce back and we wanted to have a good game in front of our home crowd before we go on the road for what feels like forever,” said Jets forward Mark Scheifele, who scored a hat trick in Tuesday’s win.
As he mentioned, the road ahead will be more challenging for the Jets. They start a six-game road trip in Pittsburgh and will play eight of their next nine games away from Winnipeg. Continuing to win at such a high pace is unlikely, and the tough schedule won’t help.
“That is a very good team,” said Maurice, who has a daughter still living in Winnipeg. “They play the right way.”
Maurice is coaching his fourth team. He started in Hartford in 1995, two years before the team moved to Carolina. He coached Toronto for two seasons before returning to Carolina, then spent almost nine years coaching in Winnipeg before stepping down in December 2021.
He left a strong team in Winnipeg and still loves the city. Winnipeg’s love for hockey has been strong, even though the city lost its NHL team in 1996 and didn’t get a team back until 2011. The Jets’ return to Winnipeg after the NHL team was brought back in 2011 created a special bond for the fans.
“It probably has to lead the league in outdoor rinks, I would think. It’s a real thing,” Maurice said. “It’s that connected to the game. And then to have a team and to lose a team and get their team back, there’s an understanding of how special it is to have an NHL team in your town.
So, there’s a connection to the game there. I think it is cultural, but it’s also geographic. A lot of people spend a lot of time hoping to play hockey up there. And you can.”
While it’s cold in Manitoba, those outdoor rinks won’t be frozen in June, when the Stanley Cup will be awarded. The Panthers, the defending champions, are still strong contenders.
The Jets, too, look like strong contenders — they’d love to overcome their first-round losses in the past two seasons. This could make what Maurice said on the ice last June feel prophetic.
“He talks often about how much he liked it here, how all the things that went on for him put him in a place to win a Stanley Cup,” said Arniel. “It’s great. It’s flattering. But somehow, we’ve got to get through 82 games before we can worry about that.”
