The Hockey PDOcast - Jets Beating the Stars, the Significance of Winning the Central, and Comparing This Year’s Team to Last Year’s Version

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Murat Ates to deep dive the Winnipeg Jets, the significance of their win vs. the Stars Thursday night, and why this year's version of the team is better heading into the playoffs than the one that crashed out last postseason. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dmitra Filippovich and joining me for the first time this season, belatedly, my good buddy, Murat, what's going on, man? Dmitri, I am so happy to be here. I have poked, I have prodded, I've had my army of Jets fans at you on Twitter and Blue Sky. Happy to be here. I got to acknowledge there was certainly a popular and vocal demand. to make this show happen. I have to admit the reason why I've been putting it off is no slight to you.

I've had you on many times before. I'm a big fan of your work. I think you're one of the best in the business at covering teams. Locally, I've just covered the Jets so much this season, kind of sprinkling them in on every show because I've been so fascinated by them. I've loved watching them play so much. And so I feel like we've almost done our due diligence in passing

just because they've been constantly at the front of our minds. But if there was ever a week to do so, it would be this one. The Jets had a pair. of big matchups against the blues, against the stars. They won both very impressive showings in different ways in both of them. And so I thought it would be a good time for us to get together and do this. And I was also reflecting, since I haven't had you on yet this season, on our shared journey together, right?

Because I feel like the two of us have done some truly miserable shows together over the years during the bonus years in particular. So I think this is going to represent a refreshing change. The tone of this one will surely be much more positive and uplifting than those were. Last night's game between the Jets and the stars, I'm not sure if you felt this way, but I had been kind of building it up

and that meeting on Thursday as arguably the single most important regular season game of the year, given the stakes, the path in terms of winning the Central, drawing Wildcar 2 at round 1, enjoying home ice throughout, first the alternative of finishing second,

having to play this BuzzSaw-Aves team right out of the gate. And so I view this as a very, big game, I think Jets fans watching it, it must have been a deeply enjoyable experience because of the result. Ultimately, it didn't really wind up containing that much suspense. It was pretty close early on, but the Jets pulled away the way they have done regularly this season.

And so in terms of like entertainment value, maybe didn't meet all the hype we had heading in. I would have to agree, actually, with that. So let's, yeah, let's think. You know, the Jets have had a few of these games in recent memory where it's, a highly tattered opponent. This is the second time they've played Dallas since the trade deadline. They just played St. Louis. They had a huge game against the Washington Capitals. And almost all of those had fireworks in them. And this one didn't. It really didn't. It was one of those playoff style close checking, appreciate good defense at times type of matches. I might even argue

through the first 40 minutes that Dallas got closer to Connor Hallibuck than the other way around. Not that it was a whole series of Great A's. I'm not trying to paint it like that, but it wasn't a clear-cut victory one way or the other. The Jets made a couple of key plays. They stuck with it. And maybe almost more importantly characterizing this year's Winnipeg Jets compared to the past because they've been spectacular in the past and then they've crumbled at times. I think that they just stuck with it.

it and it's the same thing they did against St. Louis. When space was tough to come by in the offensive zone, they kept playing their game. You had skilled players stay tenacious. You had Kyle Connor sort of picking moments to use speed, picking moments to attempt when board battles, all that sort of stuff that just shows me a more resilient. And I want to use the word tenacious again, team that just sticks two things until things go their way. Yeah, I came away from that game thinking that as well. It felt like they stuck to their preferred script until they were able to pull away and they've been kind of

delivering an endless supply of these types of efforts all year right? This game, this win, of course, the reason why it's so big is because it gives them a six point cushion with three games left. The next point they get or the stars lose will clinch that central division for them. But this 4-0 win on Thursday marked their league leading 31st win of three or more goal margin

this season to put that number into perspective. The lightning of 28 of them, their second. No other team has even 25 yet. I believe the Kings are third at 24. So that's a significant portion of these that at least the score by the end of it hasn't really been one of those coin flips or up for debate. They outshot the stars 35 to 25, as you said. It was much closer through 40 than they really kind of put the pedal to the metal and took over in the third. They controlled 57% of the score adjusted 5-1-5 expected goal share. And to me, it kind of emphatically really, reinforce maybe what I've been watching heading into it, right, in the sense that I've been

very wary of this Stars team heading into the postseason because they seem deeply flawed to me. There were so many underlying markers under the hood at 5-on-5 over the past month that have been deeply troubling for their postseason chances. And then you could see that in this game where the defenders really let them down in these isolated incidents, right? Matt Dunba getting caught deep a couple times in the offensive zone, not having the foot speed at this point of his career to recover defensively and transition across zones.

I think it was the first goal, the Nieder Rider tip, where Cody C.C is essentially just enjoying life, hanging around, vibing, not really covering anyone in front of the net, and Eideri is able to coast in through the slot and tip it, whereas this Jets team is arguably devoid of any of those real flaws. Like, I'm going to try really hard to keep this positive

and not bring this into a Logan Statenin conversation again for the million time, but beyond that, and that's something that can be minimized as you wrote about in your takeaways at the athletic, Scott Arniel did a really good job of keeping Stanley and Shen away from Rupa Hintz's line in this game and really minimizing their exposure and they could get away with it in doing so. And so all things being equal, it felt like a deeply flawed team against one that is almost flawless. I honestly see things the same way. Dallas has been winning against the flow of play. And I'm sure you've touched on that a whole bunch of times in a whole bunch of ways.

amazing goaltending at times for long stretches. And what you didn't see from them was a dominant five-on-five team yesterday. I did think that they had moments of clever stretch passes and quick movement through the neutral zone that sort of tried to get Winnipeg on its heels. But you had an incredible amount of back pressure from the Winnipeg jets from top to bottom. And even on that Niederider deflection goal where he ends up all alone in front of the net, not only the defenseman, but also Granlin, goes to Lowry and Morrissey at the top of the zone and it leaves needer-eyed all alone. Well, that place starts with the Dallas Star's breakout and Mason Appleton

back pressure on Mason Marshman of the stars. Adam Lowry closes it off, takes away the pass attempt, all five jet skaters touch it, and then it turns into the goal that Winnipeg gets. That is an incredible five-man team effort. It is completely emblematic of the Winnipeg Jets that it was their third line, the Lowry line, that got it because they're the ones that most consistently play what you would think of as ideal Winnipeg Jet Hockey. But otherwise, it's a top to bottom thing. You're getting that type of performance by and large from the skill players, the quote unquote soft skill players.

There's somebody on every line at least that's playing that type of game. And I think I have to agree with your sort of takeaway that it was not Dallas at its best. And maybe they'll get there once Sagina or Heiskenen or whomever comes back. But I didn't view Winnipeg's opponent and the game that they got out of them as as tough against Dallas as I did against St. Louis earlier this week or Washington last week. And I think that says something here in the Western Conference right now. And I think it also says something about the Winnipeg Jets that they've consistently brought their A game against that type of competition. Certainly. I think for Dallas, it's kind of an unavoidable trend at this point. I mean, since the Four Nations break and we're going on 24 games now,

we like to use that 25 game bucket towards the end of the season to represent what teams are looking like heading in. They've been outshot by 200 shots on goal in those 24 games. They're giving up a league high 33 shots against in this game. And as I said, the Jets registered 35 of their own. Two of the four goals came from Kyle Connor, bringing him up to 40 on the year. That top line in Gabe Valardi's absence with Alex Alifalo, filling his spot has really caught my eye. I know you've written about this as well. I'll give you

a couple stats and then I'll let you take the wheel here. 126 5-1-5 minutes for those three. They're up 7 to 3. 63% of the high danger chances, 60% of the expected goals according to natural stat trick. And I might be in the top percentile of Gabe Valardi appreciators. I love his skill set. It's such a throwback. He can do stuff with the puck and using his frame that so few guys in today's game can. And certainly on the power play, I think yeah, it's a whole different dimension

that they're missing. But at 5-15, seeing IA follows added foot speed and his ability to kind of like pursue off the puck, get back defensively, certainly crash the net, the singular focus he kind of has when he doesn't have the puck

and either Shifley or Connor does, I think it's been valuable resources to this line. And so I don't think it's a surprise that the 5-15 metrics have improved as much as they have in this time. I think that's a testament to everyone involved, but also an incredible development. Because once it already got hurt, I was worrying that the bottom was going to drop out. I thought he was such a valuable component to this line and not to take away from his contributions,

but they've not only picked up the slack where they left off, but even built on it during the stretch. Yeah, it's an interesting case where the Jets have so much depth that often it gets unsold or undersold, I think, Leaguewide. Like if you're not a Jets fan and you look at it, the stat tables and you see Kyle Connor and Mark Schifley where they are in scoring, or maybe you see how the Jets power play has been at or near number one all season long, you think, okay, my goodness, this is an all top heavy offensive sort of group. But when Valardi goes down and you pull Alex Zia follow up from the fourth line and he has

those kinds of results and those kinds of impacts, you realize that actually, you know, probably the true strength of the Jets under the hood is how well built they are from lines two to four on any given night. With Aiafalo, he does bring a little bit more footspeed than Vilardi, for sure he does. The other thing that he does, and he won't ever match Vilardi's, his fast twitch with the puck on a stick, his sense of vision in the offensive zone, those sorts of things. And Vilari, to his credit also, it has a good stick when he's backtracking and trying to get on the forecheck and all that sort of stuff. But nobody is more tenacious than Alex Ayahuah is, and he's forechecking with great roots. He's great, great second quick puck support in the offensive zone, defensive zone as well. He'll back check all the way to the post and he'll get dirty right in the dangerous areas of the ice.

So when you're looking at those sort of where does this game get played stats, like expected goals or high danger chances, which are really about prime real estate for me, right? Like location matters most. You can see a player of Alex IFO's skill set specifically, kind of complimenting Schifley and Connor who can go to town in the offensive zone. zone. And even Kyle Conner's breakway goal, the gorgeous one that he scored, the third goal that Winnipeg got against Dallas starts with him making a bit of a hopeful play at the offensive line, but because there's all kinds of back pressure, and actually it's Luke Shen, I think who wins the puck back for the Jets. Because they have that two-way element to their game, Winnipeg wins the

puck back. All of a sudden, Connor has an incredible offensive chance, and he does what he does best on the Winnipeg Jets, which is finished from that close. I think Conner, I might add. Yeah, go for it. Just on the Kyle Connor thing, lots of opportunities to talk about him at all facets of the game. But the last time that he scored this many points, right, he just scored 94. It's a brand new career high for him. Three seasons ago, he hit 93 on a team that didn't make the playoffs. At 5 on 5, he was minus 3 that season, despite 93 points.

This year, I think he's plus 20. That's a 23 goal swing at 5 on 5 from a guy that got 90. 93 points to a guy that got 94. And credit to the linemates, I follow at times, Volardi at times. But Kyle Connor himself has gone a long way towards becoming a more cromulent defensive player as well. Oh, I think he deserves a ton of credit. Listen, I've been quite critical of his 5-on-5 limitations over the years for all the sniping

ability and high-end scale he has and everything he does with the puck. The effort and involvement were always a big question for me in terms of coasting or cheating for offense. And that was reflected. This isn't even an analytical take. Because something is something is simple and undeniable, as you said, which is 515 goals for versus against and showing you, all right, regardless of the points, is your team winning your minutes when you're on the ice? Since 2018, 19, he went minus seven, minus one, minus two, minus three, plus one and zero last year. And as you said, they're up 64 to 43 with him on the ice of 515 this year. So that represents a massive improvement. And I think a lot goes into that and he certainly

deserves credit for it in terms of answering a lot of the questions that I had previously. The other thing we saw in this game is the return of Nick Eilers and Neil Pionk, Pionk being paired with Sandberg. I'm going to talk more about Samberg in a second here. I certainly couldn't have you on the show without spending a good chunk of time diving into Sandberg and what he's done this season. But what I loved about Eilers' game here is I found out that he's actually had eight fights in his NHL career, I don't know how I've missed it. And it's quite an impressive fight log in terms of opponents, right? There's Getslath, Perry, Braden Shen, Brennan Smith, Colton Sizzins, Brad Marsha, and certainly not shying away from mixing it up with tough opponents. And I love the, as I

tweeted out the clip, the synchronized glove drop between him and Sam Steele here is absolutely mesmerizing if you haven't seen it. It's very artful, maybe reflective of a guy who had had seven fights previously, so certainly not new to this. But I don't know what else there is to add about Eelers, other than, of course, he's so integral to this team and adds such a different dynamic. And you didn't even see that much of it in this game and they didn't need it. But just moving forward, I think what him and Perfetti have been able to do this season and the different options that provides for the Jets is going to be absolutely essential in any

playoff series, especially once you start going deeper and playing truly elite competition. Yeah, Nikolai Eilers hasn't had a ton of playoff success before. before and he gets criticized fairly heavily in Winnipeg because of that. But he is an enormous part of when you look under the hood of the Winnipeg jets and see the middle six strength of Lowry's line or Nemestikov, Profetti, and Eilers have been absolutely wonderful throughout most of this season, goal differential scoring chances, the actual amount of offense that comes at the end of the day. And Eelers has, as always, been a driver in that.

He's been hurt a couple of times. once earlier on in the season when he came back there was a bit of a five to ten game swoon it was one of the few undynamic portions of his career i would say they were just out of sync and even last night against dallas there were moments where there were timing plays that just weren't working but i'll tell you one thing about nikolai euthers that i don't think people talk about is his appreciation for that sort of team first physical symbolism of hockey culture and when he broke his foot blocking a shot against the the blues in 2019 playoffs and tried and like played the rest of that shift and tried to come back in that series. I think it meant a lot to him. You know, when he was consistently declaring himself healthy, though he wasn't, I think against the Vegas Golden Knights two playoffs ago, it's because he buys into the lore of the game. And so the fact that he has eight fights, I think I would prove to many he's not a wallflower. I think it means a lot to him to stand up

for himself and his teammates. And last night, what happened, I think, was just a heat. to the moment thing. He got a punch and then offered the fight, the beautiful synchronized glove dropping. I did see your clip. People should check it out. And then he hangs in there. And Sam Steele might be the smallest guy of the bunch that he's fought. I just think that when you see somebody makes such highly skilled plays and such creative ones, it's very easy to forget that they're also wired just like that. And Nikolai Eilers is. For his sake, I hope he quells some of those playoff demons. And if Winnipeg goes deep, it will be because that was. was an absolute fact that the middle six contributed and he was an enormous part of that.

But it really sets the stage for an important playoffs for him, especially because he's a free agent at the end of all of this. Yeah, not to mention he is 13th in the league this season in points per 60. So yeah, I mean, he rocks. I don't have anything to add on that. I think he said that really well. Another guy that rocks Connor Hellebuck. So this shutout gave him his eighth shout out of the season.

I believe that's more than 27 teams have. 45, 12, and 3, and a 60 starts. 26 of those 60 by my count, he's given up one goal against or less. He has a 9.25 save percentage at this workload in a year where the league average is 900. And here's the craziest side of all. He's played 21 games in division against central division opponents. He's given up 28 goals in those 21 games, and he has a 949 save percentage. So talking about taking care of business and winning the division games, he has been

incredible. I mean, he's been incredible in every game. And as you said, the, the shot total at the end of the day here wasn't really high. He faced only 25 shots, but early on, especially, he was probably getting the better end or the worst end, I guess, depending on your perspective of the looks compared to what the Jets were generating. And he didn't give up anything. He was flawless yet again. And it's interesting. I'm very curious to see how this plays out because looking at the, at the hard trophy market, he's in a dead heat right now with Leondry. cycle and I imagine that's a decision that voters are going to be obsessing over and trying to wrap their head around heading into ballot season but he'll win the

Vesna at the very least unanimously and it was just another latest in a series of vintage performances by him. Yeah, the back-to-back Vesina, that's a lock. You can take that one home and that's been the case for a long time. I got my trophy award balloting today. from the NHL. And I started thinking about it. I started poking around maybe a little bit more than I have of late.

And when you look at Connor Hellebuck, who I have given a first place heart trophy vote to before, that was in 2020 when the Winnipeg Jets defense was Lucas Spiza and Carl Dahlstrom and probably Nathan Bollioux and other waiver wire additions. And they managed to make it within the precipice of the playoffs before the same. season was interrupted. That felt like a given to me, though the market didn't agree. This year, though, he's coming into this season already having received the sixth most points in the Hart Trophy ballot last year. He finished sixth last year. And that was in a season where Nikita Kuturov had 144 points. He didn't win. Nathan McKinnon did at 140 points, I believe.

Austin Matthews had scored 69 goals. All of the superstars, the elite of the elite, had healthy all season long. How about now, though? Trial Caprisov goes out hot to start the season gets hurt. Connor McDavid in the 60s in terms of games played. He hasn't been at his absolute best. Leon Dreisidal has missed games. Austin Matthews has missed games.

And you're going to finish in a world where the Art Ross Trophy winner, I think Nikita Kutrov currently has 116 points, could cross over 120. That is a huge deficit compared to the last year when Hellebuck finished 6th. I would argue, like you laid out in the stats, Hullabuck has been even better this season compared to last. He's lapping the goaltending field in all the key categories. He could become the fifth goaltender in NHL history to lead all of the major stats,

wins, shutout, save percentage, goals against average, I realize it's a team stat, but also goal saved above expected. So if ever there were a year for a goalie, you have one who has played that much better than the field in all regards. You have one who's led his team to the top of the end. NHL standings. And you also have a field of Hart Trophy candidates that's let the door open, probably more so this year than in recent past. So I mean, as recently as two days ago on Hustler's show here in Winnipeg, I was arguing, oh, I don't know. I don't know if the market will get into it.

I could still see them picking a skater. The more I think about it, the more strong, I believe, Hallibuck's heart case to be. And I could see that being a realistic outcome this June. Yeah, on the one hand, as you're comparing it to some of the previous, teams we saw him playing behind. This one is undoubtedly much, much better. Defensively, Sport logic has them given up the fewest slot shots this season. There's a certain structure and connectivity and buy-in, as we said, from a guy like Kyle Connor that I think differentiates them from Jets teams of the past. Yet the stat that I just told you, forget the eight shutouts and how impressive that is. For me, the one goal against or less in 26 games this year just increases

your margin for error as a team so substantially to the point where it's like, all right, we just need to find a way to manufacture one goal tonight and we'll at the very least have a point to show for tonight's game and then have a chance in overtime or shootout. If we score two, we're winning is just such an incredible feat to me. And he's such a big part of the identity of this team. They are going to most likely win the president's trophy as the best team in the league this regular season and he's the reason for it. It's interesting because like when you talk about a goalie that way, I think we're so used

to propping up net minders who are doing this in adverse situations, right? When a guy like John Gibson is standing on his head stopping 45 shots and 20 of them high danger for a Ducks team and you're like, man, like he, this is the definition of most valuable because without him, this team would be getting killed seven nothing, but instead he found a way to steal this game for him. Hunter Alibuck doesn't necessarily have to do that on a night and a night basis. So like his his job requirement is a bit more simple or easy than that. But for me, just the consistency. see at a position that's so volatile and so difficult to pin down like that is what separates him

from especially all of his peers certainly and then you start talking about goalie versus skater and all that fun stuff um all right here's the next thing i want to talk to you about and i know you wrote about this as well recently so i really want to spend almost the rest of today's show just deep diving it and that is identifying the differences between this year's jet's team and last year's Jets team, right? I think that's the question everyone wants to know after we all got burned in such eye-opening fashion last postseason when the Jets crashed out in round one and got exposed and quite frankly humiliated by the abs in that five-game series after the regular season they'd had and everything Hela Buck had done and all the questions that posed and raised, they come back with this

season. And I think until people see it, they're not really going to believe it, right? Especially if we get a round two rematch against the abs, with how good the abs will look. I think there's going to be a ton of skepticism, people saying, well, we saw what happened last year, and so I'm not getting fooled again. And I think that's fair to an extent. My pushback would be that I just think this Jets team, despite having a ton of continuity and a lot of the same faces in place, their profile is dramatically different, in my opinion, all across the board. And there's certain personnel that plays into that as well. But for me, like the starting point is the 5-1-5 performance, right? Where last year, despite the goal, share, they were kind of like a 50 to 51% team in every metric we care about, shots, chances, expected goals. They were outperforming that, of course, because of the finishing and the goal tending. The start of this year, they were kind of humming along that same pace again, and it looked like a repeat.

But since the four nations, 52.4% shot share, 59% high danger chance share, 57% expected goal share. Those last two categories are both second best in the league. The next teams behind them are the Keynes, Panthers, Avs, and Kings. to reflect the rarefied era and good company that they're holding in those stats. And so for me, I think that's the starting point here, right? Like the 5-on-5 profile and stuff under the hood that we're seeing is just different not only than last year, but maybe even than what we saw in the first 50 or so games this season.

I think that that is a completely fair and accurate take. And those numbers that you addled off are substantially better, even than when Winnipeg won eight games in a row to end, last season. And I think a lot of people got high on the jet supply at the time thinking, well, hey, you know, they've rattled off all these wins. They beat Western Conference contenders like Colorado. I think it was, was that the 7-0 game? And outscored people dramatically over the course of that stretch run. And they were doing it on finishing. They weren't doing it necessarily on this controlled flow of play that they have. Even their top line last year of Kyle Conner, Mark

Shifling Gabriel Vallardi got outscored over the course of the season and outchanced. It was one of those situations where they were often winning against what you would call the flow of play. The acquisitions at the trade deadline that they made, Sean Monaghan, really helped the power play. He was a wonderful bumper player and I think was a big part of the power play's resurgence at the end of last season. Wasn't as dynamic at five on five and Tyler Toffoli slowed things down a bit at five on five as well. You get progression and you get that team's heartbroken because it did get embarrassed by the Colorado Avalanche. Not just these incredible goal totals the Aves put up against them, but the throttling of five-on-five play,

the speed that the avalanche attacked with into cutbacks, into seam passes, into net drives with multiple layers of traffic, it was an absolute master class and the Jets were a step behind and then some. So you look at some of the shots Hallibuck faced and they came after a seam team two layers of traffic and you're wondering like, okay, are we supposed to blame him for this? If you watch the video, if you really watch the video, the buildup, that was an absolute rushing performance by the avalanche against the Jets. This season, what you're finding is that the Jets floor is way higher. Their ceiling is higher as well.

And their consistency of day-to-day play from one game to the next is on a level that last year's team couldn't match. And for this, I almost have to go vibes. You go to last year's exit interviews with these players and with coaches, and you heard Josh Morrissey telling us about how he hopes things hurt, how he really, really hopes things stung over the course of the summer. And from to a player, they were acknowledging some of their flaws, some of their needs for improvements, maybe in similar words to what we'd heard before, but to be there in the room. And I wrote to this effect as well, I had heard these types of exit interviews, for seven, eight seasons at that stage. This was a unique push.

This was a unique change in emotional tenor amongst these young men that I've watched grow up over this last most of a decade. And so I believed that they had a chance to come close to what they did last season. I didn't predict this. And I think it's been about their consistency, their tenacity.

The last word that they read, I think before heading out onto the ice in Winnipeg right now is relentless, is one of the buzzwords taped or painted in, on their way out onto the ice. And they've largely been that. There has been a consistency of effort that means the process has been like the floor.

The absolute worst you'll get from the Jets process on any given night is actually a very good hockey club. And they were way more inconsistent than that last season, even when they were getting all the accolades. All right. Let's take our break here, actually. I've got so much more on this that we're going to get into as soon as we come back. You're listening to the Hockey Ocast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.

All right, we're back here on the Hockey PEOCast. I'm joined by Marauditasch. We're talking about the Jets and their performance on Thursday night in essentially sealing up the Central Division against the Stars. Before we went to break, we were discussing some of the initial differences between this year's version of the Jets and last years to provide reason for encouragement that they won't suffer a similar fate. The first was the 5-1-5 performance and the uptick we've seen there.

I think the second obvious one is the power play, right? I know you noted how post-traded line after they acquired Sean Wanahan, it gave them a bit of a different look at utilizing the bumper and it improved, yet they still finished the year 24th in goals per hour with the manned advantage this year. They're leading an entire league. Their first, they're averaging 11.2 after just 6.5 per hour last year. And I'm curious for your take on the reasons for that. some of the differences I had Jack Hawn on earlier this season. He was talking about some of the

interesting breakout looks and zone entries that they were creating to help facilitate that. I think the obvious one is Nicole Ailer's finally being on the top unit of powerplay, and he's got 22 powerplay points this year after, I believe, just 28 over the past three seasons combined. Regardless of the changes, it's gone from weak link and liability to one of their bigger strengths. And as you look ahead to the postseason, we know how when it becomes more difficult to manufacture goals, if your opponent makes a mistake, it takes a penalty, you need to find a way to punish them for it. And this year's team feels much more equipped, I guess, to do so in any given playoff series. Yeah, this is an extremely well-prepared power play under Davis Payne, well-name is the

assistant coach responsible for it. And it is night and day compared to last season. For me, actually let's start here. Nikolai Eelers, you talk about him and you want to talk about zone entries. Would you believe the Jets don't run their power play zone entry through him? And yet they gain the line consistently anyway. Like it's primarily a Conner and Shifley thing. And they've got a couple of different passing options as they get to the offensive line. When Eelers was promoted, I think that's what everybody thought.

It's going to be an entry machine and that's where the excellence is going to come from. for him it's probably been more about two things one is the speed to which he gets to loose pucks on a missed shot on a shot attempt on a rebound on any situation where there's a bit of a chaos his foot speed and commitment to get to the wall get the puck back on a jet's player's stick if you're looking for reasons why winnipeg's power play has just a few percent more dangerousness to it it's the speed of their puck retrievals is a big thing but way more than that and even bigger than that is sort of a difference in options that they have this season compared to last. And it's night and day.

Last season, they could win an offensive zone face off at one end, I'll say the right circle. And everybody would pause until they got into position with Shifley on the left wing halfboards. Like there were so few different configurations from which they could be dangerous. They tended to reset at one almost no matter what happened. and yes, they had a really dangerous triangle between Scheifley on the half wall, Volardi beside the net and Monaghan in the bumper position. But that was it.

They were sort of wasting Kyle Conner on the far side with one-timers from distance that are, for a guy that scored 40 goals, that's actually one of the ways he's the least dangerous. You want to get him a little bit closer if you can or get the goalie moving a bit more. And Josh Morrissey was a bit more of a bit player in that as well. This season, one of the biggest strengths is that no matter which

Jet's players in possession of the puck on the power play, they have multiple options available to them. Not only that, but those options are moving and trying to take advantage of little, a few feet this way, a few feet that way to create more space for themselves. So even if Sheifley starts the play on the half ball, which is often where he's been in the past, all four players are moving off the puck. He does have the Gabriel Valardi option beside the net as he's historically had. Valardi, when he gets the puck, has so many different options. And this is what makes him the best probably at that position. There's a slingshot play into the high slot that you see all sorts of power plays make,

but Valardi has a few net drive plays with different outcomes as well, including a drop step into a pass across the crease to Connor, a fake move of that exact same look where he actually holds it short side. And that triangle, you know, we'll call it the, the shifely Valardi and then who's ever in the slot at the time often Nikolai Eelers is also mirrored

on the other side of the ice where Nikolai Eilers is doing that Volardi drop step and you have Kyle Conner integrated into the play far more often and you're getting him shots from closer in the sort of murderer's row nightmare of a penalty kill being like which threat do we have to

identify the most and commit to? Well Winnipeg can create multiple different threats out of the same look no matter which skater has it. And that's why you're seeing this power play soar in terms of efficiency. I believe in them, even though there's some crazy finishing stats to it, if you just look at the number of options they create and the speed that they move the puck, you tend to believe that when Valardi's healthy,

it's going to be another enormous strength for them in the playoffs. Yeah, there's certainly an element of precision to it that really pops off the page. The other difference between this year's team and last year's version are two, personnel upgrades in my opinion. Now, one of them was a very self-inflicted one, and I think you know what I'm going to say, but Cole Profetti played 10 minutes and 56 seconds total in last year's round one series against the abs because our old pal, Rick Bowen, has decided to give us one final gift by keeping them out of the lineup until the elimination game five.

And even though the offense is kind of relatively similar to what we saw last year, I think we've certainly seen strides from them as the years progressed, as you'd expect. I just feel like in a postseason setting, especially in a series against the abs in round two or against the Golden Knights in the conference final or whoever they wind up facing if they progress to that point, they're going to need, what I find fascinating about the Jets is they create so much of their offense more so than the other top teams in the league through team concepts, right? Like with that continuity and how everything gels together,

they execute so many short connective passes to get to where they ultimately want to go. And sometimes in these games, there's going to be chaotic moments where there's plays broken down or things aren't working for you or maybe you're facing a team that is pressuring you quite heavily like an abs team would with their skating ability. And you need someone who can make someone miss one-on-one and can sort of create a scoring chance or a goal at a thin air. And Eler certainly has that to his game. Connor does as well, but I feel like having another option to do so in Perfetti is so vital

for their chances in being able to beat teams in different ways and not just relying on what they do throughout the regular season. And so I just feel like having him in a prominent role as opposed to last year where he was the odd man out for whatever reason is a massive difference when looking at this team's chances compared to what we saw from them in those five games. Yeah, if you go back to those playoffs and all those healthy scratches and when they put him in for game five and he was sort of cold started into that series, he did create a couple of dangerous chances in the third period against Colorado ultimately not enough. And he was probably outpaced in the bulk of that game, possibly because he hadn't been playing. I also want to

give Cole Profetti a ton of credit for different things that he's added to his game. And one of those things is, and maybe credit Mark Schifley, because the two of them, and I've written about this, There's a mentorship aspect there where when you're a smaller player like Perfetti is, how are you going to make your space? How are you going to get that extra inch of space on the ice or create a few feet out of that inch? And one of the things you're seeing Cole Perfetti do right now is engage in contact on his way into every wall battle. He is the first one to instigate contact, even if it's his stick swatting a stick, if he's rotating quickly from his hips or shoulders, just trying to get a piece of the player on his way into the corner.

and usually what you're finding, because he is a very quick small area player, is if he can get that few inches, he gets the puck first and gets it to a safe space. I think that's the biggest piece of his evolution. But what's always been there is this incredible hockey IQ. And when you put him in the offensive zone, which you're accomplishing by playing him, especially with Elyers and Nemesnikov as well. And when you have that board battle winning ability, he's added to his game, he gets into the offensive zone a lot.

Well, now you've got a guy that thinks faster than the defense that's covering him. And you want to talk about making a guy miss. He scored a highlight real goal against Vancouver where he waited for Derek Forbert to turn his feet. And then he ultimately scored and soared as he got tripped on the ensuing place. So, you know, a goal of the year candidate. And it's because he's thinking faster than his coverage. You know, that's consistent whether it's Forbert or elite defenders as well. And what you're finding with him is that this thing that I tried to write all summer long.

Watch out, guys. There's a viable top six forward here with PowerPlay one upside that would ideally be signed long term. If you're the just looking for cap efficiency, he's going to hit. He's going to bake. He's going to make it. Well, he's doing exactly all of those things. I look forward to seeing him sort of rise to the challenge of playoff physicality and all that sort of stuff. We'll see if there are hiccups or not.

But you want options. You want weapons. Winnipeg has those. He's one of them. He certainly is. And I arguably intentionally saved the best for last. And that's our guy, Dylan Sandberg. So I think his emergence here is an incredibly important thing to consider because, you know,

rewinding to that playoff series, he played 1303 per game at 515 in that series, which had him less than Nate Schmidt in the three games he played. The one game Colin Miller slotted into was essentially being used in a third pair of bearing P.K. Roll. Fash forth this season, he's averaging over 18 minutes per game at 5-1-5. He's, as has been documented here, a monster defensively. In those minutes, the Jets are controlling 56% of the shots, 54% of the chances, 54% of the expected goals.

And I think in particular where the benefit is going to be found if they do bump into Colorado again is last year, because of the way their defense was oriented, you wound up in a spot where Josh Morrissey had to play 50 of his 96 minutes, some more than half of his time out there, head to head against the Nathan McKinnon line. And I'd argue that's not ideal, given what they need from Morrissey from a creation perspective and chipping in offensively and not having to necessarily just spend all of his energy and time worrying about and chasing McKinnon out there. And instead, this gives them a very viable option with Sandberg out there and how good his stick is. You could see it on Thursday night. There were

a few plays kind of around the goal line or below the hash marks that he would just break up and then immediately send a quick little connective pass so they could get out of the zone and he does that time and time again. And so the value of that is all of a sudden not only do you have a very good option to match up head to head against other team's top line and we saw him and Pionk play about half of Miko Randonin's minutes last night at 515 in Dallas where they didn't have last change. It'll also presumably free up Morrissey and Demello to cook a bit more offensive. and add on that under the ice.

And then all of a sudden, you're almost merging the best of both world. So I feel like Sandberg's development here and what he's meant to this team and what he provides is arguably the biggest sort of difference from what they had heading into last year's postseason. His progression year over year may be the best story on a team full of great stories this season. I love, you've seen me online, right? I love when you and your guests have taken moments to appreciate Dylan Zabberg's progress because it's that kind of almost quiet defensive stalwart player who's pretty good at moving the puck as well that gets unsung right that's a that's a type of player that floats under

the radar in a lot of ways and instead i think people are beginning to recognize you know thanks in part to your discussion of him that this is a an elite top four defenseman you know this is a this is somebody on the precipice of a real greatness in a top four role for a lot of years to come and it's because almost in that Jacob Slavinmold or Slavin, I pronounce his wrong name incorrectly every time I say it. When you see a player make a really intelligent block or stick check or something that kills the play quietly, often you assume that that was the only option.

He eliminated the only threat, the primary thing. But if you pay attention to those elite defensive defenders, well, their body's positioned such that their sticks on puck and their stick is prepared for a couple of different options. Their body's position so that they can take passes away with limbs, if not the stick. And then they're ready for shot blocks as well. Their feet are moving quickly so that they can respond to shifty opponents as well. Like they're handling multiple problems all at the same time, even if there's only one outcome that ends up happening.

They were ready for more. And I think that that's one of the underrated elements of Dylan Samberg's game is there's a, there's like a defensive IQ element to him where he reads what he's getting and makes the right decision more often than not. And that's why you're seeing him have such great possession numbers and alongside the shot blocks and play kills and all the different things that he does. One of the things he's definitely added to his game is what happens next. When he kills the play, now the puck's on his stick, well, is that going to be a quarter second or a half second or a whole second before he's got his next plan? And hockey is a whole series of,

of these micro decisions, he is getting the puck onto teammate sticks in better positions even quicker or a lot quicker even than last year. And it means that instead of feeling like, where's Brendan Dillon? You're thinking, wow, the Jets actually upgraded in that top horse spot. And if you miss Brendan Dillon, well, maybe it's in a third pairing sort of role. But then they picked up Luke Shen. So they seem at least like the physicality aspect of that is covered off. Yeah, not only as Sandberg made himself a nice chunk of change this summer,

but he's also earned his defense partner, Neil Pionk, some more extra money coming his way, certainly as well. I think the one final thing that I want to talk to you about was exactly, you mentioned Shen there. I was pretty critical at the Jets at the deadline. I'll obviously acknowledging that I'm sure Kevin Shelday off explored various options and maybe some guys either didn't want to waive there, no trade clauses or didn't want to come,

and they just weren't fits for that reason. And so they wound up going the direction they did. yet for me it was still a bit tough to reconcile that a contender of the position they're in left as much unused cap spaces they did with some of the lingering question marks in various spots in the lineup both up front and the blue line now what they did do is they brought in Shen and I think he's been very useful on the ice but also this unquantifiable that I know you're certainly familiar with value off the ice in terms of the vibes and what a good guy is and how much everyone loves him and building off all this goodwill this jet's team has created this season and but also Brandon Tanniff, who has been awesome in his role, just absolutely, as you'd expect, flying around like a maniac, the 5-on-5 numbers in his 16 games of the Jets are incredible. You see what him and Baron are doing the fourth line and the look that gives and the value that provides in that sort of situation.

And I just compare that to what they did last year, where obviously the Powerboy was such a weak link that I think that was part of their logic, but in going out and bringing in Monaghan and bringing in Tofoli, while those are clearly in a vacuum superior players who are much more productive, and I think all things being equal you'd rather have, in this case, two very slow players at this point of their career who wound up being thrown into this series against an absolute tornado

and just got blown off the ice. And now all of a sudden, you can, I think, instead of just being the recipient or victim of that, maybe initiate some of that yourself with some of these additions. And so I find that interesting, kind of compare and contrast the two approaches in what they wound up doing. But I think TANF certainly has provided a very nice element to them and one that I would probably was undervaluing or maybe discounting at the time it happened.

Well, there are, I think, two competing truths to Winnipeg's trade deadline. And one is based on a conversation I had with Kevin Shevolday off in January, where he made a point of impressing upon me and another reporter was also there, that that when the Jets last got close to a Stanley Cup, that's 2018, when they got to the Western Conference Finals, ultimately Washington won, he made a point of saying, well, the Capitals just tweaked at that deadline. Like when you have something that you like, that's okay to do. So he sort of did prep us for that. At the same time, though, Winnipeg's plan was not to leave its cap space unused. That was absolutely not it. They were in on Brock Nelson and they were in deep. I

believe that at one point they thought that they'd acquired Brock Nelson. Like that's, that's the level of effort on their part on the night before the deadline that indicates they did identify second line center as a big swing that they needed to take. Now, with that off the table, they weren't going to go big assets into Scott Lawton or what have you or the other sorts of routes that they may have attempted to backfill. So then they make these smart depth ads. Luke Shen answers one question that the Jets had extremely well, and that's that sort of net front defense eliminating plays on the wall, and he does that better than a lot of players do.

His first pass, especially at short distances, is way better than advertised. He can put his teammates in position a Kia breakout. He does get to the offensive zone without a plan, though. You know, just last night against Dallas, Shifley makes a cutback, puts it onto, into Shen's stick. in a situation where so many other defensemen would have a plan of attack and the play just kind of died at the offensive line. But he does do that sort of net front stuff that you saw Winnipeg got schooled at by Colorado last year. Brandon Tadam is an exclamation mark.

Someone online used the phrase Energizer Badger, not Bunny, in terms of his tenacity on the ice. And it sort of caps off a run of Kevin Chaville-Dioffs. I want to highlight before my monologues end, and I appreciate you having me on. But if you go back to Kevin Shaldaoff's trade of Andrew Copp in 2022, the year that they missed the playoffs, not only did all the things bounce right that Picks became Brad Lambert and Alia Salomon's and all of that,

but they got Morgan Barron back in that trade, who you credited just a moment ago, great success on the fourth line. you go to that Pierluge Dubois trade and it's really important that Alex Aiafowl and his hardworking style of play was part of that. He wasn't a throwing. He was a player with a moment like this in mind.

You look at his 2023 trades for Nino Niederrider and Vladislav Nemesnikov and now this one for Brandon Tanev. What you've done is you've maintained the same core of forwards, the so-called soft skill of a Kyle Connor, a Nikolai Eelers, a Mark Sheifley. and you've supplemented them. Every single line has at least one of these players that would win the minor hockey league digger award for their effort level, right?

And I think that that has quietly been one of the most transformative things in terms of getting the Jets from where they used to be, exciting but playoff disappearers to a team that I believe in heading into this stretch run and into the playoffs, which are, geez, a week away. I know. Good stuff. All right. This was awesome. Hopefully the listeners enjoyed it. Apologies for making everyone wait so long for this to happen. Hopefully we made up for lost time. I'll let you plug some stuff here in the way out because I know you've been very busy over at the athletic documenting all of these games for the Jets and all the advancements and everything. Let the listeners know about that and kind of what they can check out from you recently. Yeah, there's been lots of news in Jetsland. You know, unfortunately Chad Lusias out to announce his retirement. So we get into that and Eilers Downlow syndrome, which is a tricky diagnosis to get based on my talking to people. that was a top prospect whose heart must be broken right now. We've had a couple of mailbags that have really let me sink my teeth into questions at length,

which I truly, truly appreciate. Coming up as well, I've had a chance to talk to a lot of different Jets players for a Jets only players' poll. And, you know, if you know anyone from Winnipeg, we're a very proud group that we make fun of each other and ourselves all the time. but when the big markets do it, it hits differently. And so I've got a lot of unique stuff coming from Winnipeg Jets players about Winnipeg and about each other

that I'm looking forward to dropping just before the playoffs start. Awesome, buddy. Well, it should be a really fun postseason. If anyone wants more on the Jets, check out Morat's work. If you want to hear me talk more about the Jets, listen to every PEDAO cast, certainly, but also I'm actually going to be on Winnipeg Sports Talk this weekend chopping it up with the crew there.

I believe we're recording on Sunday. It'll drop on Monday. I honestly, just, you know, full disclosure, I don't have free time to do other hockey content. Like, this show takes up not only all my time, but probably even more than it should. And so I'm generally pretty reluctant to make other media commitments, but they're awesome over there. And I love this Jets team and love watching them. And so I'm going to make a rare exception and hop on to their show. For us, that's all for another week of shows. We'll be back Sunday with our pal Thomas Trans for a jam. Impact Sunday special with some exciting programming news as well. I hope everyone is a great weekend. And thank you for listening to the Hockey PEOCast streaming on the Sports Night Radio Network.