Losing is never fun. Losing is especially not fun after outplaying the opponent for most of the game. The Jets had majority of the chances throughout the night but were rejected by a sprawling Henrik Lundqvist on multiple occasions.

Even though the end result wasn’t good, most of the game was actually really strong for the Jets.

There are a myriad of talking points after this game, but let’s just highlight a few of them as we look at takeaways from game number one.

The biggest surprise in training camp was Heinola. He got his first career start in this one and even managed to score his first ever point as he assisted on Blake Wheeler’s first goal.

Even though Heinola didn’t do much of the work, he’ll gladly take this great career milestone. After the goal was scored, Scheifele didn’t even celebrate the goal as he went to grab the puck as a souvenir. This was also an important play league-wide as Heinola made some history with the assist.

Great for Heinola, and great for the Jets that he didn’t look out of place in his first career game.

With Connor holding out at the start of training camp, it left a hole on the top line alongside Scheifele and Wheeler. Ehlers was the natural choice to fill that role and he flourished in this one. He tallied three assists, all of which were primary assists. Ehlers had a down year last season but he’s looking like a brand new man with the top line. Overall, the top line was fantastic throughout the whole game. They generated tons of chances and easily could have scored another two or three goals.

The other noticeable attribute of Ehlers was his phenomenal speed. Ehlers blew past his defender on the second Jets goal and he looked exceptionally dangerous as he wheeled up the ice. The top line is going to be really fun to watch all season long if they can keep up this pace.

If there was one item that people were worried about, it was the defense. It doesn’t look strong on paper, but on the ice they were actually really good. The interesting part to watch is that Winnipeg is playing a slightly different style to start the year. They are playing with a smaller gap at the blue line to try and force turnovers. The end result is that Winnipeg didn’t spend too much time playing defense in their own end.

There were a few occasions where they got hemmed in, but they largely didn’t have to defend because they kept the puck out of their zone.

The one potential issue with playing so close to the blue line is that if someone gets beat, it leaves a partial breakaway wide open. This happened a few times for the Jets as a Ranger player was able to get around the first defensmen and was left with a wide open lane. Closing those gaps will definitely come with time and the general strategy seemed to be working well for most of the game.

Although the defense was not too bad for the team, the goaltending left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t just that Hellebuyck let in five goals, but he looked really frantic in his crease. He was not playing his usual style with efficient movement and strong positioning, rather he was flailing around the crease trying to locate pucks.

To be fair, a few of the Rangers goals came from excellent scoring chances, but the worrying part is that Hellebuyck didn’t appear calm or composed in the crease. Hopefully it’s just the lack of playing time that caused the rough patch. There’s no need to worry yet as Hellebuyck has bounced back in the past.

Overall, this was an excellent game by the Jets. They controlled most of the play and clearly led in both shots and scoring chances. They were playing with tons of speed through the neutral zone and appeared to have a renewed effort of getting pucks towards the net from all angles.

According to moneypuck.com, the Jets were expected to score one more goal than New York. Even though that didn’t end up happening, it’s all you can hope for as a fan. Honestly, if the Jets keep playing like they did against New York, they will easily find their way in the playoffs at the end of the season.