The Winnipeg Jets come out of Nashville with a big Central Division victory against the Predators. Winnipeg got up in the first 18 seconds and never looked back as they held the lead for a full 59 minutes and 42 seconds. Nikolaj Ehlers continued his hot streak and the team defense was actually pretty good. Despite the lack of offense, the defense coupled with Hellebuyck’s strong play was good enough to get the win. Here’s what we can take away from last night’s game.

The Winnipeg Jets have struggled to score the opening goal this season. There’s been a number of come from behind victories, which is great, but not sustainable over the course of the season. The Jets need to get off to quicker starts and they did that last night. Patrik Laine finished off a two on one rush with Kyle Connor only 18 seconds into the game. It was a really nice play as Laine had a beautiful carry into the offensive zone. He dished it off to Connor who found Laine back door to open the scoring.

Scoring the first goal is important, especially on the road, as it quiets the building and gets the entire team into the game much quicker. Having the lead also allows the Jets to roll all four lines which helps players stay fresh for the third period.

Nikolaj Ehlers continues to lead the team in goals as he scored his 10th of the season last night. It came off a beautiful pass from Roslovic who spun off the boards and found Ehlers open in the slot. The really interesting part of the goal was seeing the little toe drag as Ehlers released the puck. He changes the angle ever so slightly and gives himself a shooting lane between the defenders legs. You can see it really well from the second angle of the following clip.

Overall, Ehlers has been strong since the season began as he continually creates dangerous chances with his excellent speed and great puckhandling abilities.

The new look powerplay for Winnipeg seems to have fizzled out recently as they went 0-2 against the Predators. A few weeks ago the new units provided a spark with great puck movement and lots of chances, but they have lost their touch recently. The biggest issue seems to be the lack of structure and purpose. The Jets pass the puck around a little bit but don’t have any real objective. They keep it to the outside and slowly work it around without testing the opposition.

While sizing up the play isn’t a bad thing, the Jets have been far too stagnant to be successful with the man-advantage.

The Winnipeg Jets did an excellent job of eliminating dangerous scoring chances for Nashville. As you can see by the shot map, Nashville had a few opportunities from around the net, but had nothing from the higher slot areas.

Even though Nashville had a few chances off scrambles in the crease, the Jets did an excellent job of eliminating everything else from the slot area. Team defense is paramount if a team wants to win and the Jets did a really good job last night.

Once again, Connor Hellebuyck turned in a fantastic game where he turned away 38 out of 39 shots. The Jets did a really good job of keeping Nashville to the outside, but Hellebuyck still came up big with a number of saves in tight. Although he didn’t finish with any highlight reel saves, it was a classic Hellebuyck performance from start to finish. He was calm, swatted away rebounds, and made several saves from being in the right spot at the right time.