The win streak is at a modest three games and they’ve won six of their last eight games. The defenseman they just acquired in a steal of a trade has the head coach talking in NSFW tones. As of this morning they are back in a playoff spot and are only just six points out of a top three spot in the division.

Is it possible these @Winnipeg Jets have a magical playoff run in them? Can I allow myself to hope despite all reasonable arguments to it otherwise? True, it was only just the lame duck @Ottawa Senators that they beat 5-1 on Thursday night, but they still sort of count as an NHL club that the Jets beat so that means something, right?

While I try to figure out if I should make playoff plans, here are some other thought’s about the game last night…

The Winnipeg Jets and ‘not starting a game on time,’ name a more iconic duo!

Actually I played this game last night and some of you had some great replies to other notable duos…

Well played.

Anyway, the Jets got out played and pinned in their own zone (mostly because they seem to need a map to get out of their own end at times) for the first 15 minutes of the game and found themselves trailing when @Nick Paul took advantage of some poor Jets defending to give the Sens a 1-0 lead.

The first part of Thursday night’s game flow chart is pretty telling on just how bad the Jets were at even strength play early on.

Thankfully they leveled it off a bit for the rest of the game, but those first 15 minutes were a bunch of yikes. The start of the game was pretty awful and the score could have been much worse if not for two things:

1 – @Laurent Brossoit was pretty darn good in goal.

2 – It was the Ottawa Senators and they aren’t very good. Even with the Jets turning the puck over multiple times, it’s not like the Sens have the skill set or talent at forward to make teams pay for such mistakes. If anything, the Jets defense at least made up for the multiple turnovers and poor zone exits by making sure the Senators had virtually zero scoring chances directly in front of the Jets net.

The Sens then proceeded to bail the Jets out with a couple of penalties that the Jets and @Mark Scheifele took advantage of with a pair of power play goals.

The Ottawa Senators are truly an awful team. Any other NHL club and the Jets are doomed with the start they had, but with the Sens? Meh, it was just a case of giving the dozens of fans who bothered to show up a brief glimpse of hope before snatching it away.

0 goals. 0 points. Not even a shot on goal. It was maybe one of the best debuts by a Jets defenseman ever.

@Dylan DeMelo wasn’t brought in to be a point producer – although one can argue he’s better a that part of the game than say other recently traded defensemen like @Brendan Dillon or @Andy Greene who fetched far higher returns for the teams that traded them. Where DeMelo was going to shine right away was how he defended in his own end and was able to help the Jets with cleaner zone exits which is an issue they’ve had all season and to some degree still struggled with at times when DeMelo wasn’t on the ice.

But when he was on the ice, Dylan played exceptionally well. So much so that Paul Maurice after the game called it “coach’s porn”

And this was just his first night, with @Nathan Bealuieu on the third pairing who is ok, but not exactly a defensive stalwart on the blueline. Part of the problem as well is as part of the third pairing, he was playing behind the third and fourth lines most of the night and both of those lines struggled to get anything of real substance going in the offensive end of things which tilted the numbers in Ottawa’s favor at times.

Get DeMelo on a top pairing with either @Josh Morrissey or @Neal Pionk.

Also, get DeMelo in front of a camera when you can. Multiple people working with the Sens social media and game ops teams raved about how easy and fun he was to work with and the Sens tribute video was a testament to that. You know a guy was loved by the team he was on when you consider Dylan was only in Ottawa for a season and a half and they still did a tribute video to him like he was a nine year veteran…

One thing I wanted to mention after last night’s game is that I feel the Jets are starting to get better – and not just in this game, but in the last couple of weeks – at both protecting the front of their own net and making sure teams don’t have the ability to crash the hell out of it as they had at the start of the season, while also doing a much better job offensively of getting bodies to the front of the opposing goal.

It only took them three months to do both on a constant basis, but at least they are now.

Offensively, the Jets are still taking shots from distance but they are taking those shots with either teammates in front of the net, or with teammates streaking to the net looking for rebounds and second chances. Defensively, as mentioned they still struggle badly with getting the puck out of their end, but at the very least they aren’t allowing for in-close scoring chances around the goal mouth. Rebounds are cleared pretty well and while it still looks chaotic at times, I’d argue the Jets defending is better now that it has been all season.

Again, I feel like we need to temper this enthusiasm with the disclaimer that it was all against the dreadful Ottawa Senators, but Mark Scheifele picking up a power play hat trick (much like @Patrik Laine did the last time the Jets played the Sens) has to be a great sign that 55 is over whatever was ailing him and making him look lethargic out on the ice. Maybe he’s finally over the flu? Maybe the reunification with @Blake Wheeler has sparked his game? Maybe he’s eating better as of late?

Whatever the case, the Jets with a consistently producing Mark Scheifele is a much more dangerous team to deal with and gives one hope for a true run at the playoffs.