The Winnipeg Jets are off to a flying start, stamping themselves as a Stanley Cup contender

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — There was an unforgettable moment during the Florida Panthers’ on-ice celebration last June after winning the Stanley Cup. Panthers coach Paul Maurice was being interviewed by the Canadian television network Sportsnet, talking about what finally winning a title meant for him and his family.

And then he paused.

“If I could have one thing more,” Maurice said, looking directly into the camera for part of his answer, “it’d be for the Winnipeg Jets to win the next Stanley Cup.”

To clarify: Yes, Maurice would like his Panthers to win it again. But Winnipeg — his most recent coaching stop before coming to Florida and a city he still holds dear — looks very much like a club that could win it all.

The Jets, even with losses in two of their last three games, are 16-3-0. They have woken up alone atop the NHL standings every day for the last four weeks. They will lead the league after 20 games for the first time. A win Friday in Pittsburgh would tie the Jets for the fifth-most points after 20 games in NHL history with 34; only four teams have had more, most recently the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks (37).

“You’re pretty amazed, a little bit,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “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 alone is impressive enough and screams volumes about how good the Jets have been in the first quarter of this season.

There’s a slew of other numbers to marvel at as well.

They’re 15-0-0 when allowing three goals or less. They score on 35.7% of their power plays, best in the league so far. They’re winning by 1.79 goals per game, another league best. They entered Wednesday second in goals per game and fifth in goals-against average. And they have incredible balance — the Jets have 11 players with at least 10 points, the most in the NHL. The rest of the league, on average, has six players with at least 10 points.

Oh, and last year’s Vezina Trophy winner is even better this year. Connor Hellebuyck was the league’s best goalie a year ago after finishing 37-19-4 with a 2.39 GAA and .921 save percentage; this year, he’s 13-2-0 with a 2.20 GAA and .923 save percentage.

“Winning is hard work,” Hellebuyck said. “You can tell the guys have really bought into it.”

It might be hard work, but the Jets — who started 14-1-0, the first team in NHL history to win 14 of their first 15 games — are making it look easy.

They lost at Tampa Bay and Florida last week, then returned home and beat the Panthers 6-3 on Tuesday night. A pair of empty-netters made the margin look bigger than it really was, but the Jets also jumped out to a 3-0 lead to take control.

“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 had a hat trick in Tuesday’s win.

Like he said, the road — literally — gets tougher from here for the Jets. They start a six-game road trip in Pittsburgh and will play eight of their next nine away from Winnipeg. Continuing to win at an 85% pace seemed unlikely anyway, and the schedule surely won’t help.

“That is a very good team,” said Maurice, who has a daughter who still lives in Winnipeg. “They play the right way.”

The Panthers are Maurice’s fourth team. He started in Hartford in 1995, two seasons before that franchise relocated to Carolina. He coached Toronto for two seasons before returning to Carolina, then spent nearly nine years as coach in Winnipeg before stepping down there in December 2021.

He left a good team in Winnipeg and loves the city. Winnipeg’s adoration for hockey hasn’t always been reciprocated by the sport; it had an NHL team, then lost it in 1996, then got another one in 2011. This one is not the original Jets franchise, but when hockey returned to Winnipeg the Jets name got to come back as well.

“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."

Obviously, it gets cold in Manitoba. But those outdoor rinks won’t be frozen in June, when the Stanley Cup will next get awarded. There are plenty of contenders, the defending champion Panthers among them.

The Jets look very much like they’re right there as well — they would love to shake off first-round losses the past two seasons — which might make what Maurice said on the ice back on June 24 strangely 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,” Arniel said. “It’s great. It’s flattering. But somehow, we’ve got to get through 82 games before we can worry about that.”

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