The Winnipeg Jets have struggled on this west coast road trip so far, dropping their opening 2 contests to the LA Kings & SJ Sharks while just managing to score 1 goal on opposing tenders. As a result, the True North franchise’s record has dropped to 9-5-0 to start the NHL’s 2025-26 campaign.

With injuries disrupting the plans of head coach Scott Arniel from the start of the season, our favourite hockey team has not played nearly as well as they did during their President’s Trophy campaign. Yes, the overall record isn’t that bad comparably (18 pts versus 26 pts last yr) considering we never really expected the Jets to break out to another 13-1-0 start.

Yet the underlying data is not very encouraging, especially when I dig into the numbers for 5 on 5 play (a key area that often reflects how successful a club will be in the playoffs). Before I breakdown what I feel is significant, here is what I came up with for a comparison of the Jets’ last two seasons:

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Starting off with the Goals For categories, despite dropping 6 spots in the overall rankings, Winnipeg is only on pace for 6 less 5 on 5 goals than last year (170 vs a projected 164) and their Goal For per Game number is almost identical. Unfortunately the Goals Against stats aren’t as positive, with the Jets dropping from the top of the league down to 8th overall. While a 0.34 increase in goals allowed doesn’t sound huge…it would project to an extra 27 pucks beating our goalies in the regular season and considering how often Winnipeg are in close games, those goals could be the difference between a number of wins or losses throughout the year. The final column in the top row of the chart shows the overall impact of the two previous categories, putting our hockey team in the top 10 for Goals %, down from #1 last year (a 5.99% decrease).

Moving to the 2nd row of stats is where the wheels really fall off this year’s Jets squad….with the Corsi & Fenwick data displaying huge drops in efficiency. Even when Winnipeg was at the top of the league last season, they never played a high shot volume style of play…but they did manage to barely get more shots than the opposition on a game in, game out basis (low top 10 finishes). In 2025-26, things are looking a bit bleak with a 7% drop for the Jets in both stats to sit near the basement floor of the NHL. Besides just informing us about the shots for & against, these statistical categories also give the readers a good idea of who is controlling the puck when the Jets are playing at even strength. So the numbers above probably confirm your feelings that Winnipeg has been spending way too much time in their own end this year. To hammer home that point, here is how MoneyPuck has the Corsi % data laid out for each of the True Northers’ 14 contests this year (5 on 5 play).

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These troubles could be explained if the Winnipeg Jets had a very tough schedule to start off the season, but the reality is the opposite is more accurate. About 72% of the games have been against non-playoff teams from last year and even this season’s data doesn’t show a high quality of opposition. Here are some facts about the teams we have played to date:

Through 14 matches, the Jets have only played against 3 clubs that have a firm hold of a playoff spot early in the season:  Pittsburgh Penguins (T-2nd), Utah Mammoth (T-6th), & the Dallas Stars (T-11th).  Record of 1-2-0

Winnipeg has also another 5 games against teams on the Wildcard line, such as the Los Angeles Kings (twice), Philadelphia Flyers, Seattle Kraken, & the Chicago Blackhawks.  Record of 3-2-0

In these contests, the True Northers have played 4 times against squads that are in the top 10 in Goals For this season: Pittsburgh Penguins (2nd), San Jose Sharks (T-6th), Minnesota Wild (T-10th), & Chicago Blackhawks (T-10th).  Record of 3-1-0

The Jets have also played 4 clubs with top 10 least Goals Against this year: Philadelphia Flyers (5th), Seattle Kraken (T-8th), Utah Mammoth (T-10th), & Chicago Blackhawks (T-10th).  Record of 2-2-0

Only 2 franchises Winnipeg has played have managed to be in the top 10 in 5 on 5 Goals %: Chicago Blackhawks (3rd) & Utah Mammoth (8th)  Record of 1-1-0

When it comes to the Expected Goals % (5 on 5), Winnipeg has clashed with only 3 teams in the top half of the NHL: Calgary Flames (6th), Utah Mammoth (7th), & Philadelphia Flyers (14th).  Record of 3-1-0

At this point, I probably should switch gears and move onto tonight’s clash against the Anaheim Ducks or retitle this article to something else. Unfortunately this change won’t make the conversation any nicer, because the long-time bottom feeders have officially emerged from the rebuild and are playing some amazing hockey at this point. The Ducks (10-3-1) have been excellent early on with the help of young talent like Leo Carlsson & Cutter Gauthier, sitting 2 points back from the NHL’s top spot while netting a league-high 59 goals. Not only that, but Anaheim is entering on a 6 game winning streak (8 out of last 9) that included a bunch of highly thought of disappointed opponents (VEG, DAL, FLA, NJ, & DET). Here are the Ducks’ leading scorers from ESPN:

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The Winnipeg Jets (9-5-0) are sitting in 9th place in the NHL entering Sunday’s action (9:00 pm Central start), but are winless on the current road trip. In a tight battle with the Dallas Stars & Utah Mammoth for 2nd in the Central Division, it sounds like our team should be getting players like Cole Perfetti, Dylan Samberg, Morgan Barron, & Gustav Nyquist back in the near future.

Not everything has been bad for our club early on, in particular the play of Connor Hellebuyck and the True Northers’ top line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, & Gabriel Vilardi….as seen in the graphics below from MoneyPuck & ESPN:

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Here is how ESPN has the team & goaltender comparison numbers for tonight’s late night game (9:00 pm Central start):

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The “morning” skate won’t occur until 1 pm Central, so we will have to rely on how PuckPedia is predicting the lines for both teams at this point:

WINNIPEG JETS LINE UP

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ANAHEIM DUCKS LINE UP

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I doubt that Nikita Chibrikov will remain in the line up after taking a couple of penalties last game, so the revolving door will probably continue tonight. Sounds like Cole Perfetti is one full practice away from returning…..but with Winnipeg having games every second day for the near future, it is unknown when that will take place.

The likes of Jacob Trouba & Jansen Harkins will suit up against the franchise that drafted them when the Winnipeg Jets try to find a way to stifle the Anaheim Ducks deadly offense. I am also guessing the Lukas Dostal will get the start tonight and he has played very well this season.

With all of that, I don’t see a reason why the True Northers won’t see tonight’s opponent as a real threat….so I hope to see them come out ready to enforce their will for a full 60 minutes. Enough of hoping that the rope a dope strategy will get them an undeserved victory and time to unleash a forecheck that creates turnovers & offensive zone time.

Go Winnipeg!!!!!

PS: I totally forgot that the Manitoba Moose played their 4th straight game against the Texas Stars last night….likely due to having to suffer through watching 3 straight losses. Anyways, just about to watch the replay but thought I would let everyone know that the mini-Jets mounted a comeback victory last night. It began with David Gustafsson netting his 3rd goal of the season (8 pts to lead team), then Fabian Wagner jumped on a loose puck from a blocked Brayden Yager shot to knot the game around the mid-point of the 3rd period. A mere 25 seconds later saw former 1st round draft pick Colby Barlow snipe his 1st goal of the season (12th gm) off a feed from Danny Zhilkin to give the Moose a win. Former 1st rounder Yager picked up a pair of assists to give the rookie 6 pts in his first 12 AHL contests, while goalie Thomas Milic (.917%) made many big saves to limit the Texans to 2 goals.

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POST-GAME INFO

I will post the scoring summary immediately after the game’s conclusion, but won’t update the MoneyPuck stats until Monday morning. Check back then to see the numbers and read what I thought of the Jets’ performance.

Scoring Summary: (courtesy of ESPN)

FINAL SCORE:  

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Game Stats: (courtesy of MoneyPuck)

Expected Goals (all): 

Expected Goals (5on5):  

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BOJA’s post-game thoughts will be added early Monday morning. Go Jets!!!