The Winnipeg Jets defeated the Dallas Stars 4-3 in the shootout, giving the team a winning record of of 5-2-2. Currently sitting 9th in the league, and 2nd in the division behind the St. Louis Blues, the Jets have to be pretty happy with their start, espcially considering the re-shaped blue-line, missing Mark Schiefele, Blake Wheeler, and Connor Hellebuyck at points through their first nine games.

Eric Comrie remains undefeated, sitting with a 0.915 Save%, and a 2.4GAA through his first two games. As I mentioned yesterday, I think the goal is for Eric Comrie to be able to be a servicable backup to Connor Hellebuyck, provided they are both healthy for the full season, I would say 20 games should be the number to be looking at for Eric. I would expect Hellebuyck to be ready to take the crease in the game against the struggling Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.

Having all of your skaters back and healthy is a huge factor in any team's game, but the way the Jets have been rolling, the addition of Mark Scheifele just a game after the return of Blake Wheeler, they are ready for anything up front. Scheifele, Copp, Ehlers, Dubois, and Connor all had over twenty minutes played, plus Blake Wheeler registering 19:40 TOI. This is a bit of a different narritive than I predicted. While it worked for the majority of the game, getting lines re-situated seemed to be a priority for Paul Maurice once the players started showing where they were at. Lowry, Svechnikov and Stasny all hovered close to the 15 minute mark.

Goals coming from Dubois, Morrissey, and Stasny gave this team a 3-1 lead headed into the third period. Stasny scored by protecting the chiclets and putting his hands up while Nathan Beaulieu fired a shot on net from the point, deflecting in giving Beaulieu his first point of the season. Josh Morrissey beats Holtby cleanly from the goalies left side, of a great pass from Nate Scmidt to find the open guy. The defense has really been buzzing offenzively. Pierre-Luc Dubois puts the Jets up 3-1 on the powerplay by skating in on the juicy rebound given up, and the puck goes in off of his skate.

Pierre-Luc Dubois struggled in the faceoff circle, winning only six of seventeen draws. The rest of the team was sufficient here, so it isn't a big red-flag, especially considering that Dubois sits at 47%. Obviously above 50% is ideal, but this team has 3 very strong centers they rotate throughout the night, as well as some good options for draws from the wingers if need be. After netting his 7th goal of the year, Dubois now sits tied with Kyle Connor for the team lead in that category. The Jets forward depth is still looking to get a few more goals, but all-in-all there isn't much to be worried about up front, especially with Ehlers finding his way.

Off of a defensive zone faceoff, the Jets win, but fail to clear the puck. The biggest issue on this play is that the entire team begins skating up the ice as soon as the faceoff is won, leaving nobody left to defend. Jamie Benn parks himself right out front of Comrie and gets a pass, and waits the goaltender out to bury an easy goal. This is something I have mentioned several times. The Jets need to find a way to keep somebody in front of the net. So many goals have been scored on this team from within 2-feet of the crease. Headed into the third down two, the Stars get a powerplay and capitalize halfway through the period after putting lots of pressure on the Jets. Dylan DeMelo does a good job tying up the man out front, but there is a big scrum of people trying to swat at the puck which eventually leads to Jason Roberston scoring his first of the year. Hard to really blame anybody in perticular on this one, but clearing the crease, again, is something to work on.

Just three minutes later...wow. John Klingberg on the powerplay does an incredible job dekeing, and putting his patience on display, as he recieves a pass up to the point, and as Jansen Harkins comes to defend him, Klingberg puts the moves on and "breaks his ankles" if you will. I will give credit to Harkins, he has a pretty solid game, and has lots of defensive abilities, but holy crap, he looked like a fool trying to defend that. All the credit goes to Klingberg on that one. After making Harkins stumble, he moves over and rifles a shot on net which was credited to Tyler Seguin on the tip-in.

In the shootout, Mark Schefele is sent out to win the game, as each teahad one goal, and Comrie just made a stop on Radulov. Schefele, in his first game back, puts on the moves and shows incredible patience, waiting for Holtby to bite first, and then smoothly moves over to his backhand to put the puck in the empty cage to win.

Another solid performance by this team as a whole. It wasn't a fantastic game, but they got the job done. Coming up Friday the Jets take on the Blackhawks, who shouldn't be taken lightly despite their 1-7-2 record, as they are coming off of a 5-1 win against the Senators.

Apologies for the later article than usual following a game, but non-the-less, here it is. Make sur eyou let me know your thoughts below in the comment section, I will respond to the ones I can this evening.

By Jacob Billington
Follow @JacobBillingt10

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