SUNRISE, Fla. – There was an unforgettable moment during the Florida Panthers' on-ice celebration last June after winning the Stanley Cup. Panthers coach Paul Maurice was interviewed by Canadian television station Sportsnet and spoke about what it meant to him and his family to finally win a title.
And then he paused.
“If I had one more thing,” Maurice said, looking directly into the camera for part of his answer, “it would be for the Winnipeg Jets to win the next Stanley Cup.”
To clarify: Yes, Maurice wants his Panthers to win again. But Winnipeg — his last coaching stop before moving to Florida and a city he still holds dear — looks very much like a club that could win it all.
The Jets are 16-3-0 despite losing two of their last three games. For the past four weeks, they have woken up alone at the top of the NHL standings every day. They will lead the league for the first time after 20 games. A win in Pittsburgh would give the Jets the fifth-most points total after 20 games in NHL history with 34; only four teams have had more, most recently the Chicago Blackhawks in 2012-13 (37).
“They're pretty amazed, a little bit,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “At the same time, these players need to recognize that what they have achieved so far is an amazing achievement. But we would like to take this a little further. At the end of the day they must be incredibly proud of what they have achieved. It's historic, but I can't stress it enough… it's the way we put the last game behind us and move on to the next opponent.”
The record alone is impressive enough and screams loudly how good the Jets were in the first quarter of this season.
There are a lot of other numbers to marvel at.
They are 15-0-0 when allowing three or fewer goals. They score on 35.7% of their power plays, which is the best result in the league so far. They win by 1.79 goals per game, another league best. They are second in terms of goals per game and fifth in terms of goals conceded. 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 averages 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 is 13-2-0 with a 2.20 GAA and a .923 save percentage.
“Winning is hard work,” Hellebuyck said. “You can tell the guys really got into it.”
It may be hard work, but the Jets — who started 14-1-0 and became the first team in NHL history to win 14 of their first 15 games — make it look easy.
They lost at Tampa Bay and Florida last week, then returned home and beat the Panthers 6-3. Two empty goals made the lead seem larger than it actually was, but the Jets also took a 3-0 lead and took control.
“It's just a sign of the good character in this room that we wanted to get back on our feet and have a good game in front of our home crowd before going away for what felt like forever,” said Jets forward Mark Scheifele, who scored a hat-trick in the win.
As he said, the path for the Jets from here gets tougher, literally. They begin a six-game road trip in Pittsburgh and will play eight of their next nine games away from Winnipeg. Continuing to win at an 85% pace seemed unlikely anyway, and the schedule certainly won't help.
“This is a very good team,” said Maurice, who has a daughter who still lives in Winnipeg. “You play right.”
The Panthers are Maurice's fourth team. He started in Hartford in 1995, two seasons before the franchise moved to Carolina. He coached Toronto for two seasons before returning to Carolina, then spent nearly nine years coaching in Winnipeg before resigning there in December 2021.
He left a good team in Winnipeg and loves the city. Winnipeg's love of hockey was not always reciprocated by the sport; There was an NHL team, then lost it in 1996 and got a new one in 2011. This is not the original Jets franchise, but when hockey returned to Winnipeg, so did the Jets name.
“I think it probably has to be a leader in the league of outdoor rinks. It’s a real thing,” Maurice said. “It has to do with the game. And then when you have a team, lose a team and get your team back, you understand how special it is to have an NHL team in your city. So there is a connection to the game. I think it's cultural, but also geographical. A lot of people spend a lot of time trying to be able to play hockey up there. And you can do that.”
Apparently it's getting cold in Manitoba. But those outside lanes won't freeze over in June, when the Stanley Cup is next awarded. There are plenty of competitors, including the defending champion Panthers.
The Jets also appear to be on the right track — they'd like to shake off first-round losses of the last two seasons — which might make Maurice's words on the ice on June 24 seem strangely prophetic.
“He often talks about how much he loved it here and how all the things that happened for him put him in a position to win a Stanley Cup,” Arniel said. “It's great. It's flattering. But somehow we have to play 82 games before we can worry about it.”
