Winnipeg Jets left wing Kyle Connor scores on Detroit Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Oct. 30. Connor is quiet and does everything he can to not draw attention to himself. But his teammates and coach notice the command he has on the ice.Carlos Osorio/The Associated Press
They are the best team in the NHL – on an extraordinary run – having won 13 of their first 14 games. But, outside of Winnipeg, there is not much in the way of conversation about the soaring Jets.
The same is true of their best player, Kyle Connor. He is an elite scorer but, because he plays in Manitoba rather than Manhattan, he may be the league’s most underrated star.
He shrugs it off.
“I’ve been asked about that a lot throughout my career,” Connor said on Thursday as he stood in front of his dressing stall at Canada Life Centre. He has a mouse beneath his right eye from a dust-up last weekend with Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov. “I think it is mostly a function of playing in a small market.
“I’m not focused on that at all. I am just focused on what I can control: the details and how I arrive at the rink. I am just trying to be the best teammate I can and do what I can do to help the team win.”
With a victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday, the Jets would improve to 14-1 and lay claim to the best start in NHL history. At this point, they have the league’s best record, the most goals, the top power play and the best goalie in Connor Hellebuyck.
Who would have seen this coming? Certainly few outside the organization. Last season ended with a shattering 4-1 series loss to Colorado in the first round. The same fate was suffered the year before against Vegas.
“This all started in the summer,” said Josh Morrissey, one of Winnipeg’s alternate captains. He is second in league scoring among defencemen this season with 16 points.
“We kind of challenged everyone to come in and be in better shape than they ever had been before, and to work on things they felt they needed to.
“Did I think we’d be sitting here at 13-1? Who knows. There is a lot of hockey left but so far, so good.”
On Thursday night the Jets avenged last postseason’s defeat when they beat the Avalanche 1-0. They didn’t seem to go into that game carrying much of chip about last season’s failure. They are Winnipeg personified. Nothing gaudy. They simply go about things quietly, almost to the point where people don’t notice.
Winnipeg? It is famous for its ballet.
Connor was selected the NHL’s second star for October, during which the 27-year-old recorded a point in all 10 of the Jets’ games and set a league record by scoring a goal in seven consecutive outings to start the season.
He has cooled down a bit but has nine goals and 19 points through 14 games. His career highs are 47 goals and 93 points in 2021-22.
“I’ve been asked if this is the best I have ever played but I don’t look at it that way,” Connor said. “The things you really focus more on as a player are the chances you miss and the plays you don’t make.”
Connor is quiet and does everything he can to not draw attention to himself. But his teammates and coach notice the command he has on the ice.
“People don’t see a lot of the simple plays he makes because he makes them at such a great pace,” said Mark Scheifele, the veteran centre and alternate captain. “He has great tenacity. He’s like a dog on a bone when he goes to get the puck.”
Scott Arniel, Winnipeg’s first-year coach, goes on and on when asked about Connor’s skill. Arniel previously was a head coach in Columbus and an associate or assistant coach with the Jets, the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals.
“He is a goal scorer,” Arniel said. “He is not afraid to get inside and has great ability to find open space. I have coached some real good goal scorers over my years and he is in the top five in the way the puck comes off his stick. He is as fast as anybody.
“He has the demeanour where he wants to score a goal on every shift. He is in attack mode all of the time.”
The Jets’ start, of course, is unsustainable. But they have piled up 26 of a possible 28 points. Those will come in handy when they go on an inevitable skid. Two points count the same in November as they do in April.
“We are finding ways to get in games, to stay in games and get the outcome that we need,” Arniel said. “You go into every game hoping and planning to win but it doesn’t always work out. We are real happy and real excited about what’s happened, but we still have 70-odd games or whatever to play.”
The Jets are also battling history, not in a hopeless Maple Leafs kind of way, but there are skeptics. On a flight to Winnipeg this week, a fan was asked what she thought about the red-hot start.
Fewer than 13,000 spectators attended each of the Jets’ home games this week in an arena that seats 15,004.
“We’ve seen all of this before,” she mused. “Talk to me in April.”
Connor understands.
“It’s not something that happens overnight,” he said. “It is something that we have worked on for years. That’s been the main focus: How can we get better as a group and improve. We know we have a championship team here.
“It’s not always a straight line to the top. You’ve got to learn, you’ve got to develop. You’re kind of seeing that.”
Jeff Baquiran has been a season-ticket holder in Winnipeg since 2011, when the Atlanta Flames relocated. With the exception of contests played without fans during the pandemic, he has attended 541 of 543 of Jets’ home games.
Even he has been taken aback by their performance this season.
“If you told me the Jets would go 13-1 over the first 14 games, I would have said, ‘I’d like to have whatever it is you are smoking,’” Baquiran said. “It’s a shock, but it’s a good shock.”
“I started off with one jersey that I bought on an impulse, one turned into 10, and 10 turned into 20. Now, if I were to count I must have 35 to 40 in my closet.”
His seat is in the last row of the arena, up by the organist. But he never sits. He stands for entire games.
“The cushion is still in mint condition,” he said.
