SI:AM | Jets Make NHL History With Win Over Rangers

Winnipeg has now won 15 of its first 16 games.

Connor is a big reason why Winnipeg is off to a historic start this season. / Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I understand Winnipeg is the city least relevant to a national sports audience, but I promise this is interesting.

In today’s SI:AM:

🩰 NFL’s surprising athletes
🐶 Georgia snubbed
🔮 NFL mock draft

At least some New Yorkers got to see a Jets win

Jets fans in New York had reason to celebrate on Tuesday night. No, not fans of the city’s beleaguered NFL team. Winnipeg Jets fans. Their team beat the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden to maintain one of the greatest season-opening hot streaks in NHL history.

After beating the Rangers 6–3 on Tuesday, the Jets are now 15–1 on the season, making them the first team in NHL history to win 15 of their first 16 games. No other team in the NHL this season has more than 11 wins.

Winnipeg has been thoroughly dominant this season, leading the NHL in goals scored and goals allowed. Its plus-39 goal differential is tied for eighth-best in the history of the league through 16 games, and 16 goals better than the next-best team in the NHL this season (the Carolina Hurricanes). Nine of the Jets’ 15 wins this season have come by at least three goals. That ties the NHL record for most three-goal wins in a team’s first 16 games. Their 73 goals scored are the most through a team’s first 16 games since the 2005–06 Ottawa Senators scored 74. The 1995–96 Pittsburgh Penguins are the only other team in the past 30 years to score at least that many goals through 16 games.

“We know what we’re doing, but we don’t take too much stock in it,” Jets winger Kyle Connor said after Tuesday’s win. “It’s move onto the next one. It’s how can we improve? How can we be better? I think that’s what’s made us successful to this point. Nobody is satisfied.”

Connor is far from a household name but he has been critical to the Jets’ success the past few years. The 27-year-old from Michigan is Winnipeg’s third highest-paid player and led the team with 34 goals last season. He has scored 112 goals over the previous three seasons, which ranks 17th in the NHL.

The Jets have a fairly balanced offensive attack, though, with five players having scored at least seven goals this season. Veteran Mark Scheifele (nine goals, 12 assists) continues to be a threat in the offensive zone and winger Nikolaj Ehlers (nine goals, 11 assists) has been nearly as effective as Connor and Scheifele while skating on the Jets’ second line.

Winnipeg’s high-flying offense alone would have been enough to get off to a solid start this season, but the reason the Jets have been historically great is that they’re able to combine an elite offense with top-notch goaltending. Their defense isn’t all that great (they rank 20th in shots allowed and 22nd in scoring chances allowed), but they have the best goalie in the NHL: Connor Hellebuyck, who leads the league with a .934 save percentage and 1.92 goals against average. It’s dangerous to count on a star goalie to continue to carry your defense by standing on his head, but Hellebuyck, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, ranks second among active NHL goalies in career save percentage. He’s as dependable a goalie as there is.

The Jets have been decently successful in recent years, making the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons, but they haven’t made it past the second round since 2018. Is this the year they finally make a deep postseason run?

Georgia finds itself outside the playoff picture following an upset loss to Ole Miss. / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

The best of Sports Illustrated

• For the latest issue of Sports Illustrated, Conor Orr wrote about how offensive linemen became the best athletes in the NFL.

• Bryan Fischer thinks the College Football Playoff committee isn’t giving enough weight to Georgia’s strength of schedule.

• Kevin Sweeney was in Atlanta for Kentucky’s impressive win over Duke in the Champions Classic.

• Gilberto Manzano argues that the Dolphins’ rough 2024 is going to end up benefitting them in the future.

• Is your NFL team already out of the playoff hunt? Then it’s time to check out Daniel Flick’s latest mock draft.

• Here are Michael Fabiano’s Week 11 Start ’Em, Sit ’Em recommendations for quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers and tight ends.

• The Rays have determined that their home stadium won’t be ready until at least 2026 due to damage from Hurricane Milton.

• Caitlin Clark’s first tee shot at an LPGA pro-am event didn’t exactly go as planned.

The top five…

… things I saw last night:

5. Connor McDavid’s backhand finish after Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’s no-look assist.
4. The Warriors’ tribute to Klay Thompson in his return to Golden State.
3. Ten straight points by Stephen Curry to close out the Warriors’ win over the Mavericks.
2. Karl-Anthony Towns’s impressive assist around two defenders.
1. Jalen Rose’s reaction to Heat coach Erik Spoelstra calling a timeout he didn’t have, costing Miami the game. (Bring up bad memories, Jalen?)