After an impressive Game 2 win, 5 reasons to start believing in the Winnipeg Jets

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WINNIPEG — These are the Winnipeg Jets the NHL was supposed to be afraid of.

It took nine games, multiple injury recoveries from multiple star players, and the St. Louis Blues’ near-destruction of Connor Hellebuyck. It took a Game 1 wakeup call, two days’ worth of video, and an ill-timed four-minute penalty by Tyler Seguin. It also took good luck and the good decision to retool Winnipeg’s defence corps.

But Josh Morrissey, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Gabriel Vilardi are all back in the lineup now. Hellebuyck is back in top form, dazzling in the second period on the way to his first playoff shutout since 2021. Suddenly, the Presidents’ Trophy winners look like a No. 1 team again. With Sunday’s Game 3 looming, the Jets have given themselves the opportunity to go ahead in Round 2 — and it’s taken every aspect of Winnipeg’s game hitting its stride to do it.

After their 4-0 win over the Stars on Friday, here are the five biggest reasons to believe in the Jets as their Round 2 series shifts to Dallas, plus a critical seed of doubt.

Hellebuyck is back

Hellebuyck tried to warn everyone.

Speaking in the Jets dressing room before Winnipeg’s second-round series, Hellebuyck said the weight had come off his shoulders in Game 7 of Round 1. He said he’d found himself, that Winnipeg’s Game 7 win had given him a second chance, and that he was ready to make the most of his opportunity in Round 2.

“This crowd believes in me, this team believes in me, as much as I believe in myself. That’s dangerous. That’s when things get going and things get rolling,” he said.

It would have sounded like false bravado had Hellebuyck not (finally) admitted that he did start to question himself after getting shelled and pulled three times against St. Louis. It would have been a blip without what Hellebuyck did to the Stars on Friday in Winnipeg: a 22-save shutout and a series of highlight-reel saves.

None of his saves were more impressive than this second-period robbery of Evgenii Dadonov:

OH MY CONNOR HELLEBUYCK pic.twitter.com/JQiM1Pipgd

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 10, 2025

“I locked eyes with it,” Hellebuyck said. “It didn’t go right on his tape so I had a little bit of time.”

If Hellebuyck is as locked in again as he looked on Friday, the Jets are going to be a problem. He’s capable of stopping anything that he sees and the Jets are doing a much better job clearing his sightlines against Dallas. Dylan Samberg and Neal Pionk had a massive game in a matchup capacity against Mikko Rantanen on Friday, with Rantanen drawn into a high-sticking penalty as a partial result of an early, effective boxout by Samberg.

The Stars may not have the same chaos-creating horses that St. Louis did, despite superior overall skill. It’s a series Hellebuyck can win, regardless of his first-round stat line, and he appears to be satisfied with his own game once again.

“I broke it down and built it back better,” he said after Game 2.

Better? Yeah, that’s a reason to believe in the Jets.

The Jets have reassembled the No. 1 power play in the NHL

Nobody scored more goals per minute of power play time than the Jets this season. A string of injuries that began with Vilardi on March 23 and included Ehlers, Scheifele, and Morrissey kept the Jets’ top unit apart until Friday.

Morrissey’s Game 2 return restored the Jets’ full arsenal of weapons and led to a goal.

Winnipeg spent the night pulling the Stars’ PK unit out of its structure, then moving the puck down low and driving to the net. Ehlers forced a tough save from Jake Oettinger early, then set Vilardi up for the game-winning goal.

“If you look at video from the previous games, you try to find things you can do better, things that are open and I think we were able to find those tonight,” Ehlers said.

Gabriel Vilardi has his first of the 2025 #StanleyCup Playoffs 🫡 pic.twitter.com/23lMms6xdP

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 10, 2025

There are a lot of reasons why the Jets’ top unit works so well together. All five of Vilardi, Ehlers, Scheifele, Morrissey, and Kyle Connor are elite offensive players. They can each burn teams in a variety of ways, depending on where they’re set up at any given moment. The Jets’ coaching staff has done a tremendous job of drawing up options that Winnipeg’s top-end talent can exploit.

Give Davis Payne credit here: The Jets’ assistant coach’s video sessions have led directly to multiple Jets goals this year. Combine it with the number of weapons on display, the options available to each puck carrier, and the speed to create entries and recover loose pucks, and consider that the second unit has weapons, too: Cole Perfetti scored a big goal in Game 7 via a redirection set play.

But the Jets’ top unit reunion is a recipe for Winnipeg’s power play to skyrocket from 13th of 16 playoff teams.

Morrissey’s back and Winnipeg has its pairings sorted out

The Jets didn’t remotely ease Morrissey back into the lineup in Game 2. He led all Jets skaters in ice time, blocked two shots, led the Jets in transition, and contributed a power-play assist. You can also see Morrissey box Wyatt Johnston out and then clear the puck out of the crease in the Hellebuyck video above.

Morrissey’s return to the lineup restored the Jets’ season-long top-four: Morrissey/DeMelo and Samberg/Pionk. It also allowed Winnipeg to go to a third pairing of Haydn Fleury and Colin Miller after that duo outplayed Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn in Morrissey’s absence. Winnipeg moves the puck up ice with greater success in this configuration, while fewer plays die at the offensive blue line. Stanley and Schenn worked hard, with Schenn in particular having a massive Game 7, but the Jets have now dressed their most effective six defenceman for the first time these playoffs.

Here’s how Arniel used his top four in Game 2:

• Morrissey/DeMelo: A mix of top-nine competition, primarily against Johnston and Matt Duchene’s lines
• Samberg/Pionk: A harder match against Roope Hintz’s line with Rantanen and Mikael Granlund

Samberg and Pionk were phenomenal in Game 2, but give credit to Fleury and Miller for winning the shot share against Rantanen, too. The pairing got outscored 8-2 in 150 minutes together this season but they carried an edge in shot attempts and expected goals, according to Evolving Hockey. Winnipeg’s awful on-ice shooting and save percentages while they were on the ice may have kept the Jets from trusting a viable duo.

Either way, Winnipeg’s top four has snapped back into place and it makes Winnipeg that much more dangerous.

They’re playing for each other, plus a clean sheet by the Jets’ PK

A block and a clear by Samberg. A breakaway for Adam Lowry. Great sticks by Vladislav Namestnikov and Brandon Tanev to knock seam pass attempts to safety. It’s too soon to say the Jets’ penalty kill is a reason to believe — Dallas went on to hit a post and is still one-for-five in the series — but the effort is there.

More importantly, a lot of the players involved are helping in all areas of the game. Lowry can score this even strength goal because of the incredible fourth line shift that preceded it.

THE CAPTAIN!!! 🗣️

JETS HAVE A 3-0 LEAD IN GAME 2! pic.twitter.com/3bialfMRdB

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 10, 2025

Watch the clip and it’s clear that Lowry wins a race. Check out a shift chart and find that defencemen Thomas Harley and Ilya Lyubushkin were caught on the ice for two and a half minutes and two minutes, respectively, in the buildup to Lowry’s goal.

“What set that up for me was our fourth line, the shift before,” Arniel said. “They had a great shift, they hemmed Dallas, mostly their defence, in their end of the rink. We actually had all three forwards changed on the O-zone possession, and Lowry’s line got out there and finished the job off.”

Hand-off shifts like the one Morgan Barron, Tanev, and Alex Iafallo gave Lowry’s line are some of the most dangerous situations in the game — especially when teams can trap their opponents’ tired players out on the ice. But hand-off shifts take selflessness: it’s hard to want to leave the ice while winning battles and working in the offensive zone. The smart change by Barron’s line put Lowry, Mason Appleton, and Nino Niederreiter in a great position to win the battles that set up the initial shot — and then win the race to the rebound — on Lowry’s goal.

“That’s wearing teams down by being heavy and being relentless,” Arniel said. “That’s a big goal in the game. You’re up two and to get that third one takes a little bit of wind out of their sails.”

Ehlers finally has his launchpad

Ehlers is a point-per-game playoff player for the first time in his career. Yes, it takes a minuscule sample of four games. Yes, he got a lucky bounce off of Esa Lindell’s foot for his first goal and an empty-netter for his second.

It’s hard to imagine a key offensive player needing that kind of result more than Ehlers did these playoffs. He was a part of the Jets’ miraculous Game 7 comeback, finding Connor with the pass that led to Perfetti’s game-tying goal, but there have been misfires alongside Ehlers’ magic moments. It’s easy to point to his 14 points in 37 playoff games before this year and conclude he’s a spent force when the games get tough, but Ehlers is getting better opportunities than he ever has before.

His power play assist was made possible by top unit power play time. His lucky bounce goal came on a shift following a successful Jets PK — the type of shift where Arniel likes to load up offensive talent in the form of Ehlers, Scheifele, and Vilardi, even if it means mixing lines. His empty net goal came because the coach trusted him to play with the opponent’s net empty and the Jets protecting a lead.

These are the types of opportunities that require a coach to believe in a player. In Arniel, Ehlers has found that belief.

“I’m just really happy for him. He was dominant,” Arniel said.

When Ehlers is going, the Jets have two offensive lines they can trust and two defensive lines they can play against anybody. It’s the formula that led to the best regular record in the NHL this season. If it works in the playoffs — as it’s clearly starting to — then Winnipeg’s healthy lineup is a threat to take over the series in Dallas.

Relax: It’s only 1-1 and the Stars have been down this road before

The Stars have been to back-to-back Western Conference finals. They were tied 1-1 with Colorado in the second round of 2024 before winning their series in six games. They were tied 1-1 with Seattle in the second round of 2023 before winning that series in seven games. This 1-1 series scoreline isn’t new ground for the Dallas Stars.

There were also parts of Game 2 where the Jets fed Dallas’ transition offence. Hellebuyck’s highlight reel was a team effort; part of that team effort required giveaways and hope plays in the offensive zone. It also seems reasonable that Rantanen or Jason Robertson will get free on home ice, while Miro Heiskanen is “close” and would be an instant, dramatic upgrade to the Stars in all three zones.

The Jets have done well to tie their series 1-1. They have good health and the opportunity to get on a roll — and, if Hellebuyck is as “back” as he looks — then watch out.

It’s early, but there are signs the Jets are rolling now.

(Photo: James Carey Lauder / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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