The Winnipeg Jets get off to the best start in NHL history at 14-1-0 after beating the Stars

On By Littum

WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Jets are off to the best 15-game start in NHL history, winning 14 of their first 15 games to build a 14-1-0 record.

A sold-out Canada Life Center crowd watched as Winnipeg beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 to secure the record, getting power-play goals from Alex Iafallo and Nikolaj Ehlers, plus even strength goals from Rasmus Kupari and Vladislav Namestnikov.

The game was a game against Winnipeg’s division rivals – a party, a goal parade. In the second period, with the Jets leading 3-0, the crowd felt comfortable chanting “US backup” at Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger. When Ehlers made it 4-0, the Stars pulled Oettinger from the game and the chants grew louder.

After allowing a goal, Connor Hellebuyck also set a Jets record for longest shutout streak at 191:47, surpassing Ondrej Pavelec’s 187:05 in 2014-15.

Here are the keys to how Winnipeg got off to the best start in NHL history.

The mythical 10 per cent

Winnipeg finished fourth in the NHL with 110 points and 52 wins last season, including eight straight to end the regular season. The Jets’ five-game loss to the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the playoffs was stunning — not just the loss, but Colorado’s dominant play — and it left Winnipeg with a challenging offseason.

“Until you’re the team standing there at the end (of the playoffs), you haven’t done anything,” Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said in the aftermath of the loss. “It is incumbent upon everyone in the organization to be the 10 percentage better.”

It’s a message players are embracing, with Jets stars and executives like Josh Morrissey, Adam Lowry, Mark Scheifele and more sharing a version of the same message. It’s also the kind of thing any non-championship team talks about, but our reading of the Jets locker room in the aftermath of last season was a higher level of accountability going into the offseason.

Part of Winnipeg’s success this season comes from defense-first identity linemen like Lowry, Mason Appleton and Nino Niederreiter making even more elite defensive plays while screwing up their offensive output. Part of that comes from Kyle Connor’s nine-goal, 10-assist explosion to start the season, paired with a better backchecking effort at key times. There’s a story I’ve told about the Jets — that their best offensive players don’t play defense and their best defensive players don’t add offense — that Winnipeg has proven completely, thoroughly wrong.

There have been tough moments – no team or player is perfect – but few tough games.

Renewed, league-leading 43.9 percent power play

Both of Winnipeg’s power-play units scored in the record-breaking win against Dallas on Saturday.

Iafallo’s perfectly timed cut into the slot to receive Namestnikov’s centering pass opened the scoring; it demonstrated this year’s injection of movement and pace into both power-play units. It was also the second unit’s eighth goal of the season, including three from breakout player Cole Perfetti, who took advantage of four left-handed forwards and Neal Pionk’s vision from the point.

Ehlers’ one-timer from the spot showed why it was so important to add him to Winnipeg’s elite lineup of offensive players with Scheifele, Connor, Vilardi and Morrissey. The joy of Winnipeg’s first unit lies in part in the variety of lineups — they’ve scored goals on plays last year’s Jets wouldn’t have been able to attempt — and in the number of options each player has available to him with the puck. The players are in near-constant motion, rotating into more and more dangerous positions with each pass of the puck, and Ehlers’ goal was the top unit’s 10th of the season.

Connor’s four goals lead all Jets power-play scorers; his next will match his total from all of last season.

Elite goalkeeping

No record streak is possible without elite goalkeeping performances. Hellebuyck’s performance in team win no. 13 was legend.

Against the team that outscored him with 24 goals in five playoff games, Hellebuyck was simply spectacular, stopping 35 shots to earn his second straight shutout and outright steal Winnipeg’s win. His 32-save performance against Dallas outshone rival American netminder Oettinger, prompting chants of “US backup” from the Canada Life Center crowd.

Magical moments

Even a team with the league’s best power play, the defending Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender at the height of his powers and a defensive corps that has produced a ton of offense while giving up just 30 goals in 15 games needs help from time to the second.

There have been individual performances and moments that kept the streak alive, which uniquely exceeded Winnipeg’s team quality.

Whether it was Scheifele’s diving goal with Hellebuyck pulled to force overtime against the Chicago Blackhawks — or his overtime winner — the Jets’ star center pulled out a victory out of nowhere in the dying minutes of Game 2. In Game 3 against the Minnesota Wild, Scheifele won, Winnipeg’s only goal in regular time right after a faceoff with two seconds left in the first period.

Connor won that game in overtime with a scorching shot off the crossbar and built part of Winnipeg’s perfect 3-0-0 record in overtime. There was Ehlers’ hat trick against the Columbus Blue Jackets, or his overtime winner against the Seattle Kraken that trickled right past Joey Daccord with Hellebuyck on a late penalty. The Jets’ resilience was all over the team after a controversial no-call goalie interference put Winnipeg down 2-0 early against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Time and time again, Winnipeg’s players have stepped up in the biggest and most defining moments of games. Their defensemen have protected the crease, all four lines have contributed on offense, and Hellebuyck has built the case for a Vezina Trophy encore.

Historical context/comparisons

The Jets are in a class of their own at 14-1.

Before that, they were one of only two teams to start a season 13-1.

And before that, they were one of only six teams to win 12 of their first 13 games. Here’s what happened to the other teams in this elite group.

Playoff results for top 15GP starters

Team Year Record after 15GP Playoff seed The fate of the playoffs

Winnipeg Jets

2024-25

14-1-0

TBD

TBD

Ottawa Senators

2007-08

13-2-0

7 in the east

Lost R1: 4 games to PIT

Colorado avalanche

2013-14

13-2-0

1. in Central

Lost R1: 7 games vs. MY

Quebec Nordiques

1994-95

13-2-0

1. in the East

Lost R1: 6 games to NYR

Detroit Red Wings

2005-06

12-2-1

1. in the west

Lost R1: 6 games vs. EDM

Pittsburgh Penguins

1994-95

12-1-2

3. in the east

Lost R2: 5 games to NJD

It’s clear that greatness surrounds all of these teams.

What’s unclear is how instantaneous that greatness arrived — especially in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It may be sobering to learn that none of the other five teams won the Stanley Cup during the season. Four of the five were eliminated in the first round, and the 1995 Pittsburgh Penguins made it as far as Round 2, losing to the New Jersey Devils, the eventual champions.

1994-95 Quebec Nordiques lost in the first round, but won the Cup the next season in Colorado after acquiring Patrick Roy in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens. The Detroit Red Wings won the Presidents’ Trophy before their first-round loss in 2006 and won the Cup in 2008. The Penguins were coming off back-to-back championships in 1991 and 1992, and the Ottawa Senators had made the previous year’s Stanley Cup Final.

The one thing that remains clear? Fourteen wins in 15 games is a spectacular, history-making feat, but 16 playoff wins is promised to no one.

How it happened, according to coach Scott Arniel

“It’s very simple to me. It’s such a team effort. It’s such a team effort. It’s not Helle winning every game. This is not Scheifele’s line winning us every game. To me, this is 23 guys. It has been incredible in terms of how everyone has contributed, whether it’s blocking shots or making little detailed plays, but obviously scoring goals. Early in the year, we had to score late in games to send it to overtime and win it. Just finding ways to stay in the game and then get the 2 points. The best answer I can give you is this has really been a team race for us.”

Required reading

• NHL Power Rankings: A new No. 1 plus one reason to be optimistic about each team
• Connor Hellebuyck steals ‘revenge match’, Winnipeg continues historic start: 3 takeaways
• Is the Winnipeg Jets’ hot start for real? Adam Lowry for Team Canada? Post bag

(Photo by Alex Iafallo and Vladislav Namestnikov: Darcy Finley / NHLI via Getty Images)