Why Winnipeg is For-real..

First off to say.. Who doesn’t love a great white out..? (Am I right..?) In all seriousness, the Winnipeg Jets are sonic booming out of the gate. They sang the Blues last night in a 3-2 victory. What continues to surprise me about this team is the goal scoring! They are averaging 4.5 goals a game (I know I know small sample.. Like I haven’t heard that before ;) anyways, they averaged a little over 3.1 a game. Mind you they are doing this all on a 7.9 shooting %. League average floats between 9-10%. The Power Play has made a huge improvement from last year. The Jets finished at 18% on the PP last year, that was 22nd in the league. That’s behind teams like: San Jose, Seattle, Coyotes, and Red Wings to name a few. This year has seem them takeoff into the top spot so far. They lead the league at 44%, they have scored 8 goals on 18 chances. Those 18 chances by the way, that’s 27th in the league. Do you like apples?

The haters will say they haven’t beaten anyone, they may have a point while Winnipeg has played the 27th ranked current strength of schedule, if that's the case they are doing what they should be. They are second in the league in point differential at +17.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before too.. But that Conor Hellebuyck guy.. Yeah he’s pretty f***in’ good. As a team they lead the league in goals against, only giving up 10 in 6 games. Back to Mr.Vezina.. Oops sorry misspelled Hellebuyck.. He is currently 3rd in the league in save % .948, he’s 2nd in goals saved above average (meaning he’s a brick wall), he’s second in goals against average at 1.4 and he’s already got a shutout under his belt. All this while seeing the 15th most shots but that is mostly based on the schedule so far since other teams are at 8-9 games played.

I can’t wait to see what a beautiful white-out it will be. The towels flying, the boys buzzin’, and perhaps even an appearance by Lord Stanley himself. That’s what I see in the Jets future.

Will Trevor Zegras ever be a significant player in the NHL?

https://virtualhockeyscout.substack.com/p/how-pierre-luc-dubois-will-beef-up

There's been a lot of talk about Dubois' trade requests over the past couple of years. This article explores his on-ice impact and how he'll help the Kings next season.

Check it out if you haven't watched him all that much before!

https://virtualhockeyscout.substack.com/p/how-jaccob-slavin-smothered-the-devils

High-level defense is a rarity these days, but Slavin provided a great example of it in the Canes-Devils series. His gap control and stick work were on point.

Check out this article if you enjoy the defensive side of the game!

https://virtualhockeyscout.substack.com/p/how-matthew-tkachuk-engineered-the

So...that Bruins-Panthers series was insane. Just a total roller coaster. The one constant, however, was Tkachuk's play. He was simply outstanding throughout.

This article examines why Boston had no answers for his offense. Lots of film to dig into.

Enjoy!

https://virtualhockeyscout.substack.com/p/how-brandon-hagel-got-his-groove

Hagel's enjoying a huge bounce-back year in Tampa. This article examines the reasons behind his success. His forechecking is particularly impressive.

As always, there's plenty of film and stats to dig into.

Enjoy!

https://virtualhockeyscout.substack.com/p/how-matty-beniers-is-refining-his

Beniers is having a really good rookie season. If anyone's interested in how he plays, here's an overview with plenty of film, statistics and my own analysis.

Check it out!

Hey, hockey fans! I recently started a project called Virtual Hockey Scout that aims to explain how the NHL's best players actually play. Each article contains game film, statistics and my own analysis.

My latest piece is on Mark Stone, who's changed the way he approaches offense this season. I've also covered Patrice Bergeron, Matthew Tkachuk, Jared Spurgeon and Roope Hintz so far. If you're curious about certain players but don't necessarily have the time to watch them, I think this content can be helpful. Check it out!

https://www.nhlrumblings.com/post/the-truth-about-nhl-goalie-equipment

Overtime Heroics Hockey is in search of adding more aspiring hockey writers. If this is something you are interested in please DM us on twitter @Hockey_OTH

A nomination was submitted on the Mi'kmaq, an indigenous native Canadian people, a couple of weeks ago. For nearly 140 years now hockey historians have been well aware of the Mi'kmaq's contributions to early ice hockey. Yet no Canadian or hockey institution of consequence has ever honoured the Mi'kmaq for the same. A copy of the nomination essay can be found at hockey-stars.ca . Just click on the flag

A blog dedicated to telling the history of the NHL through the writing of a modern blogger.

Updates every Tuesday and Friday at 10AM ET

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Seeing as this subreddit is ror and about hockey coverage... What's going on with The Nation Network? I heard it's haint a wide-spread walkout or write5rs?