Three Things: Jets Ground Jackets, Voronkov Makes Season Debut, Long Road Trip Awaits

By Will Chase on November 2, 2024 at 8:15 am
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey (44) celebrates his goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the third period at Nationwide Arena.
© Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images
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The Columbus Blue Jackets were the latest victims of the best team in the NHL.

Nikolaj Ehlers had a four-point night and scored his fifth career hat trick to help the Winnipeg Jets beat the Blue Jackets 6-2 on Friday night at Nationwide Arena.

Kyle Connor extended his point streak (nine goals, nine assists) to 11 games with an assist. Eric Comrie made 20 saves.

Winnipeg is off to a franchise-best 10-1-0 start. Former Blue Jackets head coach Scott Arniel is now the bench boss for the Jets.

Jets Ground Jackets

In case you needed a reminder as to why the Jets are the best team going in the NHL right now, they just served the cold hard truth to Dean Evason's group.

The league-best Jets scored six goals on Elvis Merzlikins, who came into the night stopping 57 of his last 58 shots faced. That included Wednesday's 2-0 shutout over the New York Islanders in which he stopped all 26 shots.

Winnipeg pelted Columbus with 44 shots and were 1-for-2 on the power play. They're an NHL-best 45.2% with the man advantage.

The Jets had nine players on the scoresheet with two having multi-point nights. Ehlers had a four-point night with three goals and an assist and Josh Morrissey scored a goal and had an assist.

"If you have a really good team and you allow them the opportunity to keep coming at us, they're going to get opportunities that they're going to score on," Evason said.

"We have to play a way more intelligent game. Period. Forget about a really, really good opponent, the best team points-wise in the National Hockey League."

Voronkov Makes Season Debut

There was a bit of good news.

Columbus got their big man Dmitri Voronkov back into the lineup on Friday after the forward missed the start of the season with an upper-body injury suffered during preseason. He played 13:24 though his plus/minus took a hit as he finished the night -3.

Voronkov finished last season fifth among rookies with 18 goals and eighth with 34 points. He led all rookies with six power-play goals.

During Friday's game, the Blue Jackets got their goals from the two Seans. Sean Kuraly scored his first of the year to tie the game 1-1 at 11:02 of the first period.

Sean Monahan scored on the power play at 16:30 of the second period to make it 3-2. The goal is the 250th of Monahan's career and his team-leading sixth this year.

Long Road Trip Awaits

Columbus finished the month of October with a winning record of 5-3-1 and a 2-1-0 homestand, including Monday's 6-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers and 2-0 over the Islanders.

Now the test continues as the Jackets play their first back-to-back slate of the year when they face the Washington Capitals on Saturday in D.C.

Columbus will then hit the West Coast to take on the San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, and Seattle Kraken.

The next home game for the Jackets comes Friday, Nov. 15 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Quick Turnaround

It's a Metro division matchup as Columbus takes on Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals from Capital One Arena on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 5:00 p.m. ET. With 858 career goals, Ovechkin trails Wayne Gretzky by 36 for the all-time goal-scoring lead.

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