Are the Winnipeg Jets on Shaky Ground?

If you’ve followed the Winnipeg Jets for any length of time, you know the team tends to fly along smoothly right up until something jars the engine. This time, it’s big. Connor Hellebuyck — the guy who usually stops more rubber than a prairie highway — is out for four to six weeks after knee surgery. That’s not a nick. That’s a chunk of the season. And while the Jets have given themselves a decent early cushion, anyone who’s watched this team knows the cracks that show up when Hellebuyck isn’t there to spackle over the rough edges.

So here we are again: a good team, a good record, but a tough stretch ahead. And three reasons it could get dicey fast.

Reason 1. The Jets Lean on Hellebuyck Like No Other Team Leans on Its Goalie

For many seasons, the Jets have run their season through one man. You can talk systems, defensive tweaks, puck management. These are all good things, but at the end of the day, they’ve asked Hellebuyck to clean up everything behind them. That’s why he plays sixty-game seasons, year after year. And lately, you can see the toll in the playoffs. His legs look heavy, the reflexes dulled just enough to matter.

Now the Jets are staring at twenty games without him. That’s a quarter of a season where they have to find out what life looks like without their safety net. It’s not a comforting picture.

Reason 2. The Jets’ Defensive Numbers Are Worse Than They Look on the Surface

The Jets’ special teams are rolling, and they’ve banked wins. But the underlying numbers are rough. The team is third-worst in expected goals against. Third-worst in high-danger chances against. You don’t need a math degree to translate what the numbers tell us. The Jets give up too many good looks.

When you’ve got a Vezina goalie, you can live with that. When you don’t? Suddenly, those missed assignments and soft gaps matter a whole lot more.

Reason 3. The Workload About to Hit Eric Comrie Is Nothing Like He’s Faced Before

What’s interesting to me is that goalie Eric Comrie has always been better in Winnipeg than anywhere else. He was a bust in Buffalo with the Sabres, but in Winnipeg, he’s been solid. Some goalies just fit a place — the room, the coaches, the rhythm of the city. Comrie has that feel. His numbers this season sit right beside Hellebuyck’s, and he’s been genuinely sharp.

But asking him to carry twenty straight games is another thing entirely. He’s only had one season where he even hit that number. Now Winnipeg needs him to steady the ship, night after night, in front of a defense that gives up more chaos than it should.

There Could Be One Way Out for the Jets to Survive

The Jets don’t need Comrie to be Hellebuyck. They need the team in front of him to change the way it plays. The team needs tighter gaps, fewer rush chances against, and cleaner exits. It’s boring hockey that keeps games manageable. If the Jets can shave off even a slice of the high-danger chaos they’ve been giving up, Comrie could hold the fort until the big man returns.

And maybe that’s the hidden opportunity here. A stretch without Hellebuyck forces the Jets to learn habits they’ve avoided because they had the best goalie in the world behind them. If they do that? They’ll still be in the fight when Hellebuyck’s back for the stretch run. If they don’t? These next twenty games might define their season.