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This article was published 31/1/2015 (2058 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

While the season is only at the two-thirds mark, things are looking good for the Winnipeg Jets. The team has a 26-16-8 record, holds down the first wild-card playoff spot in the west and is looking to move up in the Central Division standings.

Shot metrics, sometimes designated as advance statistics, also have the Jets in good standing. Currently the Jets have the 10th-best Corsi percentage in the NHL, and seventh-best after adjusting for score effects. This is a sign the team's success so far is sustainable through the season.

CP Blake Wheeler has the second-highest Corsi rating for Jets forwards at 54.6 — behind only Matthieu Perreault.

Not much in life is ever certain, especially in sports such as hockey. It is one of the many attractions to the game. Any team can win any given game.

But, certain trends do exist. The best teams shape the odds in their favour; more often than not, the better team wins the game.

The recent analytical revolution in hockey has taken this one step further. Whether 10, 20, or 60 games into the schedule, shot metrics like Corsi outperform past goal differentials, points or wins in predicting future goal differentials, points and wins. In short, Corsi measures how well a team will likely perform in the future even better than the standings.

Corsi cannot tell you the system Jets coach Paul Maurice constructed to accent the Jets' talents and attributes. Corsi cannot tell you how much the Jets have in turn committed to their coach's call for fitness, hard work and defensive responsibility. These are the how's and the why's.

What they do say though, is how effective the Jets and Maurice have been after instilling these values. They say the Jets have become one of the better teams in the NHL. Good numbers are not the cause for a team's success, but rather a byproduct of a successful team. And the numbers indicate the Jets are more likely than not a playoff team.

However, all is not flowers and rainbows. There are still signs of holes.

One often discussed topic is the Jets' high number of penalties.

Winnipeg currently leads the league with a staggering 332 minutes of four-on-five hockey. Meanwhile the rest of the league sits between 180 to 270 minutes. With extra penalty-kill time comes extra goals against. While being a Top 5 team in suppressing shots against per minute with a man disadvantage, the Jets still sit tied for fourth in total goals against while on the penalty kill.

Still, over three quarters of the game is played at even strength. A large part of the Jets' success has come from playing as a fast and big, hard-nosed team. Maurice says he does not mind penalties if they are a byproduct the Jets' aggressive style, as long as they are not negligent.

It is no secret the Jets could use some added depth up front and the lack of forward depth shows up in the numbers. The Jets top forwards have all trended at or above-average in terms of shot metrics for their usage and position in the depth charts. The fourth line though, has struggled even relative to other team's fourth lines.

The Jets' shooting percentage and power play has been middling, but their excellent save percentage has made up for this. This has predominately been driven by the Calder-discussion performance of Michael Hutchinson.

Due to injuries -- or just not being perfectly consistent robots -- shot metrics' predictive abilities tend to peak between 20 to 30 games. Because of this, most analysts tend to look at teams' rolling 20 games to get a trend on their performances.

While every team has their ups and downs, the Jets have been consistently above average in shot differentials. Looking at the graph, the Jets have some stiff competition in arguably the toughest division. If the Jets stay above the 50 per cent line, Winnipeg hockey fans may be looking at their first NHL playoff series in quite some while.

After concluding his career as a musician and being reinvigorated by the return of the Jets, Garret Hohl is now finding his way as an undergrad, studying statistics and economics and has immersed himself in the hockey blogosphere.

Twitter: @GarretHohl