Winnipeg is scoring a lot of goals and has a strong collection of top offensive forwards, notably Patrik Laine , the 18-year-old Finnish whiz kid who has 15 goals and six assists in his first 26 games. He's on a line with Mark Scheifele (13-13) and Nikolaj Ehlers (4-17) that is one of the most productive in the league. All three are in the top 20 in the NHL in points.

"Whoo boy, he's right at the top," Hitchcock said of Laine. "Watching him play against (Connor) McDavid, you wish somebody would give us last place just for a week. He's impressive. That line, I told people after the World Cup, I knew Scheifele would go up to another level. He was dominant against men. I knew he was going to go to another level. But to see those three guys play together, if you just make a little mistake through the neutral zone, they're gone on you. They've got the ability to create instant offense off of anything: 3 on 3, 2 on 2, 3 on 2, they just create it right away and there's always a quality scoring chance. When you've got to players with that skill set that can play at that top speed, it's dangerous. You can't afford to make mistakes against those top two lines. With Little back in there now, they've got a lot of dynamite on the first six forwards."