Prior to January’s IR-parade, an awful lot of things had been going well for the Winnipeg Jets.



Take your pick: Winnipeg’s strong play at 5-on-5, the success of its power play, Connor Hellebuyck — they’ve all been terrific. Even the Jets’ penalty kill has been very good since increasing its puck pressure partway through December. There is a lot to like.



Since Mark Scheifele went down against Edmonton on December 27, Winnipeg has gone 5-2-1 and comes out of its bye-week alone atop the NHL’s Central division. I think it’s safe to say times are good.



I’m not even worried about back-to-back losses against Chicago and Minnesota. Instead, I look at their nine games in 18 nights since the holiday break and their 12 games in 23 nights before that and I’m willing to give exhaustion the benefit of the doubt.



For the purposes of this article, I’m going to ignore the Jets’ many areas of strength...