The Winnipeg Jets have a great power play. However, they haven’t been getting many chances to trot it out.
Y’all Got Any More of Those Power-Play Opportunities?
In the past 13 games dating back to Dec. 31, the Jets have had a “grand” total of 18 power-play opportunities. The list of games below will be herein referred to as “our sample size.”
- Dec. 31 vs. Colorado Avalanche: 0 power plays
- Jan. 2 vs. Anaheim Ducks: 2 power plays
- Jan. 4 vs. Detroit Red Wings: 2 power plays
- Jan. 7 vs. Nashville Predators: 1 power play
- Jan. 10 vs. Los Angeles Kings: 2 power plays
- Jan. 11 vs. Avalanche: 0 power plays
- Jan. 14 vs. Vancouver Canucks: 3 power plays
- Jan. 16 vs. Seattle Kraken: 2 power plays
- Jan. 18 vs. Calgary Flames: 2 power plays
- Jan. 20 vs. Utah Hockey Club: 2 power plays
- Jan. 22 vs. Avalanche: 1 power play
- Jan. 24 vs. Utah: 1 power play
- Jan. 26 vs. Flames: 2 power plays
18 power plays in 13 games works out to 1.38 per game. The average number of power plays per game per team this season is 2.77, as per Hockey Reference.
1.38 chances per game is not a lot of runway for the Jets’ dangerous power play, which has been completely revamped by first-year assistant coach Davis Payne, to work with. Getting zero chances in a game is rare, but the Jets have had zilch three times in a stretch representing only one eighth of their season.
They’ve done their best with the scraps they’ve been given, scoring seven goals in the 18 chances for a 38.88 per cent efficiency to improve their league-leading percentage to 33.33. Quite simply, they’re lethal.
Gabe be cooking in his office 📂🧑🍳 pic.twitter.com/TmQ30ch33t
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) January 27, 2025
On the season as a whole, the Jets have been granted 138 power-play opportunities through 51 games, which is 16th in the league and works out to 2.70 per game. That’s below the 2.77 league average mainly due to the dearth of opportunities in our sample size.
“I don’t have the answer for why we’ve only gotten that many. At the end of the day we just have to make sure it’s dangerous every time,” head coach Scott Arniel said after the 5-2 win versus the Flames, where the Jets went two for two on the man advantage but didn’t get any power plays until the third period.
“I’m sure there’s times where guys get frustrated because you see the other team getting on the power play and us not. Certainly for our power-play guys. But it’s part of the game, you gotta work through it. We can’t change that,” he continued.
Last season, when the Jets’ power play finished 22nd and struggled for long stretches, they received 240 power play opportunities in 82 games for a 2.92 power-play-per-game average. That was also below the league average of 3.02 power plays per team per game.
So, What Gives?
It’s hard to prove or point any one cause, but we can investigate a number of possible explanations that may be working in tandem.
Is it a total coincidence? Refereeing crews aren’t the same game to game, but considering the Jets have gone 13 straight with no more than three power plays and have gotten fewer than half the league average in our sample size, sheer coincidence seems unlikely.
Are opponents taking extra care to be on their best behaviour because they know the Jets’ power play will burn them if they cut ruts to the sin bin? It certainly appears other teams are playing the Jets carefully at times to not get penalized, but it’s hard to quantify just how many power-play opportunities the Jets missed because of that.
Are the Jets bad at drawing penalties? They don’t have any players really known for taking dives nor is their team full of pests or agitators who might draw calls by being annoying and getting someone to lash out at them. The best Jet at drawing penalties is Mark Scheifele, who sits 11th in the league with 20 drawn, but the Jets only have two others in the top 100 (Nikolaj Ehlers in 68th and Kyle Connor in 100th) as per Natural Stat Trick.
Related: Winnipeg Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers Records 500th-Career Point
Are refereeing crews missing calls? Here and there, sure, but that’s just due to them being human. The Jets have undoubtedly gotten away with some infractions in this stretch too.
Are refereeing crews intentionally being stingier toward the Jets than other teams, not wanting to be seen as influencing the outcome or causing a momentum shift by giving a strong regime too many chances? In these days of rampant game management — where referees are more concerned with calling an equal number of penalties against each team than calling what’s actually there even if the power plays end up lopsided — it’s entirely possible but once again hard to quantify. There aren’t refereeing statistics so we can’t go consult a “missed calls” figure.
Another potential factor involving game management is that since the Jets aren’t a highly-penalized team, allowing the 12th-fewest power plays (134, 2.62 per game) Since referees are focused on giving teams about an equal number of power-play chances, it then makes sense they don’t get a lot of power plays. However, in our sample size, they’ve been shorthanded 31 times to the opponents’ 18.
Is there a big, sweeping conspiracy against the Jets specifically? No, but if you ask some fans, obviously. (If you ask some fans of any team in any sport at any level, they’d say the officials are biased against “their guys.”)
Do the Jets need to sell an arm, a leg, or a first-born child? There’s no proof that would work. And who would they sell those to? NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman? What would he do with those?
Would the Jets have a better record in our sample size if they had been given the league-average 2.77 each game and thus had 36 power plays? It’s likely, considering they went 5-0-1 in the six games they scored at least one power play goal and would have had 12 power play goals instead of seven given their 33.33 per cent efficiency on the season. When they have scored at least one power-play goal in a game this season, they are a ridiculous 27-4-1. When they haven’t, they are 6-10-2.
Whatever the reason or reasons, the Jets are still first place in the Western Conference with 71 points and went 7-4-2 in our sample size despite how rarely they got chances on the man advantage. No one’s crying for them and they shouldn’t be crying for themselves. All they can do is continue to embrace five-on-five play, keep using their speed, and try to convert when they do get an opportunity.