BILLEK: “It's impossible to win without Hellbuick,” says Bowness

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Rick Bowness described Connor Hellebuyck's performance Thursday night as outstanding, calling him the player of the game, and then said what everyone else was thinking.

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“It wouldn't have been a win without him,” the Winnipeg Jets head coach told reporters after the game. “It's as simple as that.”

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When Kyle Connor scored the overtime winner and Gabriel Vilardi scored one of the prettiest goals we'll see all season, Winnipeg's netminder took the show and the two points, 4-3, over the Nashville Predators.

The 30-year-old, a recent two-time Vezina winner, stopped a season-high 45 shots, including 22 in the second period (and 11 more on the penalty kill), as the Jets went into regulation before that. Connor hit the 10th overtime winner of his career.

Hellebuyck was dialed in all night, only to suffer breakdowns in his team's defensive structure. Still, he stopped much longer than expected.

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MoneyPuck, which tracks goals saved more than expected during games, pegged Hellebuyck at 1.88. No different, Hellebuyck denied two goals that should have been in the back of the net.

Thursday's effort took her season tally in that department to over 30 goals, more than 10 goals ahead of second-place Thatcher Demko of Vancouver.

Dylan DeMelo described his goalie's performance as “Fantastic.” “He got my Vezina vote, that's for sure. It was a big game. We definitely needed him. We hung in there, no doubt about it. “We can't win tonight without him.”

Scheifele, who fed Connor the game-winner, gave the same assessment after Winnipeg's fourth straight win.

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“Bucky was on top of it,” Scheifele said. “He made those saves with ease and kept us here.

“We didn't play our game. We just hit the puck and gave them turnovers and that's not how we want to play.”

Scheifele hit the nail on the head with his 24th goal of the season and led the team with three points, including a back-ice pass to Connor in overtime.

His team completely lost its way, getting outscored 34-9 over the final two periods.

Hellebuyck held the fort as long as possible, with a pair of brutal layups allowing Spencer Stestney and Ryan O'Reilly to score with 2:07 left to tie the game.

Nashville won the tiebreaker. The Jets deserved to lose.

To be fair, the Jets folded after scoring.

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They also benefited from winning the special teams battle. Hellebuyck's 11 saves aside, the Jets kept a clean sheet on four Nashville power-play attempts, and Villardi's skill set saw the Jets go 1-for-3 in the game.

“Very ugly goal,” DeMelo said. “It will be in an important role. We see it a lot.

“He's got great hands. You've seen it all year. We missed him when he wasn't there. Such a key in the power play. Sucks a lot of guys. Then if you give him room, he will do something like this. It was a great goal from the best player for our team.”

Things get tougher for Winnipeg on Thursday when they travel to Dallas to face the Central Division-leading All-Stars, who they have yet to beat this season.

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Aside from Dallas, which picked up its 50th win against Buffalo on Thursday, the NHL doesn't have a deep team.

• More importantly, MoneyPuck's Deserve to Win O'meter rated Nashville's chances above 80% after 1,000 game simulations. To further show just how good Hellebuyck was on the night, Nashville was expected to score 4.7 goals. Hellebuyck remains the great equalizer.

• Morgan Barron doesn't get enough credit for his work on Winnipeg's fourth line. He's been around for a while now, going 7-for-13. That's pretty good for a guy who hasn't been around much this season. He went 7-for-11 in Saturday's win at Minnesota. He also made a great pass to DeMelo in the 3-1 goal after a strong forecheck.

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• If Nino Niederreiter is fit to return Saturday against Colorado (Bowness wants him to practice first, and the Jets won't practice until Friday), I suspect Cole Perfetti will return to the press box. He played less than 10 minutes on Tuesday, and just over eight if you subtract power-play time. With Winnipeg's fourth line going right now, there is no room for a young forward in the lodge. In the third period, Perfetti was pinned to the bench.

• It was another tough game for Winnipeg's trio of Scheifele, Vilardi and Nicola Ehlers. The latter had several gifts at the start of the former, including one that led to the discovery of Tommy Novak. They won 7-2, 8-3 and 1-0. Bowness pulled Ehlers from third in favor of Connor. The streak was on the ice for O'Reilly's goal, leading 5-2 and 7-2.

• Historically, Ehlers has performed best against first-line odds and odds. They are better defensively. But neither combination looked good in the last two games. Winnipeg's best line Thursday was with Connor Perfetti and Sean Monahan, the only line of the seven combined to beat their opponents (4-3). Like Perfetti, Ehler sat on the bench during the game.

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