Winnipeg Free Press https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/buffs-just-buff-in-the-eyes-of-the-guys- 478439363.html

'Buff's just Buff' in the eyes of the guys Not the most public of players, Jets' big man on defence lauded by teammates

By: Jason Bell

CHICAGO — It’s the simple refrain heard time and again when a teammate, past or present, provides his take on the Jets’ big man, .

"Buff’s just Buff."

Patrick Sharp and , a couple of guys from the old neighbourhood, both mentioned it Thursday, while a player new to the Jets organization, Paul Stastny, echoed their words.

Not terribly illuminating on the surface, the sentiments speak volumes. Byfuglien is, without question, one of the NHL’s truly unique forces of nature. He’s one of a kind, and those within the inner circle appreciate and value everything about him.

"He was one of those guys I got really close with my first couple of years (in the league), just a really fun guy to hang out with, loves life, always in a good mood, always happy," Kane, a sensational right-winger with the Blackhawks, said on Thursday afternoon.

Byfuglien and Kane found regular duty with Chicago the same season (2007-08), winning a alongside Sharp, , , , Marián Hossa and ex-Jets two seasons later.

"Just the way he kind of flip-flopped from defence to forward and how good he was in that 2010 (final) series (against the ). Now, you watch him on defence and he’s just a presence out there, so I’m happy for him, happy he’s going to the playoffs this year," Kane said.

"He’s got a good team and he’s a great man, and he’s always fun to see and joke around with. You see him on the ice during a game and he’s always joking around, messing around, and it makes it fun out there."

Byfuglien isn’t particularly drawn to the spotlight. He’s not a go-to guy for the local media, his availability is pretty rare and he keeps his comments brief. His playful side comes out behind the closed doors of the locker room or on the ice.

He’s always to blame for pulling pranks and doesn’t seem to mind the label.

"I remember I used to put my gloves on the dryer before the games, and I’d come in and check on them and they’d be thrown down on the ground. It was Buff." Kane said. "He would wrestle around with guys in the locker room, things like that.

"I remember we were in Florida one time, putting our change gear on to get ready for practice... and all our stuff was all cut up, had big holes in it, stuff like that. You knew it was him. It couldn’t be anyone else, it was always Buff."

Blithe and mischievous, he’s also one menacing dude.

At 6-5, 260 pounds, with exceptional skating skills and a howitzer of a , there really is no other specimen like Byfuglien in the NHL.

"The first time I really met him — my first camp — I was a little scared. (He’s) not a guy you want to play against," Winnipeg winger Nikolaj Ehlers said. "He works hard every single practice, every single game. He hates losing. He’s a great defenceman and, offensively, he’s great, too.

"He’s a great character. Everybody on the team loves him."

Byfuglien has always possessed the ability to be a game-changer, by either an end-to-end rush, a clapper from the or a monstrous hit on an opposing player.

But his penchant for being front and centre in pivotal moments has, historically, also included some irresponsible decision-making, and his work in the defensive zone remains the most controversial area of the native’s game.

Case in point: his defence partner in Chicago, Joe Morrow, unloaded a shot that missed the net, rattled around the boards and spurted toward the other point. Pinching in, Byfuglien neither trapped the puck nor caught a piece of the streaking Kane, who moved down the wall, cut in on Eric Comrie and beat the young goalie through the five-hole just 3:44 into the opening period.

Chicago went up 2-0 later in the period — Morrow flubbed a pass from Byfuglien and the puck bounced into the slot, leading to a Brandon Saad tally — and then, the hosts coasted along to a 6-2 triumph.

That said, Byfuglien’s defensive play is much-improved this season, part of the team’s overall commitment to limiting opponents’ scoring chances.

More than at any other time since the Jets arrived in 2011, he’s choosing the safe route rather than rolling the dice on risky rushes up the ice. His gap is far more controlled and his reads in the D-zone are producing better results.

The 33-year-old blue-liner has gulped head coach Paul Maurice’s Kool-Aid and seems content with the results.

"Yeah, I’m not as risky," Byfuglien said. "But the way we play, our team system, kind of falls into play with it. So, a pinch a couple of years ago maybe wouldn’t have had a high guy to fill in for me.

"My game’s been good. You always feel you can do better, but I’ve been happy with my play."

While he didn’t fire his first this season until Jan. 5, he’s up to six now and has added 35 assists. Overall, his production is down slightly, but he’s a plus-13 and is sparking conversation about his dependable play rather than his blunders.

"As a defenceman, he is absolutely playing the best hockey of his career. What he did was really a conscious effort to not feel like he had to drive the game all the time and to be more patient in his game. He still does, but he’s picking the right spots," Maurice said.

With the pressure of playoffs looming and a roster that lacks post-season experience, the benefit of having a competitor such as Byfuglien as someone who’s been there and done that can’t be understated, Maurice said.

"He’s not casual. But what makes him different is he has big smile on his face and really enjoys the most pressure-filled moments. So, when he’s walking out onto the ice and the crowd’s going, he’s got a big smile on his face," Maurice said.

"You’ve seen him joke around with a player or a referee at an intense time in the game, and the puck drops and he’s wired and he’s on. He likes the experience."

Stastny, acquired in late February at the trade deadline, said Byfuglien adds a presence, both behind the scenes and on the ice, that a team still getting comfortable with its own success requires.

"I think Buff’s just Buff. It’s kind of an old-school presence, an easy-going attitude that wants to win but keeps it light, because sometimes I think we take things too serious," Stastny said. "We don’t realize how fun it is, how lucky we are to be in this position." https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/scott-foster-now-a-household-name- 478437643.html

Scott Foster now a household name Accountant makes NHL debut, owns 1.00 career save percentage

By: Jason Bell

CHICAGO — Scott Foster played some shinny with the boys Thursday night but it was back to the grind Friday morning.

It’s tax season, a hectic time for the Chicago number cruncher, but forgive him if his mind isn’t on work for awhile. He just had his 14 minutes of fame and the only numbers likely swimming around in his head are 90, seven and zero.

That’s his sweater number, the number of shots he faced from the visiting while making his NHL goaltending debut Thursday at United Center, and the number of pucks they got past him.

The 36-year-old accountant, a former U.S. college netminder who plays beer-league hockey a few times a week at Johnny’s IceHouse in midwest Chicago, was pressed into service with just under six minutes gone in the final period when the second of two Blackhawks’ masked men became damaged goods.

Foster now owns a perfect 1.00 career NHL save percentage, Chicago posted a rather easy 6-2 victory over Winnipeg and the Jets are tied to one of the feel-good stories of the 2017-18 season.

"I’m going to remember this one for a long time. A few hours ago I was sitting on my computer typing on the 10-key, and now I’m standing in front of you guys just finished 14-and-a-half minutes of NHL hockey. I think I’m just about hitting my prime," said Foster, joking while being swarmed by media in the Chicago locker room.

"This is something that no one can ever take away from me. It’s something I can go home and tell my kids and they can tell their friends, just a ton of fun and a lot of good memories."

The playoff-bound Jets, kicking off a four-game trip, were dreadful from the opening puck drop, falling behind 2-0 after the first period — a result of some careless defensive work by the blue- line pairing of Dustin Byfuglien and Joe Morrow.

Chicago, who will miss the post-season for the first time in more than a decade, dominated the game, peppering Winnipeg goalie Eric Comrie with 42 shots.

While it was Blackhawks defenceman Brent Seabrook’s night to be feted for his milestone 1,000th NHL game, Foster stole the spotlight. Fans chanted his name over and over, and he was named the game’s first start.

It was near impossible for someone not to be impressed, and even moved, when the ordinary Joe pulled off the extraordinary.

"A great moment for him. He made some saves," Jets head coach Paul Maurice said. "(The Blackhawks) got faster and understood it’s tough for anybody to come in (46) minutes into a hockey game, let alone a guy who hasn’t played a game in the NHL."

Chicago, playing without No. 1 goalie (upper body) since Dec. 23, was set to start Anton Forsberg before he injured himself during what was described by Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville as a "pre-game ritual."

Collin Delia, who was recalled from the AHL on Wednesday, 48 hours after backstopping the Rockford IceHogs to a 4-2 win over the Moose, was pegged to start. He allowed two goals on 27 shots but cramped up in the final period and had to be helped of the ice.

Enter Foster, who signed an amateur tryout contract just minutes before the game. Every NHL city has at least one one local goalie in the building ready to fill in for either team in the case of an emergency.

The Sarnia, Ont., product, who plays recreation-league hockey in Chicago, played in the 2002- 03 NCAA season at Western Michigan University.

‘Hawks fans went crazy when he came off the bench, and the decibel level only intensified each time he made a save. Among those was his first-ever stop, coming off the stick of Tyler Myers, and he also turned aside a wrister from 43-goal scorer Patrik Laine and a shot in tight from Paul Stastny.

______

Goaltender Steve Mason is on the trip and is expected to get a start, likely one of the back-to- backs in either Monday or Tuesday in Montreal.

Mason, who has battled a pair of concussions and a knee injury, hasn’t played since March 6, the night of Patrik Laine’s natural hat trick in New York, when he stopped 31 shots to register a 3-0 shutout of the Rangers.

"Getting better, getting strong," Maurice said Friday. "I think we’re looking (to this coming week) of him playing."

Defenceman Jacob Trouba (concussion) was cleared to play Monday and has been bugging his coach to get back into the lineup.

"He has ripped the door off... he wants in," said Maurice. "We’ll talk about it for Saturday (against the Leafs)."

Rookie forward Jack Roslovic has been a healthy scratch for six games but will likely play at least once in Eastern Canada, Maurice said.

______

Although he didn’t have a particularly fruitful Thursday — he was a minus-two on the night — Morrow has been a pleasant surprise since he was acquired on Feb. 26.

The 6-0, 195-pound defenceman, who hails from , was picked up late on trade- deadline day from the for a fourth-round pick in this summer’s NHL draft as an insurance policy, an extra body in case of injuries on the back end.

But with Dmitry Kulikov (back), Toby Enstrom (lower body) and Trouba all missing time, Morrow has played in 13 games, averaging about 12 minutes per game. When Nashville hit town last Sunday, he played just under 17 minutes and was even busier against Boston on Thursday, playing just under 20 minutes.

He’s got a goal and four assists since his arrival and is a plus-four.

"He can skate, and the other thing we’ve found is he can really shoot the puck. He’s got a hard, hard, quick shot on him," said Maurice.

"We’ve moved him around a little bit, he’s played left, he’s played right. His skating ability — he’s not Nik Ehlers — but for a defenceman he’ll go back, touch it and move it very quickly, very efficiently, and that’s a big chunk of what we do."

A highly touted junior out of Portland of the WHL, Morrow is a former first-round pick (23rd overall) of Pittsburgh who has bounced from the Penguins to the , and Canadiens organizations.

Morrow, a restricted free agent this summer, said he’s really enjoying the fit with Winnipeg.

"I’m been very pleased so far. It’s kind of hard not being impressed by how this team plays. It’s an honour to be a part of it at this time of year," he said.

"Everybody has worked so hard to get into this position, so whenever I get slotted into the lineup I just try not to disappoint anybody.

"I wanted to come in and get someone’s attention. Toward the end of the season it’s about getting an opportunity to kind of showcase yourself, prove you belong and can fit in with the organization and how the team plays."

CBC Winnipeg http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-jets-playoffs-101-1.4600556

Playoffs 101: A fairweather fan's guide to post-season Winnipeg Jets hockey Wondering what the fuss is all about? Here's why the 2018 playoffs are so important

Bartley Kives · CBC News

If you're one of the obsessive weirdos whose emotional well-being hinges upon every nifty Nikolaj Ehlers pirouette or jarring Joe Morrow miscue, congratulations: You're a perfectly normal Winnipeg Jets fan.

You watch every game. You follow every play. You scroll through the real-time commentaries on Twitter. You read every silly story about the team, including this one.

But if you're a casual sort of Winnipeg Jets fan who doesn't have the time, inclination or emotional capacity to inhale every morsel of minutiae about this hockey team, you may be wondering why the rest of the city has gone bloody mad over the past few months.

The reason is simple: The Jets are actually on the verge of ... well, something in the upcoming post-season. Here's why you should care, or at least feign to care, about Winnipeg in the playoffs.

Why are these playoffs so bloody important? Despite a pitiful performance against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday, the Winnipeg Jets are not just strong this year, but may be the best team in the city's NHL history.

For the first time in more than two decades, the Jets are expected to be competitive in the playoffs, which means a shot at competing for the first Stanley Cup in the history of either the original NHL Jets or the franchise that moved here from Atlanta in 2011.

As of Friday afternoon, the Jets have the fourth-best record in NHL, with 47 wins against 20 losses in regulation time and 10 or shootout losses, good for 104 points. Only the , Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins have better records at the moment.

The Jets also score more goals per game than all but two of the NHL's other 30 other teams, allow fewer goals than all but five, are more likely to score on the power play than all but three and manage to hold on to the puck as a group more often than their opponents when they're not killing penalties.

Much of this success can be attributed to a mix of talent that includes high-performing veterans like winger and defenceman Dustin Byfuglien, maturing leaders like centre and goalie Connor Hellebuyck and a gifted trio of skilled young leaders in Ehlers, Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor.

The last time Winnipeg had a team anywhere near as gifted was in 1985, when an original-Jets squad finished the regular season with 96 points and an NHL-record six 30-goal scorers: , Paul Maclean, Thomas Steen, Laurie Boschman, Brian Mullen and Doug Smail.

That club beat the Flames in the first round of the playoffs, but lost hall-of-fame centre Hawerchuk, thanks to an infamous cross-check from the Flames' Jamie Macoun. Without their leading scorer, the Jets were swept in four straight games in the next round by the , who went on to win the Stanley Cup that year.

In other words, it's been 33 years since a team named the Winnipeg Jets was considered among the league's elite. And right now, less separates the Jets from the Predators, Lightning or Bruins, in terms of skill, than separated the Jets from the Wayne Gretzky-led Oilers during the wide-open, high-scoring 1980s.

Given that no Winnipeg team has ever made it past the second round of the playoffs, die-hard fans are justifiably excited by the club's prospects. But they're also a little concerned, given that this may be one of the last chances the Jets have to be competitive.

Wait, why is it so crucial the Jets win this year? It might sound cruel, but just as the Jets have gelled into a team that wins a lot, a window is closing on the chemistry that allows this group of athletes to work so well together.

Team captain Wheeler, defensive ice-team leader Byfuglien and versatile centre Brian Little are in their 30s and can not be expected to compete at the same level for many more seasons.

More significantly, skilled young players such as Ehlers, Laine, Hellebuyck and defencemen Josh Morrissey and Jacob Trouba are about to earn huge salary increases. Given that there's a limit on what any NHL team can pay out in total salaries, the Jets will soon be forced to trade away some veterans or allow some young players to walk away, just to keep their salaries below the league-imposed cap.

While there are some younger and less expensive players waiting in the wings, there's no guarantee a slightly different version of the Winnipeg Jets will win as many games as this year's edition. Subtle changes can make a big difference; although last year's Jets were not all that different than this year's team, the Jets were decidedly sub-par.

Does the rest of the regular season matter? No, but also yes.

The five remaining games in the 2017-18 won't matter much in the Central Division standings, where the Jets are all but certain to finish second. Barring a minor miracle or disaster, Winnipeg is too far behind Nashville to catch the Predators for first place in the division and too far ahead of the to slip to third place.

The second-place finish will give the Jets home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. That means the first two games of a best-of-seven series will be played in Winnipeg, along with a potential Game 5 and Game 7.

This is a big deal, considering Winnipeg has the best home record in the NHL this year.

But in order to retain home-ice advantage in potential subsequent rounds of the playoffs, it is worth the team's while to keep winning.

While the Jets are highly unlikely to catch Nashville, it would be worth the team's while to continue to win in order to place higher at the end of the season than Las Vegas and San Jose — two Pacific Division teams the Jets could face in a potential third-round playoff series.

Ditto the value in finishing higher than eastern-conference teams such as Tampa and Boston, should the Jets achieve what was inconceivable a year ago — compete in the Stanley Cup final series.

As well, there is some value in continuing to win for the sake of momentum. If the Jets lose most of their final games, the vibe in the dressing room could be down as the team heads into the playoffs.

That said, Jets coach Paul Maurice is likely to rest many of his best players during some of the final regular-season games, just to ensure the team enters the playoffs healthy and ready to compete.

Who will the Jets play in the first round? Right now, the Minnesota Wild sit in third place in the Central Division, eight points behind the Jets and five ahead of the St. Louis Blues.

According to sportsclubstats.com, there's an 82.5 per cent chance the Wild will hold on to their position, even with the Blues enjoying a hot streak at the moment.

This would set up a first-round playoff series between Winnipeg and its closest geographic neighbour in the NHL. There is a natural rivalry, as fans from Winnipeg and -St. Paul are regular visitors to each others' arenas.

The Jets and Wild have played four times this season, with Winnipeg winning three games in the fall and losing one in January. But you can't read too much into that record, given that Minnesota's play has improved as the season has continued.

In a straight-ahead matchup, the Jets have a statistical edge. But any team can beat any team in the NHL.

What about subsequent rounds? If the Jets don't make it out of the first round, any talk of rounds 2-4 is academic. But if they do beat the Wild — or possibly Blues — the Jets may face their biggest test in the second round.

The Nashville Predators are likely to finish the regular season with the best record in the league and will be heavily favoured to win against their first-round matchup. The Preds won their season series vs. the Jets, which included recent games. They also are far more experienced in the playoffs, making it to the Cup final in 2017.

In other words, few NHL observers would pick Winnipeg over Nashville in a head-to-head, best- of-seven matchup. But if the Jets do make it out of the Central Division, they would have close to even odds of beating teams such as Vegas, Boston and Tampa Bay.

Sportsnet.ca https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/goes-brown-jets-leafs-bona-fide-stanley-cup-final-preview/

Down Goes Brown: Jets-Leafs a bona fide Stanley Cup Final preview?

By Sean McIndoe

Welcome to the penultimate Saturday of the regular season. We’ve got a full day ahead of us, with a dozen games in total. One of those games even features 100 per cent of an entire country’s playoff teams, so let’s start there.

HNIC Game of the Night: Jets at Maple Leafs Yes, I know, even mentioning the possibility of any game being a Stanley Cup Final preview is a reach. It’s almost a clichéd way to treat a late-season game between two decent teams from opposing conferences. And we’re almost always wrong, because in the parity era the Cup matchups often end up feeling nearly random, so we’ll inevitably get to June and be presented with a pairing that nobody’s even thinking about right now.

But still… just imagine.

The Leafs and Jets will be Canada’s only two playoff teams this year, which feels like a letdown after last year’s crowded field of five. But while the nation will head into the post-season low on quantity, the quality factor may be better than it’s been in years. When was the last time there were two Canadian teams that ranked as genuine contenders, and maybe even borderline favourites? Based on points percentage, the Leafs and Jets are shaping up to be the best Canadian one-two combo of the cap era; only the Senators and Canucks in 2007 come all that close.

So, futile as it may be, we can be forgiven for looking ahead and hoping. Because, man, a Leafs-Jets final would be something else. Both teams are young and stacked with offensive firepower. Both cities have been waiting years for any kind of a playoff run. Mix in the Patrik Laine–Auston Matthews debate and Paul Maurice coming back to haunt the team that fired him, and the stories write themselves.

But that wouldn’t even be the main attraction. This is the time of year when we inevitably start hearing about ‘Canada’s Team,’ and whether the country’s fans should unite behind a common cause. It’s almost always nonsense, because Canadian fans don’t think that way. But as we’ve argued before, this year’s Jets may be the only team that could actually pull it off. Winnipeg fans have had so little to cheer about over the years that the rest of the country hasn’t built up any resentment yet. Mix in how likeable the team is and the whole ‘lost our franchise for 15 years’ thing, and if the entire nation was ever going to come together to cheer a team on, this might be this one.

And, of course, it wouldn’t hurt that they’d be playing Toronto. This year’s Maple Leafs are all sorts of fun to watch, and you could list a dozen reasons why Canadian fans should get behind them too. But they won’t. They never will. That’s just how it works in a country where it seems like half the fans root for the Leafs, and the other half root for whoever just beat the Leafs. Put the Jets’ feel-good story on one side of the ledger and a long-suffering Leafs Nation on the other, and you might just tear this country apart.

It would be awesome.

We just have to get there. That’s where things get a little bit tricky, since both teams are facing a tough road out of their own division, let alone all the way to the Final. The Leafs will probably have to go through both Tampa and Boston, while the Jets will presumably have to get by Minnesota and Nashville. As good as both teams are, it wouldn’t shock anyone to see one or both go home early.

Tonight’s game won’t provide all that much in the way of drama — it doesn’t matter much to a Leafs team that’s locked into third spot in the Atlantic, and the Jets are going to finish second in the Central. But it should still provide a good dose of drama, if only because it’s just the second meeting of the year between the two teams. The first came way back on opening night, when the Leafs arrived in Winnipeg and blew the doors off on the way to a 7-2 win. Plenty has changed since then, and maybe we get the payback game tonight. But another dominating performance from Toronto just might plant a few seeds of doubt in a young Jets team.

Would those seeds would sprout into anything by, say, early June? It’s a long shot, and everyone knows it. But for now, at least, Canadian fans can dare to dream just a little.

Winnipeg Free Press https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/buffs-just-buff-in-the-eyes-of-the-guys- 478439363.html

Connor Hellebuyck should be in running for Hart Trophy

By: Paul Wiecek

There has been some loose talk in recent weeks about Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler having an outside shot at taking down this season’s Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player.

That’s not going to happen for a lot of reasons, beginning with the fact the Hart Trophy is voted upon by the media and Wheeler plays in the smallest media market in the entire NHL.

Is it fair that a guy who is currently tied for the league-lead in assists with 66 isn’t going to get more serious consideration as the player who has done the most to help his team this season?

Of course it isn’t, and that’s why the media shouldn’t be the one selecting these sorts of year- end awards in the first place.

Full disclosure: I declined my membership in the Professional Hockey Writers Association this season for a lot of reasons, beginning with an increasing discomfort with the idea that PHWA members should be bestowing awards — some of which come with rich contract bonuses for the award winners — on the people we cover.

Major news organizations including the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times and New York Times already forbid their sportswriters from voting for these kinds of year-end awards for exactly that reason: your claim as a journalist to being an impartial and neutral observer comes into question the moment your vote — which the PHWA will publicly disclose for the first time this year — is the one that decides whether a player you cover gets a six or even seven-figure contract bonus.

But I digress.

While there are plenty of bad reasons why Wheeler won’t get serious consideration as this season’s most valuable player in the NHL, there is one good reason: Wheeler’s not even the most valuable player on his own team.

The Jets MVP isn’t Wheeler, it’s Connor Hellebuyck, as we were all reminded in gruesome fashion again on Thursday night in Chicago.

With Hellebuyck getting some long overdue rest on the Jets bench, Eric Comrie got the start in net for the Jets at the United Center and was awful in what went into the books as a 6-2 Jets loss to the Blackhawks.

At least three of those six Chicago goals should have been stopped, including two of the first three: a sharp angle shot by Patrick Kane that beat Comrie five-hole to open the scoring early in the first period, and a bank shot from behind the net by Tomas Jurco that went in off Comrie early in the second period and put the Jets down 3-0.

They were bad goals. They had the Jets chasing the Hawks and the scoreboard all night long. And it all looked eerily familiar to any Jets fan who can remember as far back as last season, when it was exactly those kinds of soft goals and that kind of inconsistent goaltending that doomed the playoff chances of a Jets team which personnel-wise didn’t look a whole lot different than this season’s world-beaters.

The biggest difference between that team of also-rans and this team of Stanley Cup contenders hasn’t been the play of Wheeler, it’s been the play of Hellebuyck, who went from being the Jets problem last season to the Jets solution this season.

Consider the numbers:

Heading into this weekend, Hellebuyck has a record of 40-11-9, while the rest of this season’s backup netminders for the Jets have a combined record of, wait for it, 7-9-1.

The monumental disparity between those two sets of numbers tells a very simple story: the Jets have an overwhelming chance to win when Hellebuyck starts in net, but are more than likely to lose if anyone else is between the pipes.

It’s not even close, no matter what numbers you choose to examine. Hellebuyck’s save percentage (.923) and goals-against-average (2.38) are both top-10 in the NHL this season, while his backups have all posted numbers near the league bottom: Steve Mason (.906, 3.18); Michael Hutchinson (.907, 3.26); and Comrie (.872, 4.00).

And so if any member of the Winnipeg Jets deserves to receive Hart Trophy consideration this season, it’s Hellebuyck, not Wheeler.

Ask yourself this: where would the Jets be right now if Wheeler had put together the same season he had last year (26 goals, 48 assists, 74 points) instead of the career season he’s put together so far this season (20 goals, 66 assists, 86 points)? I’d argue they’d be pretty much right where they already are: preparing for the playoffs with a playoff spot clinched.

Now ask yourself this: where would the Jets be if Hellebuyck had put together the same season he had last year (26-19-4; .907, 2.89) this season? The Jets would be nowhere, that’s where.

So if it’s an injustice that Wheeler isn’t getting more serious Hart Trophy consideration, it is even more unfair that Hellebuyck is getting no consideration for the Hart in a season he also won’t win the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender.

That latter trophy is almost certainly going to go to Nashville’s Pekka Rinne — and quite rightly so. The Vezina is mostly about raw numbers and Rinne’s are simply better than Hellebuyck’s: he’s got more wins (41 vs 40); he’s got a higher save percentage (.929 vs .923); and he’s got a lower goals against average (2.25 vs 2.38).

But while Rinne is deserving of the Vezina nod over Hellebuyck, I’d argue Hellebuyck has still been unquestionably more valuable to his team this season.

Rinne has a competent backup in Nashville: Juuse Saros is 9-5-10 this season, with a .925 save percentage and a 2.48 GAA. If Rinne goes down, the Preds are still a very good team. You cannot say the same about the Jets if Hellebuyck goes down or simply needs some rest, like he did on Thursday.

And that should be a cause for serious concern for any Jets fan looking at what everyone in town is hoping will be the long playoff road ahead. What happens to the Jets if something happens to Hellebuyck?

Jets head coach Paul Maurice said this week that Mason, who’s been unreliable this season even when he’s been healthy, which hasn’t been often, will be back from his latest injury and on the Jets bench by next week.

That will be an improvement on Comrie, who’s demonstrated himself the last couple seasons to be a fine AHL netminder, but who also clearly needs more seasoning down in the minors.

But I’m not sure Mason is an improvement on Hutchinson, and that’s not saying much. Neither man inspires much confidence — Mason with his inconsistent play as a Jet this season; Hutchinson — who’s also been hurt recently — with his inconsistent play his entire career as a Jet.

And the Jets know as much, which is why this club reminds me right now of a dusty hitchhiker standing on the side of a road with a tattered sign reading: ‘Hellebucyk or bust.’

He’s carried them this entire season. And the Jets will go as far in the playoffs as Hellebuyck carries them again.

Wheeler is the captain of this team and the guy getting some Hart Trophy consideration.

But it’s Hellebuyck who has put the Jets on his back this season since Day 1.

And that’s why Hellebuyck’s not only the most valuable player on his team, he’s the most valuable player in the entire NHL this season.

Consider some of the other Hart candidates:

The Edmonton Oilers would still be lousy without Connor McDavid. The Tampa Bay Lightning would still be good without Nikita Kucherov. The would still have Sidney Crosby even without Evgeni Malkin. And the Boston Bruins would still be unlikeable — although slightly less so — without Brad Marchand.

But the Jets? They’d be losing — and lost — without Hellebuyck.

He won’t win the Hart for a lot of bad reasons and a few good ones, but Hellebuyck might, just might, win this town its first Stanley Cup since 1902.

And with that, he’d win a lot of hearts.