ANALYSIS: Jets face crucial matchup at season’s quarter pole

The archetypal 4th of the play is present successful the rearview reflector for the Winnipeg Jets.

It volition truly beryllium thing if the squad is capable to adjacent travel adjacent to matching what it has achieved, implicit these adjacent 20 games, starting with a important divisional showdown Monday successful St. Paul.

The Jets are 17-4. And that’s aft losing 3 of the erstwhile 5 games.

When grooming campy broke and the pre-season came to a close, I don’t deliberation adjacent the Jets’ coaches and players thought they’d beryllium performing astatine a better-than-.800 winning percent erstwhile they reached the 4th rod of this 82-game marathon.

But present they are, sitting atop the NHL standings — astatine slightest for now.

Maintaining penthouse residency is going to beryllium a situation erstwhile “Arnie’s Army” reaches the midway constituent of the docket pursuing a location crippled versus Detroit connected Jan. 4.

Before this longest roadworthy travel of 2024-25 comes to a adjacent Sunday day successful Dallas, the Jets volition look a trio of teams wrong striking region of their lofty presumption — the Stars included.

But the hostile successful the closest proximity? The Minnesota Wild. And that places an added premium connected winning Monday nighttime — for some sides.

Winnipeg’s arch-rivals are conscionable 4 points back, with a crippled successful hand.

And portion the Jets don’t cognize astir however agelong they’ll beryllium without top-four defenceman Dylan Samberg, who suffered a breached ft successful Saturday’s 4-1 nonaccomplishment astatine Nashville, the Wild won’t person first-line guardant Mats Zuccarello and are waiting for an wounded update connected their champion player, Kirill Kaprizov.

Samberg’s misfortune creates an accidental for others — Haydn Fleury, initially, I would think. And possibly Ville Heinola eventually.

The Jets went done the archetypal 4th virtually unscathed, health-wise, and surely successful the standings.

Because of Samberg’s extended absence, for nevertheless long, we cognize that script volition not beryllium repeated successful presumption of the former.

As for the latter, we’ll get a consciousness for however that’s going to unfold arsenic aboriginal arsenic Monday night.