Holy crap. The Colorado Avalanche are terrible. Even an undermanned Winnipeg Jets troop was able to easily manhandle the Avs. They have no defense and their forward group is skilled, but sloppy. They looked good next to never in this 6-2 loss.
Ten Thoughts:
- Bryan Little is the best hockey player that far too few people have heard of. He was once again snubbed on the All-star ballot, despite being one of the Jets’ two best players, both this year and last. He is a first-line centre that defends as well as he scores. Big ups to Bryan Little. Congrats on the four point night.
- Part of Bryan Little’s four point night was three goals! He scored a hat trick!! HE SCORED A HAT TRICK!! The long awaited first hat trick in Winnipeg Jets 2.0 history happened on home ice and it was glorious.
- Bryan Little wasn’t the Jets only multi-point player. Blake Wheeler and Andrew Ladd each recorded a trio of points. That line is ripping and rolling, which is nice to see – especially after the line of Evander Kane, Mathieu Perreault and Dustin Byfuglien did all the scoring on Wednesday. Multiple scoring lines will be a must-have with the current defensive core.
- Speaking of Dustin Byfuglien, he looked to be having a load of fun tonight. He was physical and he was creating offense. He finished the night with a goal and a team high 26:24 of ice time.
- His defensive partner, Ben Chiarot also had himself a solid game. He picked up his first NHL point on Andrew Ladd’s second period goal. Good job kid.
- IF (note how I made the ‘if’ big) Chiarot and Buff can sustain this, the loss of Bogo and Toby may not tank the team.
- After the Jets’ fifth goal, the game briefly devolved into a slop fest of penalties and nonsense. The garbage did the Jets no favours and the PIMs put them at risk of allowing goals That shouldn’t happen.
- Thankfully for the Jets, Michael Hutchinson was up to the task. Hutch played a strong game. He probably doesn’t love the first goal, but Iginla has made a career of sniping. Hutch was point and square at all times. He looked really strong.
- The second goal was unfortunate. It came as a result of a powerplay and Hutch had no chance at all. He was on his back with Daniel Briere on his front. Fans wanted a penalty, but the refs were right with the no call. Briere was pushed by Mark Stuart.
- Props to Chris Thorburn for opening the scoring. His snipe looked like a goal scorers goal. This is amusing, but the goal was legit nice.
The Jets play again on Sunday night. Go Jets Go!!
