Recap:
The night after Kevin Cheveldayoff failed to make a single change to the Winnipeg Jets‘ roster at the Trade Deadline, the team rewarded him with an absolute clunker. Despite losing Mark Scheifele to an MCL injury that’ll likely keep him out the rest of the regular season, Chevy stood pat and neither bought nor sold. Scrutiny will surely be coming if the Jets reward his faith with efforts like this.
The Jets opened the scoring at the 12:03 mark of the second when Olli Jokinen took a wonderful feed from the corner from Evander Kane, but that was all Jonathon Quick would allow. Dustin Brown scored 42 seconds after that to even the score, and Mike Richards gave the Kings the lead for good after blowing one by Pavelec top-shelf following an ugly turnover by Tobias Enstrom. A PP goal from Alec Martinez in the third iced it, and that was all she wrote.
Ten Thoughts:
- That was men against boys out there. The Kings lead the league in possession stats for a reason, as the Jets rarely had the puck even when trailing. Utter domination.
- Ondrej Pavelec was the only reason this score made it resemble a hockey game. He was peppered and stood tall, but he was the only guy out there who had a “+” game in my opinion. 3 goals against and still had a 0.927 sv%. That’s a quality start.
- The shots in this game were 41-18 for the Kings, and 20-5 in the 3rd. In a game where they were actually leading. The Jets had absolutely no answer and rarely threatened after the Kings took the lead for good. That’s not what playoff teams do.
- Evander Kane made a great play on the only Jets goal of the evening, but he also took a terrible penalty by roughing up Drew Doughty for no real reason. Then again, he had 7 of the Jets 18 shots (38.9%), so at least he was going a little bit.
- The line of Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler did so little today that they got broke up half-way through the game. It didn’t work. Not having Scheifele there to spread around the offence reared its ugly head tonight, and it likely will for the rest of the season.
- Drew Doughty is unreal. He’s everything I wish Zach Bogosian would, but not sure he can, be.
- Thirteen Kings skaters had at least 2 shots. That is UNREAL depth.
- Dustin Byfuglien absolutely crushed Jake Muzzin into the Jets bench in the first period. That was the only highlight of the night for the big guy. Can we put him back on defence yet?
- Anthony Peluso and Eric Tangradi both saw less than 5 minutes, as the Jets still don’t have a 4th-line that any coach can rely on. And why is the 4th-line still out there with the bottom-pairing of Adam Pardy and Keaton Ellerby? Blech.
- And now, my final thought. This game went worse than I thought it would, but it was not an unexpected loss. The trouble is that the Jets still have to play the Kings again later thing month as they make the California swing and also play the Ducks and Sharks. The playoffs, as far as I’m concerned, are a mirage, as the Jets play too tough of a schedule to end the season. The odds are very long, and Chevy’s decision to stand pat at the deadline and neither buy nor sell will be a major fail if the Jets miss the playoffs. Oh well. Maybe a few UFA’s will re-sign so we can keep the band together.
