The Winnipeg Jets burned bright as soon as the puck dropped and stayed that way throughout the game. A delayed penalty on Tobias Enstrom in the first period opened up the scoring. The Jet dominated the first half of the first period but the Colorado Avalanche slowly picked up momentum from there. Nikolaj Ehlers had a great chance at scoring early in the game and almost set up a goal for Mathieu Perreault in the second period but was ultimately unsuccessful. Late in the second Jarome Iginla scored to tie it up.
The fire from the first period returned as the Jets came out guns blazing, getting numerous scoring chances and then with less than a minute left Joel Armia scored after a great play by his linemates Ehlers and Perreault. But it wouldn’t be enough as the Jets would fall 2-1.
Some Thoughts
- Both of the goals against the Jets were caused by penalties. I will continue to scream this until they figure it out. They need to be more disciplined.
- Personally, I thought JC Lipon faired well for his first game in the NHL.
- It was pretty obvious this team missed Mark Scheifele, Drew Stafford, and Adam Lowry. It’s been five years, are we able to say that we have depth yet? I’m saying no. Especially when you’re first regular call up seems to continually be Patrice Cormier.
- One positive from all these injuries is that Nikolaj Ehlers was given top six minutes and he was away from Chris Thorburn. He looked incredible with his linemates Joel Armia and Mathieu Perreault. Even when this roster gets healthy again, I hope this line stays together in some form or another.
- Blake Wheeler was simply on fire getting numerous chances of his own. He almost scored late in the third but after review the puck merely hit the cross bar. He is fifth in points in the entire NHL. I always hear people say that the Jets don’t have a “star”. These people are clearly wrong. We’ve all known of Blake Wheeler’s greatness for years now. It’s about time the rest of the league sees it too.
