The Winnipeg Jets rebounded from Tuesday's loss the the Montreal Canadiens with a very strong showing versus the red hot Carolina Hurricanes. The Jets dominated play through the first period and apart from a short stint early in the second, they controlled the play throughout. The end result was a 3-1 Winnipeg Jets win, bu the score could have been a lot more one-sided.
Ten Thoughts:
- Shots a lot. The Winnipeg Jets piled a ton of shots on goal tonight, 37 to be exact, and they only allowed 23 shots against. That kind of margin will lead to wins more often than not.
- Leading the shot parade was Blake Wheeler; he had six shots on goal and scored two goals. Both goals came via tipped point shots. It was nice to see big Blake using his big body in front of the net to create offense.
- Evander Kane also piled up some shots. He put 5 on net and had a number of glorious chances. He was once again unable to put one past the tender though. Matthieu Perreault can't catch a break either. He had a beautiful chance on a breakaway, but couldn't convert. Same goes for Lowry and Byfuglien. One day, the bounces will come and it will be glorious.
- Michael Frolik was a little bit more fortunate, picking up an empty net goal to seal the game for the Jets. Hopefully this opens the floodgates.
- Mark Scheifele remains on the "can't buy a goal" list, but he picked up two assists tonight – one on each of Wheeler's two goals. Scheifele had two shots on goal of his own; none beat Cam Ward, but picking up points can't hurt his confidence. His line was great tonight too. That won't hurt either.
- Mark Stuart also picked up two assists. Mark Stuart. Weird.
- Zach Bogosian made a few huge defensive plays tonight. He broke up a breakaway chance, lifted sticks, battled hard and showed a load of confidence with the puck on his stick. He has looked really sharp of late. Hopefully he keeps it up.
- Paul Postma's confidence appears to be growing too. He notably jumped into the rush and took a beautiful pass from Blake Wheeler. His work was sound in all three zones; hopefully the offense comes soon too.
- Michael Hutchinson entered tonight with a career save percentage of .944, that number grew after tonight's .955. Obviously, these numbers are a very small sample, but it is hard to complain about the early returns or the 4-2-0 record. That said, I didn't think this was Hutch's best game. He got caught handling the puck a few times and he was a little lose with his rebounds. These things happen and it is hard to fault the results. Even the one puck that beat him was a bad bounce, off Stuart's skate, that he was helpless to defend.
- The Winnipeg Jets' fourth line got a new look, but they were still the Winnipeg Jets' fourth line. They looked to have more scoring punch, but they also ended up pinned at times. One shift in particular, when paired with Jacob Trouba and Mark Stuart, the fourth line got stuck deep in the defensive zone for an extended period. This led to a Mark Stuart penalty. It would be nice to see the Jets' depth players break even more often.
