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Recap: Winnipeg Jets cannot hold off the St. Louis Blues, lose 4-2

The game started off well. Bryan Little scored an early goal and the Winnipeg Jets dictated play for much of the first period. But as with all things, it didn’t last. Using an effective powerplay, the St. Louis Blues mounted a comeback and ended up beating the Jets 4-2, with one empty net goal.

Ten Thoughts:

1. The Jets first period was excellent. They took play to the Blues and were generally awesome. The referees made a few odd non-calls, but nothing that was as egregious as later in the game. More on them later though.

2. Dennis Beyak incorrectly asked Bryan Little about having a shutdown assignment this year. Little's line has been getting their easiest assignments and zone-starts since the team moved to Winnipeg. Moving along.

3. Ryan Reaves has more goals than Evander Kane. Fact. Kane is also playing the toughest minutes of his career, playing the toughest zone-starts of his career and has no shooting luck. Fact. Can Kane be better? Yes. Has he been terrible and should the Jets trade him? No. Even if they want to trade him, pump up his value and let his shooting luck normalize before doing so. Just a thought.

4. The Jets powerplay looked stinkier than a skunk. They had all the momentum in the first and then stunk up the joint on the powerplay. Garret tweeted out powerplay pts/60 for the defense and of the defenders who regularly play on the powerplay, Trouba has the lowest pts/60. Paul Postma is second to Tobias Enstrom. Maybe Postma should be on the powerplay ahead of Trouba. Maybe.

5. Hey, the Winnipeg Jets did manage 2, that's right, 2! 5 on 5 goals today. This included a goal from the fourth line. That is as close to a win as one can get in a loss.

6. The fourth line scored a goal. We all saw a unicorn. We almost saw two unicorns, but Chris Thorburn did not get a point on the goal. This is good because I actually wrote something about Thorburn and it is still accurate. (Actually, I don’t mention how he doesn’t have a point yet this season but YOLO).

7. How does one give up a breakaway on the powerplay? Asking for a friend.

8. What is the punishment for a team that concedes points to both Ryan Reaves and Steve Ott? The Jets did that today and I think that there is special punishment for this offense.

9. Interesting fact: Jori Lehtera is almost 27. He’s good, but I feel the need to add some perspective. I refuse people the right to have nice things.

10. The refs. They were brutal today. No one seemed to be calling their area and they seemed to be making up calls as they went. It was especially noticeable for Evander Kane's roughing penalty when Kane hit Barrett Jackman. Kane was not going to get a penalty, then Jackman took his glove off, chased Kane and escaped unpenalized. This comes in the same week that Kerry Fraser admitted that the refs have a "hit list" for all the players that have wronged them over the years. It seems like Kane is on that list and this is a problem. The refs are not impartial and the NHL willingly lets them be petty when it comes to players. It needs to stop.

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