Recap:
Well, that has to end whatever playoff talk that was remaining, right?
The Winnipeg Jets disappointed their way through most of the evening, which ended up being a 2-1 defeat to the Dallas Stars. This result, combined with the Phoenix Coyotes point that they earned in their OT loss in NYR, pretty much wiped out the Jets’ playoff chances for good. It was only a matter of time, though, and perhaps this will finally allow PoMo to give up the “playoff dream” and play some players where they should be played (cough, Buff on D, cough).
Ray Whitney and Jamie Benn each scored power-play goals, while Kari Lehtonen stopped all but Bryan Little’s late PP goal in stopping 32 of 33 shots.
10 Thoughts:
- Well this was a slightly different result from the 7-2 shellacking that the Jets put on this same Dallas squad only a few weeks ago. Apparently Lehtonen is a pretty integral part of their team. And the Thrashers traded him for peanuts because Ondrej Pavelec threatened to go play overseas. Sigh.
- Another too-many-men penalty leads to another PP goal against. In fact, the best PK on the road got toasted for two powerplay goals on the night. Play with fire and, well, you know. Special teams win games. And sometimes they lose them, too, and the Jets lost the battle on the night.
- Al Montoya kept his team in the game. Not much you can do when your team only scores once. Sure, he might want the opening goal by Ray Whitney back, but the second one was a fire drill and he had no chance. A 0.926 sv% on the night, and a 1.000 sv% at 5v5, is about all you can ask for.
- What else can you say? Andrew Ladd stayed home to be with his new baby daughter (which, in my opinion, was the correct call), and they were also without Zach Bogosian and of course Mark Scheifele. Add to that to the list of the “wounded plugs” and you’re left with a pretty barren lineup. Team depth remains a major issue.
- How in the heck do you move Keaton Ellerby up to the top-pairing to play on on his off-wing? He’s barely good enough to play on the bottom pairing. Meanwhile, Dustin Byfuglien is slumming it on his off-wing up front. This team and their decisions. Man.
- Alright, I get it that the “playoff dream” was “still alive” tonight (it really wasn’t), but why would you move Eric O’Dell to the wing, move Jim Slater up inside top-9 and play Patrice Cormier when you had Carl Klingberg at your disposal? Slater has proven that he’s nothing more than a 4th-liner, so if you’re gonna dress a kid why not see what Klingberg can do? Again, personnel decisions continue to befuddle and perplex.
- Blake Wheeler should likely be hurt worse than he is. I hate seeing those injuries caused by an open door at a bench, and I am completely shocked that he returned to the bench late in the game. I thought he broke something for sure. I wonder what tomorrow will bring for him.
- Jacob Trouba is certainly trying to do what he can, but he’s still just a kid. When he’s leading your team in ice-time in must-win games, that’s not good. I mean, he played 24:51. That’s absurd. I mean, he’s really good, but that’s too much.
- With the Jets searching for goals in the third, Dustin Byfuglien finally got moved back to the blue-line! I’m really interested to see what PoMo does with his roster when the playoff picture is fully removed. Tryouts could be fun, especially if he makes some fun decisions and some kids get brought up.
- Hey, would you look at that! Another loss after the trade deadline. With a record now of 2-6-2 since Mark Scheifele went down, with two of those wins coming in extra time, the collapse is nearly complete. I’m sure glad we “rented” all of our own UFA’s for this stretch drive. Oh well. At least the cupboards are full, amirite?
