To quote Ilya Bryzgalov the Winnipeg Jets came out “like gorillas coming out of a cage”. They struck early and they struck often, much to the delight of Winnipeg Jets fans and the chagrin of the Wild.
The Jets were always in control of the game which was surprising because they did not have Nikolaj Ehlers who was a late scratch and Josh Morrissey who was out serving his one-game suspension. The Jets refused to be denied tonight after waiting for so long to win a playoff series.
Ten Thoughts:
- No Nikolaj Ehlers is hopefully just a precaution. The Jets have lots of people they can play and if Ehlers is not healthy they can easily sit him and do the next man up thing.
- I know the Wild are without Ryan Suter and Zach Parise, but the Jets are without Toby Enstrom, Josh Morrissey, Mathieu Perreault, and Ehlers. Maybe talk about that as well, Sportsnet.
- The reason Sportsnet is not talking about the Jets injuries is because of how damn good they have been. The reason the Jets can manage to survive with so many injuries is they have very good young players like Kyle Connor and Tucker Poolman.
- The Jets are doing a wonderful job of not getting into extra-curricular activities. This is clearly why Matt Hendricks was dressed. He is good at keeping other players out of them by jumping in himself.
- The Jets have scored four goals and seemed to have fully broken down the Wild in the defensive zone. It is wonderful to say and I love it so much.
- I have nothing left to say except this team has been excellent all year and they seem determined to take me out of my misery of watching the Wild every game as quickly as they could.
- I complained about Jets fans chanting “Katy Perry” at Corey Perry in the last playoff series the Jets were in. Tonight there are no such complaints from me. From chanting “we want Dubnyk” after he got pulled to singing “heyaaaa, goodbye” to their wonderful “we want Nashville” and “Book a tee time” chants, Jets fans were on point tonight.
- We have not talked Paul Stastny this series, which is a very Paul Stastny thing but he has been good. He adds the depth that the Jets clearly need at centre and when he is with the two kids (Patrik Laine and Ehlers) he gives them the type of centre that they thrive with.
- It is time that I rant about the Sportsnet broadcast: they have been terrible all series. Paul Romanuk seems to only know how to yell when anything is happening and Garry Galley fixates on one thing all series. This series it has been that there is no Ryan Suter and hitting. This game is has been about Matt Hendricks being a good hockey boy. There is nothing wrong with the Jets playing Hendricks tonight, it might have been a smart idea because Hendricks is not so important to the Jets that losing him could hurt them in a later series while someone like Ehlers could be a serious blow to the Jets chances. I am glad Scott Oake got to work his hometown team’s series, but the rest of the crew was very not good all series. (I can’t really speak about Cassie Campbell because I do not watch the pre/post game or the intermissions)
- It might have taken 19 years for the Thrashets to win a playoff game, but it took the same amount of time for them to win a series. Well done.
This one is for long-suffering Thrasher fan and friend of the blog Laura, who we kidnaped at the start of the playoffs.
