The Winnipeg Jets played in their second last pre-season game, this time against the Minnesota Wild. The Jets played fine even though they lost and the game happened without anything noteworthy going on.
The first period saw the Jets give up the first goal when Dustin Byfuglien got a little fancy in the defensive zone because he was trying to make up for a slow break out (a typical issue that happens with the Jets) and got caught. After the Jets played catch up the rest of the period, Nelson Nogier evened up the score with eleven seconds left thanks to a shift from the Adam Lowry line that atoned for their earlier struggles.
The rest of the game unfolded like most Jets/Wild games with the Wild scoring the winning goal on the power play with about five minutes left. Oh well, the games mean nothing right now anyways.
Thoughts:
- Adam Lowry and Andrew Copp are great together and bring out the best in each other on the ice.
- Sami Niku was hardly noticed this game and that is okay. It means he didn’t make a million and one mistakes.
- If there is a decision between Ben Chiarot and Joe Morrow, I would pick Morrow. While he isn’t the best defensively and scored multiple own goals last year, he also scores goals for his team and at least brings something to the table.
- It is going to be interesting to see what the Jets do with Nic Petan who has understandably not been playing the past week or so. Marko Dano has looked solid and Brendan Lemieux has looked like himself. Does Petan get some time to start the regular season with the team?
- Kristian Vesalainen has looked fine. However, as Murat pointed out last night it might be beneficial in the long term for the Jets to send him to the AHL for a year and let his contract slide so they have him on his entry-level contract for an extra season when he is a better player and the Jets need more cheap players.
- I am happy I was not subjected to seeing Tyler Myers play his off-side because I have heard enough of the nightmare to not want to see it as well.
- There was a conversation on Twitter last night about if the Jets got lucky with Mathieu Perreault getting hurt so early and Kyle Connor being called up in his stead only to make the Jets that much better and if the Jets should have just had him make the team. If a player has played well enough to start in the NHL, the team should do everything they can to make sure they do. There are times when waivers need to be considered, but outside of that, if a player is ready they should play. I am looking at you, Sami Niku. It is then on Paul Maurice to make sure all his players play a reasonable amount of time throughout the season.
