I am warning you before you start reading this that after the first period this game did nothing for me and during the first period I was distracted by goalie masks because Connor Hellebuyck’s mask is amazing and I love it. Seriously, it has his puppy and the polar bears from the zoo. Check it out!
Okay, enough about masks. The game. There is a lot to unpack with the game. It started off a big shakey with a fast goal from the Vancouver Canucks countered by an equally fast goal from the Winnipeg Jets. So far so good. Except nothing good lasts and after a solid if not spectacular first period the Jets fell apart. Because of course they did.
The Jets were flat for the rest of the game. There is no redeeming a team that gets outshot 28-8 after the first period to a team playing their fourth game in six days. It’s a bad look and they should feel bad about it. They are playing at near full strength with just Pierre-Luc Dubois (quarantine) and Tucker Poolman (Covid-Protocol; he is now off the list and a few days away from returning). There is no reason for a game like that to happen from the Jets.
Okay, now for some interesting notes around the NHL because the Jets were that boring:
- Marco Rossi is out with an upper-body injury that is tied to a case of COVID he had in November 2020. There is a not so small connection between long-term health effects of COVID and the general population, so that happening in the NHL is not surprising. hopefully Rossi is able to make a full recovery from whatever is ailing him.
- In one of the early games, the Montreal Canadiens vs. the Calgary Flames, Cassie Campbell-Pascall was one of the intermission analysts. I have no actual issue with this, but Sportsnet needs to be upfront with the fact that her husband is Brad Pascall who is an assistant general manager with the Calgary Flames. It could be a conflict of interest and an obvious bias. By declaring it upfront people can view her analysis through that lens.
- Kevin Bieksa had an excellent tie on tonight. He has provided solid analysis in between periods for a while now. I hope he stays long-term (I also like Anthony Stewart when he is on).
- I missed Harnarayan Singh doing play by play tonight. Please have him do all the Jets games.
