The Canada Life Centre in the Peg hosted a game between a couple of division rivals as the Winnipeg Jets (1-0-0) had the Chicago Blackhawks (0-1-0) visit the province of Manitoba for the first time this season. After easily knocking off the Oilers in their season opener, how would our squad perform in game #2?
Here is how coach Scott Arniel deployed his players versus the Oilers (courtesy of PuckPedia):
Friday’s clash between Chicago & Winnipeg saw the Jets start Connor Hellebuyck and the Hawks dressed Arvid Soderblom. The Jets’ coaching staff made no alterations to the lineup from the opener, so lets find out how the Central Division clash went……
RECAP
Overall, as a fan of the Winnipeg Jets, I thought this was a pretty frustrating game to watch. The True North franchise definitely had the majority of the puck possession, but while they did create plenty of scoring opportunities, they had difficulties getting a puck past the Hawks’ goalie. Despite having the puck most of the time, the Jets still allowed quite a few quality looks on Connor Hellebuyck.
As a result of strong tending on both sides of the ice, it wasn’t until late in the 2nd period when the scoreless tie was broken. Neal Pionk made a questionable pinch at the offensive blueline and Chicago took advantage of a 1 on 1 rush to break the goose egg. I thought Dylan Samberg played it as well as he could, cutting off the angle to the net and forcing the Hawks’ Donato to take a shot from just above the left face-off dot. Unfortunately for Bucky and Jets’ fans, the shot was perfectly placed over the pads, yet under the blocker to make it 1-0 Chicago.
Winnipeg only had one more shot than the opposition as they entered the final period, but that gap quickly widened as the Jets pressed for an equalizer. While the increased pressure allowed our squad to double the Hawks in shots in the period (16 to 8), it did open up chances for Chicago counter attacks (i.e. Bucky flashed a glove on a slap shot from the slot). Arvid Soderblom did his best to pick up a shutout, stoning multiple Jets throughout the game including a highly dangerous rebound attempt by Alex Iafallo. With time dwindling in the 3rd, the coaches pulled Hellebuyck for the extra attacker but it would have back-fired if Pionk didn’t stop an opportunity on the yawning cage. Winnipeg regrouped after that and went on the attack with all their top players, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Gabriel Vilardi, Josh Morrissey, Dylan DeMelo, and extra attacker Nikolaj Ehlers. After gaining the offensive zone and cycling for a bit, the speedy Ehlers let a snap shot go from the right face-off circle, causing a big rebound into the slot. It was Scheifele who had the quickest reaction, sort of diving to poke the puck by Soderblom to tie the game with just over a minute remaining.
Overtime saw the Hawks initially gain possession, but the Jets quickly regained the puck and started a cycle in Chicago’s zone. Scheifele & Connor crossed paths along the left boards, with the former leaving a drop pass to the latter. The Jets’ top center then drove to the slot, catching the Blackhawks’ Philipp Kurashev out of position and in a prime spot to receive a pass back from Connor and one-time it by the goaltender to give Winnipeg the overtime victory.
SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN
SHOT CHART from MoneyPuck & NaturalStatTrick
ADVANCED STATS from MoneyPuck & NaturalStatTrick
If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:
MoneyPuck: Chicago Blackhawks vs. Winnipeg Jets – Friday October 11 2024 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: Chicago Blackhawks @ Winnipeg Jets, 2024-10-11 (naturalstattrick.com)
BOJA’s Observations:
- Another solid outing by Connor Hellebuyck, though you might expect him to stop the shot that got by him more times than not. The tender turned aside 25 of 26 shots versus the Hawks for a .962 save percentage in the game, including the denial of 4 high & 5 medium danger shot attempts.
- Mark Scheifele ended up saving the day with 2 late goals, which not only gave his squad a win but also has allowed him to hit the 300 goal mark in his NHL career. The typically pass-first center ended up leading Winnipeg in shots (6) in the contest, though Mason Appleton did come close (5).
- I thought both Cole Perfetti & Nikolaj Ehlers looked better in the season’s second outing, but there are still huge issues with the composition of the Jets’ 2nd line. As a unit at 5 on 5, the trio that includes Vladislav Namestnikov created .118 expected goals, but allowed .368 against. Fortunately, Ehlers still finds ways to get involved offensively in other situations, as he picked up his 2nd assist of the year on Scheifele’s game tying goal.
- The first line of Scheifele, Kyle Connor, & Gabriel Vilardi did end up winning the xG battle last night (.433 to .342), but they still allow way too many quality looks against them. Winnipeg had 3 of 4 forward units and 2 of 3 defensive units with positive xG stats versus the Hawks:
- Another good game by the Jets’ 4th line of Morgan Barron, Rasmus Kupari, & Alex Iafallo, getting 100% of the expected goals, as well as leading in shot attempts 11-1 and shots on goal 4-0 in only 6:19 of ice-time.
- Prospect Updates: Kevin He continues to excel in the WHL (14 pts in 5 gms), as does Brayden Yager (7 pts in 3 gms). Kieron Walton picked up another goal in the OHL to give him 8 pts in 6 games, however Colby Barlow continues to search for his scoring touch (had a whopping 11 shots on Friday, but couldn’t solve the goalie).
- Moose Update: Manitoba opens up its season against the Iowa Wild tonight at 6 pm. While Brad Lambert sustained a stinger in practice recently, all expectations are that the speedy Finn will be in the Moose’s lineup when the puck drops. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Chaz Lucius…after a great camp, the young American has some swelling in his surgically repaired ankle so the training staff will be keeping him out of action on the weekend to get things back to 100%. Eerily sounds like what Ville Heinola went through and that didn’t end well…hopefully it goes differently for young Chaz.
Well, the Winnipeg Jets are undefeated and still tied for the Central Division lead, despite not playing anything close to their best efforts in the opening matches. I am doubtful that they will be able to continue with that level of success unless they find a new gear or the coaching staff starts playing with the line combinations. How long of a runway is Arniel & company willing to give the Jets’ top six composition before they start to fiddle with things??
Enjoy your weekend…I’ll be cheering on the Moose this evening and will be back on Sunday to discuss the upcoming Winnipeg Jets contest.
UP NEXT: Minnesota Wild (1-0-0) @ Winnipeg Jets (2-0-0) – Sunday, October 13th @ 5 pm CST
In order to assist me in replying to a comment by Karlos below, I have included the following graphic about expected goals from the Inside The Stats website. It shows a very generic breakdown of the potential of a goal being scored when shot from various places in the offensive zone, therefore also helping to show how expected goals are calculated: