After winning a game of pond hockey 7-6 on Sunday, the Winnipeg Jets will be looking for another victory at home against the Colorado Avalanche tonight. Despite picking up the win, our squad will want to play a completely different style of game on Tuesday in order to increase their chance of success. Will the Jets be able to return to their smothering defense and avoid the run & gun play that the Avalanche love so much?
Before we get to discussing the Jets-Avs contest in more detail, lets take a peek at how things have unfolded so far in the NHL playoffs.
The Boston Bruins continued their dominance of the Toronto Maple Leafs with a breezy 5-1 victory to open the series in Massachusetts, but the Leafs responded well to even the series up with a 3-2 win last night and the two franchises will head to Toronto with things all tied up. The only other series with 2 games in the books is the Carolina Hurricanes – New York Islanders contest and the Canes are in control after winning both matches. They opened up the post-season with a 3-1 shut-down victory and then shocked the Isles with a major comeback to win last night 5-3 (including two goals in 9 seconds to take the lead late in the game).
The rest of the NHL has only played one match in their series, with the Florida Panthers edging the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in the opener, the New York Rangers handing the Washington Capitals a 4-1 loss, the Vancouver Canucks taking Game 1 with a 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators, the Vegas Golden Knights holding off a Dallas Stars’ comeback to walk away with a 3-2 victory, and the Edmonton Oilers lighting up the defensively minded Los Angeles Kings 7-4 last night.
Still way too early to determine what the lineups for Winnipeg & Colorado will look like tonight, but both coaching staffs will have decisions to make. Will Rick Bowness decide to make some changes to a defensive unit that made way too many errors in Game 1? With backup goalie Juuse Annunen still being under the weather yesterday, the Avalanche recalled Ivan Prosvetov from the AHL as a possible starting option or just to back up Alexander Georgiev (.696% in Game 1). Prosvetov has done really well in the AHL with a .921 save percentage in 21 games, but hasn’t done as well in 11 NHL games (3.16 GAA/.895%).
Who ever the Winnipeg Jets’ coaching staff decides to play, the team will need to focus on the following things to be successful this evening:
- Clean zone exits. While you may think that this mainly applies to Jets’ defensemen since they are the ones typically getting the first touch in the defensive end, but it applies equally to the forwards as well. When a defenseman puts the puck up your boards, Winnipeg’s wingers better make sure they get it out of their zone and not allow pinching Avalanche defenders to step by them to keep the pressure on. Equally, Jets’ centers need to help out down low and be in the right spot to get that mid-ice pass if the boards aren’t a zone exit option for the defenseman. These things will help the backend deal with the Avs’ forecheck and result in less turnovers/intercepted passes ending up in their own net.
- Full effort for a full 60. The Winnipeg Jets need to follow the example of captain Adam Lowry and play the game at top speed regardless of whether it’s on offense or defense. We’ve all seen the frustration that our top game can produce in opponents and the franchise needs to do everything possible to avoid Nathan MacKinnon & company from taking over the series.
- Stay out of the box. The Jets didn’t have that many penalties in the opener, but still Colorado was able to make their mark on the powerplay. The mix of the lethality of the Avalanche top end players and the struggles of Winnipeg’s penalty killers this season means it’s a must reducing the amount of time Colorado has with an extra skater.
- Clear the crease. I know our defensive core isn’t the largest group in the league, but they need to do a better job of boxing out opposing forwards so they can win more of the rebound battles. The key thing for the Jets to keep the goals against low is to ensure the Avalanche chances are one & down affairs. If Connor Hellebuyck makes the initial save, it is up to the rest of his team to clear the puck from danger to guarantee that prolonged pressure doesn’t result in further scoring chances. It will also help Bucky out greatly if Winnipeg could somehow manage to allow him to see the shots heading his way….so anyone who stands in front of the Jets’ net should take a beating to discourage such impolite behaviour.
Many Winnipeg Jets have room to elevate their games after a mediocre performance in the opener. In front of the loud White Out crowd at the Canada Life Centre on Tuesday seems like a great time to do so, in my opinion. If the Jets can get better play from the Ehlers-Monahan-Toffoli trio, that would go a long way to evening things out offensively. The bottom six needs to keep up the forechecking & cycling shifts to wear out the opposition along the defensive boards. The defensemen need to avoid panicking and make ill-advised pass attempts, even if that means they have to ice the puck (WPG did well at the dot in Game 1).
Well, the Jets didn’t follow my advice in the first contest, hopefully they come closer to meeting my standards tonight. GO JETS GO!!
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