The Winnipeg Jets have been struggling to find their top level game in the post-season, but they had another chance to discover it on Sunday afternoon. The Colorado Avalanche were the NHL’s best home team this season and were hoping to use that advantage to take a firm grasp on the series with a third win. Lets find out how things went…
When the puck was dropped to begin Game 4, it was the Avalanche who appeared more interested in winning the game as the Jets were stuck defending for long stretches of the 1st period. Colorado outshot Winnipeg 9 to 1 in the opening 6 minutes and it was only Hellebuyck’s play that kept the game scoreless. Eventually the pressure was too much for the Jets’ defense and when Stanley turned over the puck in his zone, Mittelstadt was able to send the puck out front to Lehkonen, who Schmidt left totally uncovered in front of the crease. Now down a goal, Winnipeg eventually found a way to spend some time in Colorado’s zone thanks to a nice breakout pass by Stanley. The dish allowed Appleton to gain the zone with speed, driving the defenders back before dropping a pass to the trailer. Schmidt received the pass, stepped into the high slot and let a hard wrister go that beat Georgiev to tie the game with 6 minutes to play. The Avs challenged the play for off-sides and while it was very close, the NHL’s center of operations couldn’t see enough to overturn the call of a goal on the ice. That gave Winnipeg a huge chance to take advantage of their 1st powerplay, but the team failed to even test the Avs’ goaltender once with the extra skater. The Jets finished the frame strong, including a span of 5 straight shots, but MoneyPuck still gave Colorado the advantage in play after one.
First Period MoneyPuck Stats: Score: 1 to 1 tie, shots 12 to 9 for the Avs, 69% Deserve To Win for the Avs, Expected Goals – all situations (1.37-0.52 COL), & 5 on 5 (1.37-0.51 COL)
The Jets had a good shift to start the 2nd period, with the 2nd line getting looks from Monahan (saved) and Toffoli (wide). Eventually the Avs started to control play again and were helped out by two penalties to Stanley. Winnipeg’s penalty killers & Hellebuyck somehow combined to keep the game tied. The Jets’ tender had to make a bunch of quality saves to keep it that way, but eventually Colorado broke through when a 3rd man-advantage saw Nichushkin deflected a Makar point shot by Bucky. Winnipeg’s starter had to make a few more saves as the Avalanche poured on the offense, but eventually the Jets let Makar skate end-to-end to add a 3rd goal with 5 minutes to play. A dumb penalty by Niederreiter let the officials continue to call another infraction on the visitors before the end of the period (while frequently ignoring penalties from Colorado) and that put the final nail in the Jets’ coffin when Nichushkin added his 2nd goal of the game with 24 seconds to play. MoneyPuck’s data is not very kind to Winnipeg, as you will see below.
After Two Periods MoneyPuck Stats: Score: 4 to 1 for the Avs, shots 30 to 16 for the Avs, 89% Deserve to Win for the Avs, Expected Goals – all situations (3.93-1.00 COL) & 5 on 5 (3.33-0.91 COL)
Full disclosure, I really only skimmed the final period of play, but Winnipeg ended up outshooting Colorado 11-5 with the assistance of a couple powerplays (refs trying to even out the calls after they already helped decide the game for Colorado with their uneven officiating). However, as you can tell when you compare the 2nd & 3rd shot charts, the Jets weren’t getting high danger opportunities and the Avalanche were basically just waiting for the clock to run down. To add insult to injury, things got worse for Winnipeg when a Schmidt shot was deflected right into Namestnikov’s head. The Russian was bleeding on the ice and according to IllegalCurve the injury required treatment at a Denver area hospital. Winnipeg’s coaching staff had decided to give Hellebuyck a break from the shooting gallery in the final frame, so Brossoit made his playoff debut this season and turned aside all 4 shots he saw, but Colorado did add an empty netter when the Jets pulled the goalie for the extra attacker. MoneyPuck’s data shows us that Winnipeg was completely dominated in all aspects of the game and couldn’t protect the dangerous scoring areas at all in Game 4.
After Three Periods MoneyPuck Stats: 82% Deserve to Win for the Avs, Expected Goals – all situations (4.55-1.71 COL) & 5 on 5 (3.39-1.43 COL)
FINAL SCORE: COLORADO AVALANCHE 5 WINNIPEG JETS 1
SHOTS: COLORADO AVALANCHE 35 WINNIPEG JETS 27
Game Observations:
- I really don’t have a lot to say. Some Winnipeg Jets players have put in a full effort this post-season, but others have gone AWOL and the entire team is lacking the structure that propelled them to such success in the regular season.
- Assuming the Jets can’t make an amazing comeback in the series (probably a safe bet), the only way a Winnipeg fan can feel good about these playoffs will be if the Colorado Avalanche absolutely dominate their way to a Stanley Cup win. Then we can at least feel like our squad did as well as other teams against the powerhouse Avs….but that would be a small conciliation.
The Winnipeg Jets will try to avoid elimination on Tuesday in front of their fans at the Canada Life Centre….will they go out fighting or will they fold like a house of cards??
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