The Winnipeg Jets headed to the Big Apple with the goal of extending their current winning streak to 8 games, while the New York Rangers were hoping to show the NHL world that our squad is not as good as their record suggests.
In a battle featuring two of the world’s best goaltenders, would we see a low scoring affair?? Lets find out…
GAME RECAP
The Rangers opened up the game with a quality chance against Connor Hellebuyck, but the Jets’ goalie made the save & denied the rebound as well. Shortly after, New York tried to clear their own zone, but Josh Morrissey stepped up before the puck crossed the blueline. The Winnipeg defender quickly saw Mark Scheifele all alone in front on Igor Shesterkin and hit the center with a pass, allowing him to send the puck over the goaltender’s shoulder to open up the scoring in the first minute of play. Midway through the 1st, New York got a break when Winnipeg lost its’ defensive structure, allowing the Rangers to outnumber the Jets 2 to 1 when fighting for a rebound and knot the match up.
The offense re-appeared in the 2nd period when Winnipeg got their 2nd powerplay of the game and the top unit put on a display of beautiful passing when Gabriel Vilardi & Nikolaj Ehlers completed a rapid give & go that saw Gabe tap the puck into a yawning cage to give the Jets a lead. However, once again the Rangers wouldn’t go away, as they tied the contest up on their 2nd man-advantage 4 minutes later. The True Northers weren’t finished their goal scoring in the middle frame, as Neal Pionk made a good play to intercept the puck in his own end before feeding Kyle Connor with a stretch pass. The American sniper was sprung on a 2 on 1, but he faked the pass before firing his 10th marker of the season by Shesterkin to make it 3-2 Jets.
Once again Winnipeg started off a period well when Connor danced along the right offensive boards before leaving the puck for Dylan DeMelo. The defender skated to the right face-off dot before spotting Scheifele near the blue paint for a nice deflection goal. Unfortunately it only took New York 32 seconds to make that 2 goal lead disappear, as they once again found a rebound off a point shot to make the game tighter. The Winnipeg Jets tightened things up defensively in the 3rd frame, making it difficult for New York to move through the neutral zone with puck possession. Eventually that resistance allowed the Jets to counter-attack with an Ehlers & Vladislav Namestnikov 2 on 1 break. The Russian center carried the puck up the ice before attempting to set up Ehlers for the one timer….but it was severely flubbed and the puck bounced off the back boards. Fortunately, Vladdy was on the ball, quickly corralling the puck and bringing it out front to tuck it in the net before Shesterkin could slide across. The remainder of the period saw the officials ignore potential Ranger infractions and give the home team one last chance to make a comeback by flagging the Jets for a penalty. Winnipeg was able to withstand the man-advantage, but things got a lot more iffy when the home squad pulled their goalie with 2 minutes remaining. Our squad was stuck in their own end for a long period, made a bit worse by Connor failing to clear the zone on two opportunities. With the Jets’ players getting very tired, KFC got a third opportunity to exit the defensive end and this time he just fired it all the way down the ice & into the open net.
FINAL SCORE: Winnipeg 6 New York 3
FINAL STATS
Shots: 36-33 NYR / Hits: 21-13 NYR / Face-Offs: 64.7% NYR / x Goals: 3.83 WPG – 3.82 NYR /
MoneyPuck’s Deserve to Win: 52.1% WPG / High Danger Scoring Chances: 13 to 11 NYR
SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN
SHOT CHARTS from MoneyPuck & Natural Stat Trick
ADVANCED STATS from MoneyPuck
If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:
MoneyPuck: Winnipeg Jets vs. New York Rangers – Tuesday November 12 2024 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: Winnipeg Jets @ New York Rangers, 2024-11-12
BOJA’s Observations:
- Probably could give Connor Hellebuyck a permanent spot in this section, as the goalie was once again fantastic by stopping 33 of 36 shots for a .917 save percentage.
- A very solid outing by the Jets’ top forward line, as Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, & Gabriel Vilardi combined for over 70% of the expected goals, 13 shots on net, 5 out of 6 goals scored, 6 combined points, and a +2 goal differential in the contest. In their past seven games at 5-on-5, the #1 line has outscored their opponents 9-1, while controlling the high-danger chances over their opponents 27-11 and getting 61.97% of the expected goals.
- Kyle Connor now has 11 goals on the season, putting him one marker off the NHL’s lead (MTL’s Cole Caufield).
- The BOJA Boost continues to have some impact, as speedy Nikolaj Ehlers picked up a couple assists against New York.
- Very impressed with the 4th line of Morgan Barron, Rasmus Kupari, & Alex Iafallo lately. They had the 2nd best expected goals percentage in the game (63.6%) and they seem to spend the majority of their shifts pressuring the opponents’ defense with a tenacious forecheck. If only they could pocket a few more goals over the year…..really need to get Barron going as the winger has been held goalless so far and last season’s 11 markers show that he can put the puck in the net.
- With each win, the Jets are making it even more difficult for a future NHL franchise to beat their record for best start to a season…..15-1-0 is already beyond my comprehension, so why not extend it to something insane like 19-1-0???
- Not Winnipeg related, but I did find it interesting that the NY Rangers have yet to win a game this year when they didn’t score first (0-4-1).
Well, despite mentally preparing myself before each game for a Winnipeg Jets loss…..the team keeps on picking up W’s. Last night, the Rangers were able to get into the dangerous areas a bit too frequently, but it was a fairly evenly played contest as shown by MoneyPuck’s expected goals….can’t get much closer than 3.83 to 3.82.
While us fans in Winnipeg have to deal with a cool November rain, our hockey team will get to enjoy the sunshine in warm Florida. Yeah, the weather may be nice, but having to go up against the Lightning & Panthers in quick succession isn’t as pleasant.
UP NEXT: Winnipeg Jets (15-1-0) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (7-6-1) – Thursday, November 14th @ 6:00 pm CST
