As the NHL’s regular season schedule enters it’s final 25%, it booked a Tuesday evening battle in the Peg between the Winnipeg Jets and the Seattle Kraken. If you didn’t watch the game, time to find out how it played out.
With the news before puck drop indicating that neither Vilardi or Schmidt was healthy enough to play, the Jets added tall Stanley to the defensive core for the contest. Winnipeg started off playing extremely well, as line after line spent time cycling Seattle’s zone. This pressure resulted in some quality looks on the Kraken’s Daccord, including Stanley ringing a slapshot off the post and a Lowry shot after intercepting a pass in the offensive zone. However, it was the visitors who got on the scoreboard first when a 3 on 2 rush ended with a 1 timer from the high slot. Hellebuyck seemed to have good positioning, but the puck slid between his legs to give Seattle the lead just before the mid-point of the period. This picked up the Kraken’s pace and they started spending time in the Jets’ end, forcing Bucky to make a couple nice glove saves. Eventually Winnipeg re-found their legs and once again started circling the opponent’s zone looking for scoring chances. The Monahan & Lowry trios were particularly adept at creating offense in the opening frame and MoneyPuck’s stats & chart shows the Jets controlled play in the opening period despite being in a 1-0 hole.
First Period MoneyPuck Stats: Score: 1 to 0 for the Kraken, shots 14 to 7 for the Jets, 65% Deserve To Win for the Jets, Expected Goals – all situations (0.94-0.30 WPG), & 5 on 5 (0.94-0.30 WPG)
To my eyes, Winnipeg started to push a bit too much for a goal in the 2nd period and this allowed Seattle many chances on counter-attacks. The first of these chances saw the Kraken escape their end to have a breakaway on Hellebuyck, but the tender timed a pokecheck well to deny the opportunity. The Jets responded with more pressure and another glorious scoring chance for Lowry, but once again Seattle countered with a 2 on 2 rush back the other way. In a quick synopsis of Pionk’s game, the defender gave up the puck at the blueline to allow the rush, only to get back in position and end the danger with a good pokecheck. This allowed the Jets’ top line to head up the ice and once Namestnikov gained the zone, he quickly handed the puck to Scheifele skating down the right wing. Winnipeg’s top center sent a beautiful cross-ice pass to a wide open Connor in the left face-off circle, giving the sniper a chance to release a shot that beat Daccord’s glove. The officials ended up giving the puck to Winnipeg’s bench, since the dish by Mark Scheifele represented his 700th career point in the NHL. Seattle responded well to the tie game and really started to force the Jets’ back on their heels, relying on a couple big saves by Hellebuyck to keep the game deadlocked. The officials threw Winnipeg a potential lifeline when Monahan was tripped up in the neutral zone, giving them a chance to turn the flow of play. The man-advantage started out with control of the puck, but they couldn’t pierce the Kraken’s defense. Even worse, the team ends up giving a clear cut SH breakaway to McCann and he snipes a long slot shot over Bucky’s glove to give the visitor’s another lead. The last two minutes initially saw Winnipeg struggle to gain the offensive zone, but then the Lowry unit broke through, allowing Appleton to make a nice pass to the big center in the slot. The Jets’ captain finally was rewarded for the multitude of chances he gets, tying the game up with 9 seconds to play. MoneyPuck’s shot chart after the 2nd tells me our squad was doing a pretty good job of limiting high danger chances against, but the game was knotted going into the final frame.
After Two Periods MoneyPuck Stats: Score: 2 to 2 tie, shots 24 to 17 for the Jets, 63% Deserve to Win for the Jets, Expected Goals – all situations (1.54-0.97 WPG) & 5 on 5 (1.33-0.87 WPG)
Winnipeg started out the 3rd exactly as fans wanted them to and when Appleton raced up the right wing with the puck, he was able to spot Niederreiter driving to the net. Once again, Apples makes a nice pass to hit the Swiss winger in the blue paint, allowing the Jets to take a 3-2 lead just 1:17 into the period. However Seattle stubbornly refused to go away and on the next shift, Tatar was able to tip a point shot by a butterflied Bucky. The two teams then spent the next 15 minutes trading mainly low danger looks, but Hellebuyck did have to make a couple large stops to deny the Kraken another lead. As the end of the frame neared, Stanley tried to disrupt a Seattle player’s attempt to receive a pass by tying up his stick, but the twig shattered on contact, sending the big defender to the sin bin. The Kraken were able to get set up early on their 1st PP of the game, but were kept to the perimeter well by the defenders. A great block by Appleton on a 1 timer attempt gave the fans the hope their team would escape with the game tied, but a last second cross-ice pass and wrister saw the puck trickled between Hellebuyck’s arm & body. With just over 2 minutes left, Bowness pulled Bucky and Winnipeg had a few opportunities to tie the game up, but Seattle defenders were always there to block the shots. With under 30 seconds remaining, the refs gave the Jets another PP, allowing the home team a 6 on 4 advantage. They did win the all-important draw and even got a cross-ice pass through to an uncovered player, but Pionk bobbled the pass and by the time he was able to get the shot off, it was just another blocked shot attempt. MoneyPuck seems to agree with my old eyes, the Jets really deserved to win this game but the bounces didn’t go their way.
After Three Periods MoneyPuck Stats: 71% Deserve to Win for the Jets, Expected Goals – all situations (2.56-1.43 WPG) & 5 on 5 (2.37-1.33 WPG)
FINAL SCORE: SEATTLE KRAKEN 4 WINNIPEG JETS 3
SHOTS: WINNIPEG JETS 32 SEATTLE KRAKEN 24
Game Observations:
- Well, I guess everyone has an off-night every now & then. Since Connor Hellebuyck has given his team quality starts over 70% of the time, I think we can forgive him for a game that saw him let 2 or 3 questionable goals in last night. Only the Kraken’s 3rd marker was from within 10 feet of the net, so it wasn’t a game he’ll include on his Vezina Trophy application. For the advanced stats people, Hellebuyck had a negative 2.57 Goals Saved Above Average versus Seattle.
- The Adam Lowry, Nino Neiderreiter, & Mason Appleton trio were fantastic, getting 93.9% of expected goals in another dominating performance. Add a couple goals scored on nice set ups by Appleton and you can’t complain about the 3rd line’s performance.
- The 1st line (Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, & Vladislav Namestnikov) also won the expected goal battle (57.1%) and added an even strength goal by KFC. The 2nd line (Sean Monahan, Nikolaj Ehlers, & Alex Iafallo) also controlled the majority of play (56.2% xG), but the 4th line was horrible yet again (9.5% xG).
- All three defensive pairings had positive expected goal ratings at even strength, with the Brenden Dillon & Neal Pionk duo leading the charge with 74.9%.
In what will be a busy March for the Winnipeg Jets, the team gets a couple days off to re-group and possibly allow any injured or beat up players to get back to full health.
NEXT GAME: Winnipeg Jets @ Seattle Kraken – Friday, March 8th @ 9:00 pm Central
A rematch on Friday night in Seattle….here’s hoping for a better result. That game also happens to coincide with the NHL’s trade deadline, so it’s possible Winnipeg has a new player or two in Washington state.
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