The Winnipeg Jets were at home and facing a team that could be described as it’s “white whale”, the Vegas Golden Knights. Our hometown franchise has had their difficulties dealing with the team from America’s betting mecca and were hoping to change the narrative on Thursday evening.
Things opened up on a bad foot when the Jets immediately gave up a quality opportunity by letting Eichel skate into the slot for a shot. Fortunately, Hellebuyck made the initial save and then sprawled on the ice to deny the rebound attempt as well. Vegas & Winnipeg then went back & forth for a bit, but neither could penetrate each other’s defenses. Stanley continued to display his physical play with a nice bodycheck that was followed shortly after with a scrap against the Knights’ Kolesar. Lowry was also using his body effectively, including rubbing out Marchessault with a nice check, as Winnipeg started to control the puck. The Jets received their 1st powerplay chance of the game when Niederreiter narrowly avoided an open ice hit in the neutral zone, but still was tripped up in what was close to a knee-on-knee collision. Our squad did well on this first look, coming close on a scramble for a rebound and then setting up Scheifele for a 1 timer after a beautiful cross-ice pass by Connor (great toe save by Thompson as he slid across). Winnipeg kept up the pressure after the teams were back at even strength, as the Lowry line created a quality chance after a cycle shift and Ehlers got a nice shooting opportunity after a drop pass from Monahan. A bit later, that same line had some issues in their own end, as both Toffoli & Monahan had opportunities to clear the zone. When they failed, Hellebuyck denied a mid-slot shot from Dorofeyev but continued pressure led to the forward getting another chance on a 1 timer. This time Bucky couldn’t get his body in front of the shot and Vegas jumped out to a 1-0 lead with 4 minutes remaining. Almost immediately after, Scheifele was careless with his stick on a face-off and got nabbed for a high-stick. The Knights’ PP got an early shot off a face-off win, but otherwise they could do nothing against the Jets’ Pkers. Check out below how MoneyPuck saw the opening frame.
First Period MoneyPuck Stats: Score: 1 to 0 for the Knights, shots 14 to 10 for the Knights, 53% Deserve To Win for the Knights, Expected Goals – all situations (1.38-1.08 VEG), & 5 on 5 (1.35-0.55 VEG)
Winnipeg came out flying to start the 2nd period with what seemed like 4 or 5 continuous cycle shifts in the Knight’s end. Their hard work finally paid off when Ehlers sent a wrister from the left point, allowing Monahan to make a chest-height deflection by Vegas’ Thompson to knot things up 3:30 into the middle frame. The Jets forecheck continued to pay dividends as they were causing the opponent’s defenders all kinds of issues, helping Winnipeg to spend shift after shift on the attack. The Knights struggled with the onslaught and this led to the Jets getting three straight powerplays. The 2nd & 4th powerplays couldn’t really threaten Vegas’ goalie, but the 3rd one did create a high danger look when a nice give & go between Morrissey and Connor resulted in the winger getting a slot shot. In a period where the home team outshot their opponents 15-6, Winnipeg still couldn’t find a way to take a lead into the 2nd intermission. Here is how MoneyPuck’s data looked after 2 periods:
After Two Periods MoneyPuck Stats: Score: 1 to 1 tie, shots 25 to 20 for the Jets, 67.5% Deserve to Win for the Jets, Expected Goals – all situations (2.49-1.70 WPG) & 5 on 5 (1.55-1.00 VEG)
Stanley continued his strong game in the early 3rd as he ends a Vegas cycle shift by pushing the puck carrier to the ice and making a nice pass for an easy zone exit. The Knights responded to their coaches’ intermission speech with much tighter defense in the final frame, resulting in the Jets narrowly missing some quality scoring opportunities (dangerous Morrissey pass to the net front broken up, a defensive stick stopping Toffoli from springing Ehlers on a breakaway, and a low slot shot by Appleton being blocked by a defender). Gustafsson was pulled down behind the net on a strong 4th line cycle shift, giving Winnipeg their 5th PP opportunity of the match. There is that saying about saving your best for last, well the Jets didn’t go that route and the man-advantage did absolutely nothing with a Knight in the box this time. However, immediately after the penalty expired, Namestnikov sent a great cross-crease pass to Ehlers giving the Dane a look at an open cage with Thompson sprawled on the ice. Perhaps fittingly for this team’s scoring issues, Fly’s shot hit the side of the net and a great chance to take a lead disappeared. A bit later, Namestnikov took a pretty vicious elbow and the refs called it a 5 minute major on the ice. Disappointingly, a review allowed the NHL some time to contact the officials and remind them that the league wants the Knights in the post-season, so the call was altered to a 2 minute minor. Since Scheifele stood up for his teammate with a minor tussle, the striped men decided to add insult to injury by giving him an instigator (thus removing him from the rest of the game) while keeping the squads at even-strength. Winnipeg continued to get some looks (Gus denied from the net front & Nino rips one off Thompson’s shoulder), but a fairly harmless looking Knights’ rush saw a beautiful saucer pass find Barbashev with a half-step on the Jets’ defender. Without much time to do anything, the Vegas player made a fabulous 1 time backhand shot that lasered into the top shelf. With just over 5 minutes to play, Winnipeg pushed for the equalizer (Ehlers shot from right face-off circle, 3rd line failing to jam the puck home during a net-front scramble, & Appleton getting totally stoned with Hellebuyck on the bench for the extra attacker). Pionk stopped a clearing attempt at the blueline, but lost balance doing so and that allowed the Knights to seal the game with an empty netter. The Jets helped them pad some stats by pulling Bucky again and another lost battle at the offensive blueline saw Eichel send a long shot into the undefended cage. Here is MoneyPuck’s final stats/shot chart:
After Three Periods MoneyPuck Stats: 71% Deserve to Win for the Jets, Expected Goals – all situations (3.75-3.31 WPG) & 5 on 5 (2.17-2.15 WPG)
FINAL SCORE: VEGAS KNIGHTS 4 WINNIPEG JETS 1
SHOTS: WINNIPEG JETS 40 VEGAS KNIGHTS 27
Game Observations:
- The Winnipeg Jets deserved a better fate last night. For the most part, they played very well defensively and dominated Vegas for long stretches resulting in the Jets winning the expected goals battle against a very good squad. As was always going to be the issue with this roster’s composition, you have to finish a higher percentage of the chances you create if they want to beat the NHL’s better teams. With that being said, other than adding more movement on the powerplay, I will be happy if Winnipeg plays the rest of the season like they did yesterday.
- Ah, the powerplay. It started out so well with a bunch of opportunities on the 1st one, but not sure the remaining 4 yielded an equal amount of looks combined. Way too static and everyone knows that the Jets are trying to do one of three things….set up a KFC 1 timer from the right, set up a Scheifele 1 timer from the left, or set up a Morrissey 1 timer from the point. Perhaps Gabriel Vilardi’s return will allow the return of down-low and bumper play.
- It is hard to complain about the officials when your squad squandered 5 PP’s, but I will give it a go anyways. Perhaps having Vladislav Namestnikov’s head near waist level when he was elbowed resulted in the change from a major to a minor, but there was absolutely no reason to go with a Mark Scheifele instigator call when both players dropped their gloves at the same time. It was a pathetic attempt to even out the penalties in the game when the reality was Vegas deserved to be on the losing end of that battle by their on-ice play.
- Too lazy to look up stats to support this, but Josh Morrissey was excellent last night. Great 2-way play all night by Winnipeg’s only elite defenseman.
- A very good game by Logan Stanley and I’m not even referring to his fisticuffs. The big defender used his size well throughout the game and was involved at both ends of the ice. Stanley was tied for the team-lead in hits with 5 (along with David Gustafsson, Nino Niederreiter, & Mason Appleton).
In my opinion, the Winnipeg Jets played a pretty solid game that resulted in enough powerplay opportunities to put them over the top. The frustrating man-advantage unit keeps doing the same things and expecting different results. Obviously the team is not going to make any major alterations to the PP, as clearly they would have made those long ago if the staff had any big ideas. Other than relying on Vilardi’s return being their savior, the Jets need to give the 2nd unit more ice-time to give their opponents a different style to try and defend.
NEXT GAME: Ottawa Senators @ Winnipeg Jets – Saturday, March 30th @ 6:00 pm Central
Well, I better get to making some lunch before settling in to watch the Manitoba Moose game at 2 pm. Here’s hoping they give me the chance to watch one of my teams win a game, since I’ve haven’t had that pleasure since the Moose’s 3-2 win last Saturday.
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