The Winnipeg Jets welcomed their former coach Paul Maurice and his Florida Panthers to Manitoba for an afternoon tilt on Saturday. The Jets’ coach Rick Bowness will be hoping to take advantage of the Panthers being without key defenders Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour to come out with a win.
The game flow was very much stop & start in the early first, but Winnipeg had a chance to create some space to work with when Vilardi was hauled down 3 minutes into the period. The Jets had trouble entering the zone initially on the PP, but the third attempt saw Connor finding a streaking Scheifele with a pass at the Panthers’ blueline. Number 55 took the puck on the fly before splitting the defenders and deking Bobrovsky to give the home team an early lead. Florida started to put pressure on Winnipeg’s defense as the period wore on, getting their second PP of the game late in the period on a Dillon puck-over-glass penalty. As so often happens, those “bad” penalties end up in the back of your net. This time, Hellebuyck had no chance to stop it from happening. A nice passing sequence by the Panthers ended with a slick deflection from Reinhart at the side of the net. The period ended dead-locked 1-1, yet the away team controlled a good portion of the game and led in shots 10 to 9.
Hopefully the fans at the Canada Life Centre were back in their seats to open up the 2nd period, since the action got started right away. Florida gained early possession and the puck worked it’s way back to the point, where Kulikov wristed a shot through the traffic in front. Hellebuyck was able to see enough to get a piece of it, but a rebound left a Winnipeg defender out-manned 2 to 1 and Rodrigues was able to bang in his 1st goal of the year just 25 seconds in. The Panthers’ 2 to 1 lead lasted 10 seconds when Scheifele went behind the opposition’s net, then found Connor open in the low slot. KFC made no mistake and rifled his second goal of the year to tie the game up at 2-2. Winnipeg was inspired and the top three lines had offensive chances on their next shifts, but Bobrovsky was up to the challenge. The 4th line was able to solve the Panthers’ tender again when Kupari showed some talent and patience with a dangle in the o-zone before taking a shot from the side of the net. Barron was there fighting for space and was able to knock the puck across the goalline to give the Jets a 3 to 2 lead with 11 minutes to play in the 2nd. Slightly over a minute later, Niederreiter won a puck battle in the corner and was able to move the biscuit to Perfetti, who used his great vision to find DeMelo wide open at the point. The defender stepped in with the puck before firing a shot high & by Bobrovsky’s blocker to make it 4 to 2 with 10:05 remaining. The two teams traded powerplay opportunities without any goals, before Lowry & Schmidt combined for a chance when the new captain got out of the penalty box. The period ended with a great shift by the 3rd line, with Iafallo, Lowry, and Schmidt all getting scoring chances. Winnipeg took a 2 goal lead and a 25-20 edge in shots into the 2nd intermission.
The Jets may have laid back a little too much going into the 3rd period, but they were able to keep the puck out of their net for the first half of the period. Florida seemed to get the benefit of the doubt from the refs all game, so it wasn’t surprising that Winnipeg continued to find its self heading to the box for questionable calls. On one such short-handed situation, Lowry made a great defensive play in the Jets’ end, though lost his stick while do so. He was able to kick the puck out of the zone, while Appleton started to join the SH rush as well. The big Captain grabbed a new twig as he kicked the puck by the Winnipeg bench and broke out on a 2 on 1, before passing to Appleton at the last moment. Apples was able to get a quick release, but even then Bobrovsky was able to get a good chunk of the puck….though not enough to stop it from lighting the lamp. 5 to 2 Jets with less than 6 minutes to play….might as well head for the car, right? Wrong. Maurice pulled his tender immediately and the Cats’ started to push with the 6 on 5 player advantage. It took Florida less than a minute to get a goal to pull them within 2 and then Rodrigues added his 2nd of the game to make it 5-4 with 2:24 left in the 3rd. A good effort by Iafallo probably saved the home team when he forced a Panther to haul him down to stop an empty net goal, so Winnipeg went to the PP with two minutes to play. The Jets controlled the puck for a bit, but once Florida got possession, they pulled the goalie to even things up 5 on 5. Appears that they needed that 6th skater, as this time Morrissey was able to gain possession of the puck and find Connor to set up the game-sealing empty netter.
FINAL SCORE: WINNIPEG JETS 6 FLORIDA PANTHERS 4
SHOTS: WINNIPEG JETS 35 FLORIDA PANTHERS 33
Game Observations:
- Really liking what I’m seeing from Mark Scheifele this season (3 pts in 2 gms). I know, it’s early. But the guy has been sniping some shots, skating explosively, fighting through checks, and being defensively responsible. Add to that some dominance at the face-off dot in this game, winning 19 out of 24 attempts.
- Another game with lots of puck getting behind Connor Hellebuyck, though once again he didn’t seem to have a chance on many of them. Some rebounds ended up being costly, but those were on well-screened chances for the most part. Not really worried too much about #37, but it might he worthwhile getting Laurent Brossoit into a game soon.
- Winnipeg’s defense isn’t giving up tons of shots against in the first two games, but way too many high-danger chances are being allowed. The MoneyPuck shot chart for Florida had Hellebuyck’s crease covered with dots.
- Rasmus Kupari & Gabe Vilardi notched their first points with the Winnipeg Jets in this one. Both players had chances this game and Kupari’s play to set up the 5th goal was very key to coming away with 2 pts.
- Nik Ehlers looked much better in his 2nd game of the year, including a perfect pass to hit Nino Niederreiter flying to the net. It was a beautiful deflection to the top corner by the Swiss forward too…so close to perfection with the puck hitting where the post meets the cross-bar and bouncing out.
- Kyle Connor is another player who appears to have his shooting aim dialed in and isn’t afraid to fire the puck (7 shots on net). KFC added two goals against the Cats, giving him 3 goals and an assist to lead the Jets.
- Impressed with the play of Dylan Samberg to start the season. He and playing partner Neal Pionk were the only defensive duo to have positive expected goals this afternoon. Samberg seems up to being a 2nd pairing guy this season and is making good decisions with the puck.
- Thought last game’s goat Nate Schmidt had a much better game today. With no training camp at all, I guess it’s understandable if there are hiccups.
- Cole Perfetti is a long way from being a true top 2nd centerman, but I really like his positioning on breakouts. His face-off game will improve with time and I think in the end his intelligence & vision will help him be successful.
- MoneyPuck Stats: Florida 57.9% Deserve to Win meter, Florida 4.39 to 3.68 in total expected goals, and Winnipeg 2.24 to 1.89 expected goals at 5 on 5. That is the 2nd straight game where the Winnipeg Jets have won the even strength battles.
Next Game: Los Angeles Kings @ Winnipeg Jets – Tuesday, October 17th @ 7 pm Central
Well, there are about as many things to be excited about these Winnipeg Jets as there are things they need to clean up, but it seems like they could be an exciting team to watch this season. Let me hear your thoughts about this game or the Jets in general in the comments section.
