On Sunday night we all saw what a team who plays well within their system, and focuses hard on puck possession can do. The Wild vastly out chanced the Jets and were finally able to break through for a win against a Jet team that seemed quite comfortable with going into overtime.

That’s a LOT of negatives. The Wild did a fantastic job all night of getting the body and their sticks in the lane, which broke up and prevented many Jets chances. For the first time in a while we saw a very slow Jets start, and defensive breakdowns led to the majority of the Minnesota chances.

I wasn’t a big fan of a lot of Claude Noel’s decisions on the night. The first of which was his choice to split up the pairing of Pardy and Ellerby. I understand the logic in not wanting to slide Redmond into the second pairing right off the bat, but he was going to be playing with Toby. I would have much rather he kept Pardy and Ellerby together and raised their ice time a little bit, rather than complete change things up.

Nor did I really enjoy Grant Clitsome’s game (as usual) tonight, but I guess he deserves some credit for being the only Jet not in the negatives.

Mark Scheifele had a bit of a rough night defensively. Specifically on the game-winning goal, he made a poor choice leaving his assignment open on the dot, but those things are going to happen with a rookie. Back to Noel’s poor decision making, I don’t see why he wouldn’t call a timeout following the icing to try to settle things and get the guys some rest.

I’m starting to really feel for Eric Tangradi. He didn’t spend his whole night with the fourth line, but he was still stuck with them for a fair amount of time. He doesn’t belong with guys like Chris Thorburn and James Wright, and I was happy with Claude Noel’s choice to move him up the lineup a bit.

I’d like to point out that Olli Jokinen was the best Jets forward on the night. Not that it really means a lot, but I wanted to take the chance to say that he has been quite excellent this season.

How hilarious was the Minnesota attempt to squash out the “True North” during the anthem? Good on the Jets fans for showing that they understand French. Left that foolish anthem singer looking silly with the lyrics attached to his microphone. Rivalry on, folks. Rivalry on.