Jets Nation Recap: Jets Burn Past Flames Again 3-2

It started off rough – both the preseason and tonight’s game itself – but the Jets closed out the 2015 preseason by winning their third in a row and second in as many games over the Calgary Flames by a 3-2 score.

The game wasn’t without a few moments of drama.

The first period was mostly dominated by the Flames especially in the later half of the period. They ended up out-shooting the Jets 15 to 5 and had it not been for some decent work by Ondrej Pavelec the game could have been over early on.

Winnipeg came out a better team in the second period almost right away as Blake Wheeler in front of the Flames net tipped in a Tobias Enstrom wristed shot from the high slot to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.  Five minutes later after some more sustained pressure and some nice passing by JC Lipon and Andrew Copp, Ben Chariot took a Copp pass and looked to be cycling the puck around the net but fooled Kari Ramo by going high over the shoulder and just under the top corner to give the Jets a 2-1 lead.

From there the teams played pretty even in the third period trading chances and generally not trying to end up injured although both teams saw the injury bug come up as Jiri Hudler didn’t play in the third period for the Flames (lower body injury) and Mathieu Perreault left in the middle of the third after taking an awkward looking hit at center ice.

Paul Maurice in the post-game interviews mentioned that Perreault was taken out more as a precautionary measure and that he would be fine.

Drew Stafford got the empty netter to make it 3-1 but in a slight plot twist the Flames decided to remind everyone that they are never truly out of a game by scoring a minute later (19:44 into the third to be exact) to keep the game a one goal decision.

Who Gets The Final Roster Spots? Another night, another series of good efforts from Nic Petan, Thomas Raffl, Nik Ehlers and Andrew Copp. Clearly the Jets can’t keep all four on the main roster, so who ends up being the odd man out? Petan of the four looks the most NHL-ready with his display of soft hands and ability to work in tight checking spaces. Ehlers and Copp have their good moments and you can make an argument that they should be on the team as well. Raffl has done everything asked of him this camp and has earned a spot on the team with his skill and willingness to mix-it-up physically when needed, but will the Jets show more loyalty to the guys who already have contracts? 

Stu & Trouba: Mark Stuart makes, let’s say “questionable” hockey decisions at times in terms of pinching in on offense or lining up a guy for a hit. When they work out, they work out very well for the Jets. The issue is they don’t work out as much as any of us would like and that leaves Jacob Trouba (and sometimes a backchecking forward) usually alone and having to clean up the mess. Thankfully Trouba is skilled enough that it usually doesn’t do any real harm in terms of a goal against but it would be nice to see the Jets encourage Stuart to be more of a stay-at-home defenseman and let Trouba – who I think you can argue has better hockey sense – be the one who pinches up for offensive work. One way or another though this pairing may not work out all that well in the long run.

Pavs Report: I bet he’d like a second chance at that last goal scored by David Jones, but beyond that he was quite good in goal tonight and wither you want to admit it or not, he’s earned the non to start the season off in Boston on Thursday. Not that there was any doubt he would even before the preseason, just that his numbers suggest that he hasn’t exactly coasted his way into that role either.

Individual scoring chances (iSC), shot attempt differential (Corsi +/-), non-blocked shot attempt differential (Fen +/-), and offensive zone face off as percentage of all non-neutral zone face-offs:

Shot attempt chart for all minutes:

Final submitted roster needs to be in on Tuesday, Jets have some tough decisions to make and then off to BAWston to get the real season going!