JN Recap – Jets ‘Near Perfect’ In Win Over Blues

Pavelec-Mania is building momentum.

Love him or hate him, you cant deny that Ondrej Pavelec’s work in the second period where he tied a franchise record for most saves in a period with 25 was a huge part – maybe the deciding part – of a 5-3 Jets win over the St. Louis Blues.

Don’t look now, but the Jets have earned points in three of their last four games and are again threatening to win three in a row this Monday, and it is thanks in large part to a goalie the Jets wanted nothing much to do with at the start of the season or want nothing to do with after this season…

“Polarizing Pavelec” indeed. No matter what side of the Pavs argument you’re on, you can’t deny that he had an incredible game today. Yes he did flop around a bit too much on the Blues second and third goals which made things interesting taking a game that was 5-1 in favor of the Jets to what the final score ended up being. Yes he did get a bit lucky with a couple of Vladimir Tarasenko shots ringing off the posts behind him. But that second period saw the Jets under siege a bit getting out-shot 25-11 and Pavs turned in one of the better periods of play he’s maybe has in Winnipeg the last two seasons. He finished the game saving 34 of 37 shots (.919 save percentage if you don’t want to do the quick math) but those two goals against in the third period were sharp reminders of how off the rails and scramble-y in his own net he can get when the defense in front of him breaks down.

The Jets got a lot of strong performances from their top forwards today. The line of Wheeler / Little / Perreault was fantastic today and is starting to mesh really well. Bryan Little’s ability to finish plays is underrated and Wheeler has been straight up hustle the last few games. The top line of Scheifele / Ehlers / Stafford was also ok but Drew looks like he was coming down from his latest hot streak before suffering an injury and not being able to come out for the 3rd period. Andrew Copp took his place on that line and yet again an entire fan base wondered just what Nic Petan would have to do to get a shot at playing with top six forwards. If the breakout pass he made to Ehlers in the set-up to the Jets fifth goal didn’t convince the coaches, I fear nothing will.

If we’re being honest with oursselves the Jets defense wasn’t horrible and the first and third periods were strong – in fact the defense didn’t allow a Blues shot on goal until the 7:42 mark of the third period – but that second period was all kinds of bad and it’s a minor miracle the Jets didn’t trail after 40 minutes. It was more of the same that we’ve seen from the defense all season. Poor spacing between players and bad passes leading to a ton of turnovers.

It was nice to see the Jets with a bit more killer instinct in the third period and attacking to get a bigger lead rather than defend and hope to get something on the odd counter-attack. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact the Blues were playing an AHL goalie, or that the Blues had played two rotten games previous where they simply forgot to play hockey.. Whatever the case, the Jets attacked and were rewarded with a four goal lead midway through the 3rd, so the late Blues rally may have caused a slight bit of concern, but not full on panic as it would have a few weeks ago: (re: game vs Sabres)

Speaking of that game against Buffalo… After the game it was revealed in the post-game presser by Paul Maurice that Patrik Laine will be back to a regular practice on Sunday which is fantastic timing given the question about what Drew Stafford’s status will be and the fact the Jets could really use the boomstick back int he lineup.

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