JN Recap – Jets Win 5-4 In OT With Crazy Comeback

Just how they drew it up, right?

Not exactly.

A lame first period and lamer effort in the second period looked to have doomed the Winnipeg Jets through the first two periods, but a furious comeback in the third period led to a frantic overtime and a Mark Scheifele game winning goal.

These Jets will hardly ever be boring this season.

Get to the good stuff in a moment, first we should cover the bad and unfortunately there was a lot of it.

The power play was awful. Even by last season’s standards it was pathetic. It wasn’t until the third period and  1:25 into the fifth power play before the Jets registered an actual shot on goal with the man advantage. Granted they hit two posts early on with a lengthy 5 on 3 power play in the first period, but overall it was if the sharp looking power play we had seen in the pre-season was ditched in favor of the stagnant and too stationary power play the Jets tried to use all of last season. Far too much reliance on moving the puck around the outer edge of the zone without any actual player movement and hoping it opened up a lane for a shot which it didn’t. That said, there was a power play goal from Patrik Laine (more on that in a moment) so 1 for 5 on the man advantage doesn’t look so ugly but rest assured, it was.

The other extra-ugly aspect of this game was how the Jets struggled at times (and struggled is putting it nicely) to exit out of their own zone. It’s a trend we saw in the pre-season and it hasn’t gotten much better. Tyler Myers had a couple of bad giveaways as did Ben Chiarot. The Morrissey – Byfuglien pairing did show flashes of working out well, but there were a few moments where it was obvious they needed to figure out what the other one was doing.

As ugly as the power play was, the penalty kill was maybe worse. 2 PPGs against in 4 tries for the Canes.

Connor Hellebuyck had a subpar game which wasn’t entirely his fault, but goals three and four were ones he would surely like to have back. 19 saves on 21 shots against probably won’t instill a lot of confidence in anyone.

ALL of that said, this is a game that *should* have been a loss and wasn’t. That in itself is a positive right?

After the Jets fell behind 4-1 early in the 3rd and took a penalty just as that fourth goal was scored, all seemed lost but Blake Wheeler picked off a lazy pass in the Canes zone to score a shorthanded goal and give the team a much needed lift. From there they played with a sense of urgency, but it would have been nice to see that earlier on.

Laine’s first NHL goal is exactly what was advertised. His spot near the left faceoff dot and a laser beam of a wrist shot that went bar-down on a screened Cam Ward.

Before the craziness that was the final ten minutes of the game, the Jets fourth line of Armia, Lowry and Tanev looked really good. Jets fans used to five years of poor fourth line play probably found it a bit of a shock to the system to see them playing in the offensive zone on a bit of a consistent basis.

Wheeler also spent time on that fourth line but only due to the fact Bryan Little left the game in the first period favoring his knee after an awkward collision. No word on him as of press time but it didn’t look good and chances are he’ll miss some time.

3 on 3 overtime is going to be so much fun with this team. Ehlers playing keep-away with the puck as he took a couple of laps around the Canes zone.. Laine busting in 1 on 2 and almost setting up Wheeler for the game winner… Wheeler then intercepting a puck and going in 2 on 1 with Scheifele for the GWG.. All of it was beautiful.