Two days into the playoffs and we’ve already had our fair share of expected moments – Sidney Crosby doing Sidney Crosby things, Flyers goaltending doing Flyers goaltending things, and the Capitals doing playoff choke job things.

And just like it happens every playoffs, we’ve also had unexpected moments like the Vegas Golden Knights going full Ottawa Senators on us (you never go full Senators..) and Joe Morrow scoring the first ever playoff game winning goal in Thrashers/Jets history.

Seriously… Joe Morrow.

You could have given me 15 guesses to guess who would be the first ever Jet to score the franchises first ever playoff GWG and I would have whiffed on all 15.

The playoffs already be crazy yo!

This entire season in these flight plans we’ve looked at what both teams have done recently and against each other in previous meetings. Obviously, with the playoffs we’re all already aware what has been going on, so our previews for games two and beyond will focus on each team’s previous performance and what they can do differently in tonight’s game.

Two things and their kind of related… For one, they didn’t panic when they fell behind 2-1 early in the third period and honestly they haven’t really panicked at all this season, so why start now? It wasn’t like the Wild had any stretch of long dominating hockey at any point in the game and the two goals against within the first four minutes of the third period felt more like the Jets not being quite ready to go more than the Wild taking over. After that second goal from Zach Parise, it was all Jets. After that Laine goal to tie, it was still all Jets.

That leads to the second point… The Jets kept pounding the rock. They peppered Dubnyk with 40 shots in total. They were relentless and it was everything the Wild could do to get the puck out of their zone the moment they touched it regardless if it found it’s way back to a Winnipeg stick.

Simply put, they didn’t have enough offensive punch. One could argue that they were too busy trying to fend off wave after wave of Winnipeg attack, but the Wild did have chances but they were few and far between and when they did get them, they were often one and done.  The Wild’s best period was the second where they had a good majority of the scoring chances, but couldn’t cash in. The Wild need to take advantage of every break they get and lull in Jets play they see in this series and in their first opportunity, didn’t do so.

Continue to be physical but even more so. The officials let a lot of physical play go and the Wild’s best chance to get back into the series is take advantage of the refs not calling an overly tight game and grind the Jets down to a near halt. That, and keep relying on Devan Dubnyk who had a .625 save percentage in game one.

Try to open things up a little more and continue to blitz the heck out of the Wild with speed. Minnesota simply can’t keep up. The other key will be to hang around the front of the Wild net a little more. The Jets had chances with rebounds at multiple points, but Winnipeg players were typically a good foot or so away positionally, or they were flying by a rebound they couldn’t get back to. Both the Laine and Morrow goals came from a little chaos in front of Dubnyk.

Over at Hockey Wilderness, Tony Abbott wonders if the Wild shouldn’t try to put all their offensive eggs in one basket.

The Wild had a chance to steal a game in Winnipeg and blew it and worse yet, the Jets know they can be much better. Dubnyk will have to be at his best yet again, but it may not be enough as many Jets got their first game (and first win) jitters out of the way. Jets win game two, 5-1.