On a Monday night where offenses pretty much ruled all in the world of sports, Patrik Laine of course got into the act almost as if on cue as the sixth hat trick of his career helped pace the Winnipeg Jets to a relatively entertaining win over the Vancouver Canucks.
I was working on a recap for this game and taking down notes, and then after the game was over, it was summed up perfectly in one tweet…
I shouldn’t even do notes after this. This was pretty much the game in a nutshell.
*sigh* Ok fine, I’ll go over a few other things that happened.
First Period
The Jets started the game on quite the tear as they leap out to a 10-1 edge in shots and an early 1-0 lead minutes into the game thanks to a horrible giveaway by Jacob Markstrom that practically went onto the tape of Bryan Little.
A somewhat funny theme prevailed for most of the game in the Canucks goal as Markstrom was at times his and his team’s own worst enemy, but in other moments he was keeping the Canucks at least somewhat in the game. he was under siege a lot in the first period and made a handful of really good stops including this one on the Jets first power play of the night a couple of minutes after Little had opened scoring in the game.
Such as it is with hockey, for as good as the Jets were in the first period, they did take a couple of bad penalties. Dustin Byfuglien’s poor read led to an odd man scoring rush for the Canucks that Buff did manage to recover and get back to help defend, but took a slashing penalty in the process. In the ensuing Canucks power play, Vancouver showed of it’s shiny new sniper kid.
Neverther less the Jets pressed on in the period and got two more quick goals at the 14 minute mark of the period as they did an excellent job of forechecking and keeping the Canucks to the outside of the zone. The shots in the first period ended up being 23-7 in what was pretty much a dominating first frame for the road team.
Second Period
The Canucks come alive a little bit in the second and start getting more decent scoring chances. After giving up 11 scoring chances, the Canucks limit the Jets to eight in second while bumping up their scoring chances from five in the first period to being credited with seven taken in the middle frame. The Canucks actually come super close to making it a one goal again again, but someone conjured up a little voodoo magic…
Shortly after, Patrik laine FINALLY gets his first even strength goal of the season off a malfunction at the junction for the Canucks that gets picked up by Kyle Connor who gets it almost instantly to Laine who should be almost considered automatic from about five feet out.
At this point the Jets are feeling pretty good about themselves on the road but in a building where you could argue that it was easily half Winnipeg jets fans rooting the team on. Perhaps the Jets got a little too comfy with the lead because they started taking some risks – especially a couple of defensemen – and started getting outright careless with the puck.
Motte’s goal gave the Canucks a much needed shot in the arm as they started to up their physical game against the Jets in the later half of the second. From a Jets perspective, it’s a return of two narratives as Byfuglien’s bad reads of which he made a few on the night (this one costing his team a goal against) reared it’s ugly head, while Tyler Myers weakness at moving the puck out of the zone when he’s not able to carry it out himself continues to hinder his play.
Suddenly a game that seem all but salted away halfway through was a one goal game with 20 minutes left and Jets fans had seen this movie before….
Third Period
Connor Hellebuyck finished the game making 22 saves on 25 shots. It wasn’t a particularly good night for him, but a couple of things should be noted in his favor… For one, you could make the argument two of the three goals he allowed were on well placed, tough shots that any goalie would have struggled with. Secondly, he did a fine job lucking things down when the Jets absolutely needed him to in the third period.
After a tense opening ten minutes to the period where the teams trade scoring chances (and admittedly seem to decide that good defense is optional) the Jets get the backbreaker goal with a little under six minutes in the game as Laine’s backchecking (which was pretty good tonight) leads to his second goal.
The Canucks get a few more chances with the goalie pulled but Hellebuyck slams the door shut.
All that was left was the seemingly inevitable hat trick. The Canucks had actually defended their open net well for about a minute or so, but more good back-checking and neutral zone effort from the re-united Little/Laine/Connor line gets rewarded.
*Narrator: It was in fact his sixth career hat trick.
THE BOXSCORE
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
For Vancouver – Nikolay Goldobin: Finished with a goal and an assist, three shots and was easily the Canucks most consistent and persistent forward all night.
For Winnipeg – Kyle Connor: Ahhh you thought I was going to go with Laine, didn’t you? Four point night – a goal and three helpers – for KFC as he’s really established himself as a forward who can drive his own line which should mean great things for the Jets second line of him, Laine and Little.
