2 weeks Ago By Paul Friesen
Is everybody ready for Round 2? One game into the Winnipeg Jets series against St. Louis it feels a bit like they’ve already gone six or seven games. Because Game 1 had pretty much everything you’d want or expect in a playoff tilt between division rivals.
A brutally physical start, much of it courtesy of the Blues, an explosion of goals, a third-period comeback from the home team and the game-winner in the dying minutes – all were present and accounted for. Oh, and a melee to end it, signalling more of the same is likely to come. The final count was 5-3, Jets, but not before some anxious moments for the sellout throng and few blocks full of white-clad supporters outside.
Twice they fell behind, shaking off the deficits like the repeated body contact. “I just like that we didn’t start cheating the game,” Jets captain Adam Lowry said. “The structure was there once we settled into the game, and then we really limited their chances, didn’t give up a whole lot.
That’s a good blueprint for success.” That blueprint had some red on it. “It feels like every year Game 1 in each series, a bit of a bloodbath,” Lowry said.
“Teams are both trying to assert their dominance. Everyone’s amped up.” If the Jets weren’t sure how the Blues were going to play them, they found out pretty quickly.
Led by captain Brayden Schenn, they hit pretty much everything in dark blue that moved. From Cole Perfetti to the towering Logan Stanley, anyone handling the puck was fair game and could expect to pay a price. “We did a pretty good job of matching it, mitigating it and settling into our style,” Lowry said.
The home side took a while to get that part of their game going – it’s tough when you play the first few shifts in your own end – but Lowry changed that some fives minutes in, flattening defenceman Ryan Suter behind the Blues net. That opening 20 minutes that had the hit-counters hopping: they counted 37 in all, 24 by the Blues. The final hits were 53-33, St.
Louis. It’s as if the underdogs were testing the mettle of a team that hasn’t handled playoff hockey well the last two seasons. “Our style of game is we want to be a fast forechecking team, heavy, hard to play against,” Lowry said.
“But we don’t need to chase hits. Anytime a team’s chasing hits you can get them out of position.” It was the Jets who appeared out of it early on.
“A little bit wacky,” is how head coach Scott Arniel put it. “We were a little bit sloppy. Hesitant at times.
We didn’t execute very well. And first game, there’s a lot of pressure. But then we calmed down and got back to doing what we do.
” Not before giving up three goals in the first 21 minutes of the game. We’re talking about the best defensive team in the NHL. Any fans having a flashback to last year’s first playoff game against Colorado could be forgiven.
That one ended 7-6, Jets. In this one, the Jets tightened up, to the point where they held the Blues to just two shots in the third period. That’s when the talent kicked in.
Mark Scheifele set up two goals that made you sit up and take notice. His game was on all night. First he used his muscle to win a puck battle behind the net, finishing with a nifty setup to Alex Iafallo in front.
His cross-ice pass to Kyle Connor for the late game-winner was a needle-threader, missing the stick of a defender by inches. “What a play,” is all Lowry needed to say. While Scheifele, who scored one himself, supplanted Blake Wheeler as the franchise’s career playoff point producer, Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored his first career post-season goal, an unexpected contribution from the fourth line.
We told you the game had a bit of everything. There were dumb and dumber penalties, too. Neal Pionk’s rough-housing late in the first led to a St.
Louis goal early in the second. The Blues’ Zack Bolduc delivered a brain-dead cross-check to Iafallo four minutes into the third, his team trying to protect a one-goal lead. “We can’t take that penalty in the playoffs,” St.
Louis head coach Jim Montgomery said. “It took us from a situation where I thought we were a little bit in control, and then we weren’t.” Both teams were in danger of losing control in the dying seconds, splitting 10 misconducts.
But all 10 players seemed to know enough not to instigate an actual scrap and risk drawing a suspension. Blues goalie Jordan Binnington was even wandering to near his blue line in an apparent attempt to get the attention of Connor Hellebuyck at the other end. “A goalie fight in playoffs would be dumb,” Hellebuyck said.
Correct. Perhaps all of it was simply a tone-setter for Game 2 on Monday. “It’s just emotion, boiling over,” Lowry said.
“A little extracurriculars. It was nice to see all of our guys standing up for each other. That’s what we do as a team.
No one’s going to back down from anyone. We’re going to stick together until the final buzzer. That’s just the emotion of the game.
I wouldn’t read too much into that.” We won’t. We’ll just wait to see for ourselves.
[email protected] X: @friesensunmedia.
