The Winnipeg Jets won their first game of the season Saturday afternoon. They defeated the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2, at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.
Connor Hellebuyck was sharp in his first win of the season. With the win, the Jets record is now 1-1-0.Here are some takeaways from the game:
Mark Scheifele
Scheifele scored his first two goals of the season. His first was just after a Jets penalty expired. His centering pass went off a Kings defender into the net. His second was a nice redirect of Josh Morrissey’s shot/pass, which turned out to be the game winner. Scheifele now has five points in two games. He is going to make his case for being on Team Canada for the Winter Olympics.
Special teams the difference
The Jets scored the lone powerplay goal in this game which came off the stick of Alex Iafallo to give the Jets the early 1-0 lead. The Jets also managed to kill all five of the Kings’ power plays. The penalty kill was pivotal for the Jets in this game.
After the Kings took a 2-1 lead in the second period, the Jets pk had to kill a couple of penalties to keep the game at 2-1. It is a small sample size. However, thus far, the Jets PK seems to be very aggressive. They scored 2 short-handed goals in the season opener against Dallas. With Scheifele and Kyle Connor killing penalties, they are definitely picking their spots when they have a chance to take the puck the other way.
Another injury
Defenceman Hadyn Fleury did not finish the second period after blocking a shot. He did not play in the third period either. Already without stud defenceman Dylan Samberg, the Jets blueline will get really thin if Fleury is sidelined as well. Coach Scott Arniel didn’t have much of an update on Fleury’s status in his post-game press conference.
The Jets will now head on the road for 2 games. Their first stop is in Long Island on Monday afternoon for a matinee match-up against the New York Islanders on Canadian Thanksgiving. With Nikita Chibrikov not doing much in the first two games, perhaps we will see the season debut of Brad Lambert.
Have you noticed that all the right facing animal themed logos have won a cup, while almost all of the left facing animal themed logos (outside of the wild) have not. Even the left facing human themed logos have won a cup, whereas the ones facing right have not. The Jets need to go back to their 90’s logo because that plane was flying left.
I meant to say that all the right facing logos have not won a cup. All the left facing ones outside the wild have won cups.