I said last time that it ain’t over until the fat lady sings, and it sure sounds like she’s warming up. The Winnipeg Jets are now down three games to one, and it doesn’t look very good.
I got a lot of pushback for suggesting the Winnipeg Jets were getting outplayed after the first game. I got less after the second, and even less after the third. Now, after four games, it seems everyone is catching up.
The Jets are not just being outplayed by the Colorado Avalanche; they are dominating Winnipeg like they play in two different leagues. The Jets look like a team tanking for a draft pick.
If you don’t believe me:
https://twitter.com/cmasisak22/status/1784740413682716742
The Jets had some moments. They had some pushback in the first, which included a tying goal, a power play, and some momentum. Then they fell apart in the second period.
The Jets woke up from their coma in the third but it was too little, too late.
The Jets top line hasn’t done very well this playoff series. In the four games, the Jets have been outshot 58 to 50 (46% Corsi) with a 36% expected goal share... And that’s one of the Jets’ better performances against the Avalanche these past four games.
It’s a bit odd that Rick Bowness’ reasoning for putting in Axel Jonsson-Fjallby instead of Cole Perfetti was for penalty kill reasons… yet Jonsson-Fjallby never played a shift on the penalty kill for the entire game.
I have mentioned before that there are no consolation prizes in the playoffs. That said, the Jets will have to take a real hard look in the mirror this summer, analyze what went wrong and what is salvageable.
It’s too early to go into depth here and I’m getting ahead of myself but the Jets just made a huge commitment to Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck, so there’s a lot of risk in what to do next with the team being tied to this core.
Still, it isn’t over. Teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit. It’s rare, but the team still has a potential great equalizer in goaltending… If they perform to their capabilities.
Kyle Connor only hit the net three times, and only one of his shots had any real high probability value. Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi only had two shot attempts at all, each with only one hitting the net.
It was a rough game. One that I only got to watch about 70-80% of due to other commitments.
While the game is over for you all, and you can move past, I have to rewatch tomorrow in order to track for your reading pleasure. I hope you all enjoy your schadenfreude in my suffering.