WINNIPEG -- "Their first period was their best hockey," remarked Jonathan Marchessault of Winnipeg's convincing Game One victory over Vegas.
The Jets jumped out to a 3-0 lead during the opening frame and never looked back.
When I think of quality Jets hockey, a few things come immediately to mind -- some of which I wrote about it my series preview -- and a lot of which we saw in the opening frame.
• Effective transition
What an action-packed shift for Blake Wheeler. First, he does solid work to go down low to cover the front of the net. Second, he makes a soft backhand clear -- presumably to avoid an icing -- which is easily claimed by Nate Schmidt on the blueline. But third, and most importantly, he jumps a Schmidt pass -- Vegas loves the high to low, especially to Marchessault.
From that point on, it's all Wheeler through the neutral zone, his speed backing off the defense. He cuts toward the middle -- Smith, William Karlsson, and Brayden McNabb converge on entry -- but Mark Scheifele is there to receive. Three Knights going to one Jet and not coming out with the puck is a problem. But the bigger problem is Kyle Connor coming down the backdoor and nobody's noticed.
That is, except Scheifele, who tosses a perfect cross-slot pass through three Golden Knights. This is a great example of taking advantage of what's there at a high speed.
• Aggressive forecheck & powerful cycle
Of the Jets' forecheck, Bellemare noted a couple days ago, "Your first play has to be a strong play. Any soft plays against a hard forecheck will put the next guy in trouble."
Not to pick on Ryan Carpenter -- he's not the only Golden Knight who fell victim to this -- but the 6'0" Carpenter, with a second to clear, instead gets pinched by 6'3" Ben Chiarot. Like I've mentioned, the Jets are particularly aggressive sending blueliners to step up and/or forecheck.
Chiarot's read jars the puck loose. With no fear -- Adam Lowry is covering for him -- Chiarot goes after the puck in the corner, Carpenter chasing.
Meanwhile, 6'3" Joel Armia tangles up sticks with Shea Theodore -- making it more difficult for Theodore to challenge Chiarot. That's some variation of the "pick" play we saw so often against San Jose -- everybody does it.
Chiarot circles around, then tosses a blind backhander at the net. Armia, who has established position on Carpenter, cruises in front...and something good happens for Winnipeg, whatever that was, which made it 3-0 just 7:35 into the game.
When I think of the Jets, I think size, speed, skill, and aggression, and we saw the whole package on these first period shifts.
Pluses
In the Armia goal, we see why Winnipeg emphasizes an aggressive forecheck/step-up from their blueliners. But sometimes, you can take advantage of it.
Josh Morrissey steps up in the neutral zone on Colin Miller. However, Miller makes the play and gets the puck up to Smith. In terms of manpower, Smith is adequately covered -- there are two on him -- but he sees Karlsson free, coming down the lane.
Wheeler and Trouba converge on Smith. Morrissey is playing catch-up. For a moment, there are no defensemen -- or anybody -- near Karlsson.
Again, it's the old adage about having to take advantage of a forward playing defense. It says a lot about the Jets that they've had so much success relying on their forwards to play defense, but it's something that Vegas must exploit -- as they do here -- to pull out this series.
Minuses
Marc-Andre Fleury admitted, of the Dustin Byfuglien rocket which opened scoring, "I think the first one, I'd like to see again."
However, he couldn't hide his contempt for the Armia goal, as much as he tried to grin and bear it.
SP: What was your view on the Armia goal?
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) May 13, 2018
Fleury: Which one was that?
SP: The goalie interference?
MAF: Well, my view doesn't really matter. What did you see? Did you think it was good?
SP: Eh, 50-50. You can never tell these days, right?
MAF: You can never tell.
YUP... Definitely a GOOD goal!
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) May 12, 2018
🚨: Joel Armia
ðŸ: @BChiarot7 #WPGWhiteout #GoJetsGo #VGKvsWPG pic.twitter.com/PrlAKkDXYe
At the very least, in my mind, this replay wasn't conclusive enough to overturn the on-the-ice call, which was goalie interference.
That said, Vegas lost because of a not-so-great Byfuglien goal allowed by Flower, a poor PK which allowed Patrik Laine a gimme, and not clearing the puck to prevent the Armia mess from happening in the first place.
"They were game-ready. We weren't," confessed Marchessault.
The Knights seemed to take solace in the fact that they played better in the last 40, but score effects were in play, and frankly, Vegas didn't really threaten Connor Hellebuyck even with a less attack-focused Winnipeg. In the final frame, I tracked zero even strength scoring chances for the Knights; Natural Stat Trick also recorded zero 5v5 High-Danger Corsi For for them. Don't call it a comeback, right?
The good news is, if that was The Peg's best, they certainly haven't seen Sin City's.
The ever-defiant Marchessault is looking forward to Game Two, "It definitely gets loud out there. It's fun for the home team -- but I think it's fun for us too. To shut that crowd down would be great."
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