This won't be a long post because there's more to discuss than read.
The good: Scheifele, Roslovic, Little, Wheeler, Morrissey, Buff
The bad: Laine, Copp, Ehlers, Hellebuyck
The ugly: Myers (but not a the end)
That's a quick summary of the game based on some players but around those players and between the opening face-off and final goal some interesting things happened. First the Jets opened the scoring but again, this time on a failed Myers clearing attempt, the opposition was able to tie the game up with less than a minute remaining in the first period.
In the second period the Caps made it 2-1 with some poor rebound control and by the seventh minute of the third period you could hear the fans hang up on Bell MTS Centre as the Caps made it 3-1. However 4 minutes later Little cut the lead to one and the Jets came flying. By this point the Jets were throwing everything at Holtby and by the end of the game had won the Corsi battle. Josh Morrissey had a great game and had beaten Holtby but no the cross bar as he came close to tying the game.
When Byfgulien took a slashing call on Beagle with about 1:15 left in the game most fans wrote it off but down a man with the net empty and the extra attacker out the Jets found their man again, rather their man found the Jets again. Mark Scheifele beat Holtby so fas the puck was out of the net before anyone really saw it go in. Tie game with 14 seconds left.
Did anyone else hear Brian Munz this morning asking Wheeler when that line was going to be back in form after the injuries?
Question answered. Finally it was Scheifele again in OT after the Jets had killed Buff's penalty and some grade A scoring chances exchanged when 'it' happened. Scheifele picked up the puck at the Jets' blue line and started forward but instead of having a defence man on him he had Ovechkin covering him. A normal play would have been to cut in and try and make a pass back or buy time for a team mate to catch up but instead Scheifele went wide. It wasn't a huge burst of speed but he mad to make Ovie pivot and keep up with him and that's where he found his space and once past and just to the left of the net he dished the puck back to a streaking Myers who put it up over Holtby's glove for the win.
Redemption for the lanky player who had a tough game tonight.
The game was huge but post game Wheeler had this comment, it's well worth the read and a big thanks to Scott Bullock for tweeting out the transcription.
Here's the full transcription from Blake Wheeler tonight. Quite the post-game interview. #NHLJets pic.twitter.com/VTDliZAoJF
— Scott Billeck (@ScottBilleck) February 14, 2018
Take a deep breath Jets fans, the captain has this under control.