The Jets took a step forward Friday night, a better all-around effort than that in Game 1.
However, this time, they couldn’t get any pucks past Carey Price who made 30 saves in a 1-0 shutout of the Jets.
“I thought it was a great step in the right direction,” Blake Wheeler said. “I thought we played a great game. We got off to a way better start and had quite a few looks to tie the game up and it was just a matter of being unable to get that bounce to go our way.”
Already facing an uphill battle entering Game 2 trailing in the series, the Jets were missing Dylan DeMelo and Paul Stastny to injuries, and of course, Mark Scheifele who was suspended Thursday for five games for his Game 1 hit on Jake Evans.
“My intention on that play is to try to negate a goal. There’s no intent, there’s no malice there,” Scheifele said Friday on a lengthy zoom call.
“I don’t go in with a frame of mind of injuring a hockey player. My record precedes itself. I think I’ve had not one charging penalty in 600 games. My thought process there is to cut him off at that post.”
The effort and opportunities were there in Game 2, the execution, well, not so much. The Jets had 23 scoring chances—seven coming in high-danger areas—according to
Natural Stat Trick. They also had an expected goals for of 1.83.
"I think relative to game one, it was quite a bit better,” said head coach Paul Maurice.
“I still think we can improve in a few areas in terms of how we move the puck, but in terms of not cheating the play, they had three breakaways and four two-on-ones in game one. We had a couple of bobbled pucks at the line that weren’t bobbling for us, but other than that, we were much better."
Once again special teams played a major role in the contest, the Jets 0-2 on the power play, now 0-5 in the series.
Montreal’s lone tally coming while shorthanded after Kyle Connor’s shot missed wide, sparking a rebound that sent the Canadiens in transition on an odd-man rush.
"Just a two-on-two and then a rush. I think Kyle's behind it, he's not sure he can catch (Artturi) Lehkonen, so he kind of releases him, which held Josh (Morrissey) and Josh had to come off," said Maurice. "Then if Kyle's going over he's got to go for that puck."
Stastny skated on Friday and has not been ruled out for Game 3 Sunday, a game that is now a must-win for the Jets. A return would be encouraging for the Jets who need as much help as they can get.
The Canadiens defense-first style of play is causing the Jets trouble. The Canadiens focus on packing the blue line and keeping the space in front of Price clean is working nearly flawlessly.
The Jets know what they need to do and where they need to go in order to generate some offense and get themselves back into the series with a crucial victory in Game 3 Sunday.
“We’re a little off to the side, but we got better at it as the game went on. That’s going to be a challenge,” said Maurice. “They’ve got four big bodies back there on the blue line that make it tough to get to the net, but that’s the place we’ve got to get to.”
The Jets have been in this situation before, they’ve seen this movie and how it played out. They were featured in it in fact.
Two years ago in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs the Jets found themselves in a 2-0 hole, dropping the first two games of the series at home to the St. Louis Blues.
While the Jets would go to lose the series in six, they managed road wins in Games 3 and 4. They know how to get themselves back into a series.
With Game 3 and 4 coming on back-to-back days, several different scenarios are in play come late Monday night. The Jets hope come Tuesday, they’re preparing for a Game 5 instead of cleaning out their lockers.
They were happy with their improvements from Game 1 to Game 2. They’ll need a bigger improvement in Game 3.
"We feel we've got to make the same kind of improvement in Game 3, and that's the big one. Obviously, a critical game for numbers, but also going into back-to-back,” said Maurice.
“If we can make the same kind of improvement game over game, we've got a real good chance."
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