After a day of the Jets and Blues resume pleasantries in St. Louis tonight at the reasonable start time of 8:30PM CST. Why not just have them play in Seattle if games are going to start at that time? For the Jets this game is about knowing what they did well on Sunday night, ensuring they know what to do and then repeating it. Easier said than done.

One thing that has gone some what unheralded is the scoring of Patrik Laine who has a goal in each game thus far. He's drawing attention from the media but the Blues seem to have trouble shutting him down for an entire game.

In this series the Blues have played a high pressure game on the Jets, in particular the puck carrier. To counter that checking the Jets finally pushed their speed and positioning to increase their pace but they applied their own pressure on the Blues and when opportunities arrived they put the puck on Binnington from all angles and situations. It worked as they lit the rookie goalie up for six goals, the most he has allowed since his remarkable run began.

They don't have to score six goal each game but isn't it curious that as the series has gone on the Jets are scoring more goals.

Game 1- 1
Game 2- 3
Game 3- 6

To think they will add more tonight is naive or wishful, but what the trend does show is that a few things might be happening. First they are finding looks to shoot and score. In fact they might be finally converting on them but the looks they had in game three were far better than the previous two. Second, as St. Louis inevitably adjusts to counter the Jets offense who finds space?

Many are looking back at what Laine is doing and trying to explain it. As Harrison Lee said it's different:

I've likened Laine to football's "fox in the box", that elusive poacher of goals who continually tests defensive arrangements and can lose himself in open spaces quickly. As tall as Patrik is, his ability to find space unmarked is truly scary.

— Harrison Lee (@HLLivingLoco) April 16, 2019

I liken what Laine does to blending in by going counter to the play. He makes himself appear to not be a threat by going to a space that is center intuitive and then adjusting depending on the play. When it works he's deadly but for him to be scoring it requires him to be engaged in his process and others getting him the puck.

The Blues are going to figure this out, it might happen tonight it and if they do there's bound to be other opportunities that open up, just like there were on Sunday. Those opportunities were ones that in the first two games Binnington had not seen much of but when the flood gates opened he had more than he or any other goalie could reasonably expect to manage. That's the bigger point the Jets have to realize, that their shot volume led to shot quality.

The Jets are the more skilled team when it comes to talent, particularly shooting talent. At 5vs5 strength the Jets are shooting 9.968% compared to the Blues at 8.82%. Both are above the historic average of around 8 % but when looking at All Situations the Jets spread jumps to 12.05% compared to 10.34%. Talent rises to the top over time, but don't tell the Blue Jackets that.

It's quite simple really the Jets need to be aware of what adjustments, if any the Blues make, and they need to repeat what they did on Sunday in regard to the time and space they allowed the Blues. Hopefully they watched the video, rinsed the bad stuff off the memory and will repeat all the good things they did. Now hope is never a plan, so fans can hope but the Jets must do if they want to stay in this series and give themselves home ice advantage in a best of 3.

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