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Jets’ Quebecers have some fun in win over Canadiens

March 5, 2021, 11:59 AM ET [32 Comments]
Anthony Travalgia
Winnipeg Jets Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
With or without fans, the Bell Centre is always a special place to play.

It doesn’t have the history that the old Montreal Forum has, but it’s a building players of all nationalities enjoy coming into.

In Pierre-Luc Dubois, Mathieu Perreault and Paul Stastny the Jets are home to three players who were born in the province of Quebec.

The three combined for the Jets four goals Thursday night including Dubois' game-winner in overtime.

"I think all four goals tonight were scored by Quebecers,” said Perreault. “That was kind of nice.”

The contest was the Jets first of five in Montreal this season.

“It’s nice seeing the Nordiques flag during the anthem. I haven’t seen that since, I guess, Colorado brought back those retro jerseys,” said Stastny. “It’s always a special place to play. It’s where I scored my first goal. But the history, obviously with my dad, and then just kind of living close to Quebec City, it’s fun.”

While it was three Quebecers that scored for the Jets, the goals all highlighted the individual success they’ve each had. The overtime win highlighted the team success they’ve had of late, especially in the overtime session.

The Jets are now 5-0 in overtime, winning the last three by rolling out trios of forwards as opposed to two forwards and a defenseman like most across the league do.

“If you look at the roster at the end of the year, the guys who score all the goals are forwards,” said head coach Paul Maurice. “So we’re going to try and put as many forwards on the ice as we can.”

In the three overtimes where the Jets have featured primarily three forwards, they’ve held the edge in:

-Shots attempts: 10-5
-Shots on goal: 9-4
-Scoring chances: 10-1
-High-danger scoring chances: 7-3
-Goals: 3-0


“It’s man-on-man, so you get the best players on the ice and hope that you can defend, and when you get it you go and score,” said Perreault. “We’ve got fast and skilled guys that can take it from one end to the other and score a goal.”

The Jets placed Perreault on waivers prior to the start of the season, a necessity to get him on their taxi squad, but in the process creating a risk of losing Perreault to another team for nothing.

Perreault ultimately cleared waivers and made his way back into the Jets lineup. Since then, he’s been nothing short of productive, playing a crucial bottom-six role for Winnipeg.

"I always come to the rink and play hockey as hard as I can,” said Perreault. “I always have done that; I never worry about anything else outside of that.”

Perreault is getting it done for the Jets in both ends of the ice. He’s appeared in all 23 of the Jets games to date with five goals and five assists. He’s five points away from matching his total from a year ago.

“This year it’s one of those years that Paul (Maurice) has given me a lot of confidence, he’s played me good minutes and I have the second power play,” said Perrault. “I play the same way I’ve always played and right now it’s going in for me. I’m going to just ride it and the team’s winning games—I couldn’t be happier.”

In the 226:52 of five-on-five ice time Perrault has skated in, the Jets hold a 220-198 shot attempts advantage, a corsi for percentage of 52.63 % which is tops on the Jets.

The Jets also have the edge in shots on goal with Perrault on the ice five-on-five 164-154, a shots for percentage of 52.86 % which only trails Mason Appleton.

The Jets are also outscoring opponents 13-5 in Perreault’s 226:52 of five-on-five ice time.

While Perreault finds continued success among the Jets group of bottom-six forwards, Stastny and Dubois continue to find it inside the top-six.

In the Jets last two games, Stastny has played to the left of Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler, scoring three times in those two games. He has five points in total in his last five games.

Playing on the wing is something Stastny hasn’t done much of in his career as a natural center. You wouldn’t know that by watching how comfortable he’s looked there in the last two games, however.

"Everybody wants to play with him because he’s so smart. And the plays that he makes, the small area plays that he makes, everybody appreciates," said Maurice "We all understand the small, really gifted things that he does but you want to score goals, man, in this league and he did that.”

After Stastny’s pair of goals and Perreault’s strike sent the game to overtime, it was the native of Sainte-Agathe-Des-Monts that ended things for the Jets in overtime. The goal was Dubois’ fourth since returning from injury.

"It’s a special place to play. I have a lot of friends and family that watched the game and after when I come back to my phone, I’d say 75 per cent are happy and the other 25 per cent’s happy for me but they’re Montreal Canadiens fans so not so happy with the outcome of the game," Dubois said.

The Jets wrap up their two-game set with the Canadiens on Saturday before a crucial three-game series with the Maple Leafs in Toronto next week.
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