On a night where Connor Hellebuyck was honoured pregame, there wasn’t much else for the folks inside of Canada Life Centre to cheer about, as the Winnipeg Jets fell to the Kings 2-1 in overtime.
Jets stifled by Kings’ defence
The Jets have had a tough time generating chances against the Los Angeles Kings in their two games against them this season, and Scott Arniel compared it to a playoff game in his post-game press conference.
“That’s as close to a playoff game as I’ve seen us involved in so far. I think you’ll see a lot of that in the second half, but that was a grind,” Arniel said.
The Jets finished with only 19 shots on goal and only five high-danger chances in this game. Per Mike Kelly of the NHL Network’s tweet, the Kings have the best argument as the number one defensive team in the NHL.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
They rank “first in shots, slot shots, rush chances, rebound chances, expected goals, and goals against,” Kelly said, which was on full display on this night as the Jets struggled to generate any five-on-five offence.
The Jets’ power play got them a goal late, Eric Comrie played well, and the Jets walked away with a point because of it. With the Jets welcoming another playoff opponent to town Saturday night against the Colorado Avalanche, they’ll have a chance to immediately avenge this offensive performance against another top team in the Western Conference.
Dylan Samberg returns to the lineup
Dylan Samberg returned from a 21-game absence and stepped right back into the Jets’ top four, and he was one of Winnipeg’s best skaters on this night.
Before overtime began, he was the Jets leader in time on ice at 22:35 and was incredibly effective in those minutes.
With Samberg on the ice, the Jets led in:
- Shot attempts: 17-7
- Scoring-chances: 5-2
- High-danger chances: 2-1
- Expected goals percentage: 66.55%
(per Natural Stat Trick)
“He saw a lot of minutes against their top players. You saw his ability to close and take away space,” Scott Arniel said about Samberg’s return.
On the very first penalty kill of the game, Samberg hopped over the boards and immediately got to blocking shots. Arniel was asked about Samberg’s willingness to block shots in his first game back from being injured from blocking a shot. The first one caught him in the thigh, an area with no padding, but he ended up being one of the Jets’ best skaters.
“I was hoping it was up high in the shin pads, but he’s not going to shy away from that stuff, he’s going to head right towards it.”
Samberg needed no time to shake off the rust from a long absence. It is also worth noting that Neal Pionk looked steady on this night as well, with his usual partner back on his pairing. It will be interesting to see how that pairing handles the speed of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.
Gabriel Vilardi reaches a new career-high in assists
With his slick assist to Mark Scheifele which tied the game up at 1, Vilardi set a new career-high for assists in a single season with 19, passing his previous season-high in 20 fewer games.
Vilardi settled the puck down, and without even looking, fired a no-look pass to Scheifele who buried his 24th of the season to tie the game at 1. “That was all Gabe knowing where I was, that was a fantastic pass” is what Mark Scheifele said, but Arniel credited the preparation before the game that helped Vilardi make that pass.
“That’s a little bit of the pre-scout,” Arniel said. “You saw how hard they went, the pressure coming. He had to make a couple of passes to get that one really good look, and we did”
Vilardi’s playmaking and scoring abilities are a big reason for Winnpieg’s top power play, and he continues to put together a career year as a pending RFA. He’s now on pace for 36 goals, 36 assists, and 72 points over an 82-game span.
Up next
Connor Hellebuyck gets the start Saturday night against the Colorado Avalanche, a team that the Jets are 1-1 against this season after their playoff matchup a season ago.
The Jets then have three games remaining on this season-long homestand, starting Tuesday night against the Vancouver Canucks.
Stay tuned to Illegalcurve.com for all the latest Jets and Moose news over the weekend.
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