Connor Hellebuyck picks up 300th win as he backstops Winnipeg Jets to 5-2 win over Nashville Predators

The Jets get back into the win column defeating the Predators 5-2 to improve to 28-12-2 on the season.

For those who would like to take a deeper dive into the advanced stats click here to see the results from the game via Natural Stat Trick.

Notable:

Neal Pionk tied Jacob Trouba in games played wearing a Jets jersey with 408 which is 12th overall on the all-time list. Trouba had 10 more goals during his time in a Winnipeg uniform but Pionk has 36 more assists. And the Jets also have Ville Heinola who was the 2019 1st rounder they selected as part of the deal.

In the battle between Morgan Barron and Justin Barron it was the older brother who got the early edge as 36 scored his fourth goal of the seson to open the scoring. Even though it was unassisted full credit goes to Rasmus Kupari who made a nice deceptive move to create the opportunity.

And then just 16 seconds later the Jets went bang bang to take a 2-0 lead with Josh Morrissey unloading this shot top cheddar.

Neal Pionk laid the body with this big hit in the first period on Luke Evangelista. He would later leave the game. The Preds also lost Steven Stamkos so they were down to 10 forwards.

Time and Space = two things you absolutely cannot give Kyle Connor if you don’t want him to score. The Preds did and as a result they found themselves down 3-0 courtesy of his 23rd goal of the season.

Not gonna lie. While watching from our spot in the pressbox right above this as it was happening early in the 2nd in real time I thought “that’s a goal” by Gabriel Vilardi. In fact it was not a goal. Great save by Juuse Saros.

In the middle frame the Jets gave up a power play goal but the bigger concern was Josh Morrissey colliding with Mark Scheifele and hitting the post. He left, came back and then after taking one shift left the game and did not return.

How many times have we seen the Jets score this PP goal this season? Gabriel Vilardi’s 19th of the season off great, quick passing from Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele.

Winnipeg took a season high seven penalties this game.

Nino Niederreiter from long range gets the empty netter to go.

Despite getting into big penalty trouble Connor Hellebuyck stood tall (as he usually does) to backstop his club to the win, the 300th of his NHL career.

Multipoint Game:

Mark Scheifele 2A
Adam Lowry 2A

Coach post-game:

Highlights:

Illegal Curve Post-Game Show:

Up next:

The Jets are back on the ice tomorrow for a practice as they prepare for their next game against the Kings which is on Friday. Begin your day with all the latest Jets and Moose news in the AM Papers on illegalcurve.com which are available starting at 7 AM CST and then check back for the Practice Report.

Podcast:

David Minuk

Working hard on a daily basis to provide the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news for our readers and listeners. I also appear on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show every Saturday on our YouTube channel as well as the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show after every single Jets game. And I occasionally jump in the play-by-play booth at Canada Life to provide colour analysis during Manitoba Moose games.

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