Game 70: Predators 3 Jets 1 post-game report

The Jets are now 41-19-10 with the 3-1 loss to the Predators in the final game of this six-game road trip.  Nashville now eight points up on Winnipeg for top spot in the Central.  Jets got some help as both the Wild and Stars lost in regulation.

For those who would like to take a deeper dive into the advanced stats here are the results from tonight’s game via Natural Stat Trick.

Notable:

Pre-game
The Jets got bad news as Paul Stastny appeared to tweak something and was a late scratch.  So after missing the last 24 games Shawn Matthias, who was activated today, was inserted back into the lineup.

1st:
– Just like last night Bryan Little took an early penalty (this one was marginal);
– After PP expired Kevin Fiala scored to give the Preds a 1-0 lead;
– Six minutes into the game and shots were 13-0 for Nashville;
– Then on the same power play the Jets gave up not one but two shorthanded goals;
– Michael Hutchinson was pulled and Connor Hellebuyck was inserted into the game;
– Jets were out shot by the Preds 24-6.

1st intermission:
Team announces that goalie Michael Hutchinson would not return due to an upper-body injury.  Speculation on TSN was that he was pulled by concussion spotters but we haven’t received anything other than UBI from the team.

2nd:
– Not much happened in the middle frame;
– Jets out shot the Preds 12-11.

3rd:
– Early power play for the Jets gave them some life and rookie Kyle Connor buried a rebound;
– Assists to Blake Wheeler and Patrik Laine
– Despite some chances the Jets couldn’t get any closer and they fall to the Predators.
– Jets  hold shot edge 15-10 in final frame but overall Nashville led 45-33.

Numbers:
– Kyle Connor scored his 23rd goal of the season;
– Blake Wheeler picked up his 59th assist of the season (tying Voracek for league lead);
– Patrik Laine also had an assist to keep the points streak alive at 13 games (16 goals seven assists);
– Michael Hutchinson with his first loss of the season.

Audio:

Blake Wheeler

Mathieu Perreault

Dustin Byfuglien

Coach Maurice:  Thoughts on tonight’s game.  On how shorthanded the club is but the team making a game of it.  Status of Stastny and Hutchinson?  On the exchange between Hutchinson and the bench.  Who pulled Hutchinson?  Was Hutchinson ok being pulled?  Was it a result of when his mask got knocked off?  With Stastny was it something bothering him or out of the blue?  On activating Matthias.  Any reason Matthias didn’t take warmup?  Any news on Kulikov?  Too early to know if they will need Comrie for Thursday?  What went wrong on the power play with the two shorthanded goals?  Overall road trip thoughts.

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Health Updates:

Already banged up the Jets got bad news in pre-game warm up when Paul Stastny left early and was a late scratch. After the game coach Maurice didn’t have much of an update about his centre.  “Went into the warm up, stiffened up and couldn’t go.”  Added that “it was tight this morning, but thought he’d be able to go, didn’t loosen up over the course of the day and tightened up on him in the warm up.”

Goalie Michael Hutchinson was pulled in the 1st period.  “Michael did not receive a concussion diagnosis after the game.  He’ll go back and get it evaluated tomorrow.”  On the exchange prior to pulling Hutchinson “Mike went down to Shaw (athletic therapist Brad Shaw) to talk to him because he wasn’t right”.  When asked if it was a concussion spotter who pulled Hutchinson the Jets bench boss indicated that it was the Jets who made the decision  “No, no we did that.  We pulled him.”.

On Jets defenceman Dmitry Kulikov who left the Capitals game last night “He’s going to be looked at by more than one person so we don’t have all the information yet.”