The Jets’ grueling road trip continued on Friday evening as they went into Vegas to take on the Golden Knights. They fought hard but ultimately came up short, dropping this game by a score of 4-3. There was plenty to take away from the Jets’ third loss in their last four games.
Cole Perfetti snaps extended goal drought
Cole Perfetti came into this game having not scored in his last 11 games. He snapped that goalless streak in the first period after he deflected a Josh Morrissey point shot past Adin Hill.
Later in the game, Morrissey fired a shot off of Hill’s right pad, and the rebound bounced to Perfetti, who buried it for his second of the night. Perfetti is now up to six goals, 11 assists and 17 points in 24 games this season.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
Both of his goals tonight came at five-on-five, which had been another knock on Perfetti early this season. Three of his goals have come on the power play, and before tonight, he had just one goal at even-strength. It’s safe to say he silenced a few of those question marks with his performance tonight as one of the most dangerous offensive threats for the Jets.
Nikolaj Ehlers exits with injury
The biggest news to emerge from this game happened early in the second period when Nikolaj Ehlers awkwardly collided with a Vegas Golden Knights player and, favouring his lower-leg area.
He exited the game and did not return. After the game, Scott Arniel was asked about his status going forward.
“He’s day-to-day,” Arniel said. “Not good, obviously. We’ll just wait and see and get him looked at. We’ll get to Dallas and see where we’re at. I don’t know 100%. Lower body right now and we’ll just see how he is after that.”
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
With Arniel not entirely ruling Ehlers out for Sunday’s game, that is ultimately good news. We will track his injury status over the next two days before the Jets afternoon game in Dallas on Sunday.
In the meantime, the Jets moved Alex Iafallo up to the second line, creating a line of Perfetti-Namestnikov-Iafallo. That trio played 152 minutes together in the 2023-24 season, when they outscored their opponents 8-3, controlled 60.7% of the expected goals, and 58% of the shot attempts at five-on-five.
Jets make lineup changes
The Jets came into this game with a new look, swapping out Ville Heinola and Colin Miller on the third pairing for Logan Stanley and Dylan Coghlan, who made his Winnipeg Jets debut.
When asked about it after the game, Arniel pointed to the jam-packed schedule as of late and needing fresh legs in the lineup.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“The biggest thing is some fresh legs just because it’s been such a grind here,” Arniel said. “Stan was back, ready to go and we need him to be a part of our group. Cogs had played here before and I thought those 2 were fine.”
The grind will continue for the Jets, who don’t have a two-day break until December 15th. Whether or not Ehlers misses any time will likely dictate any lineup changes to the forward core, but it will be interesting to see how Arniel handles his defence core through this tough part of the schedule.
Up next
The Jets will wrap up their six-game road trip on Sunday at 3:30 CT against the Dallas Stars. They will then return home for one game on Tuesday, Dec 3, before hitting the road again for a quick two-game road trip in Buffalo and Chicago.
Stay tuned to illegalcurve.com for all the updates coming out of the Saturday 9:00 AM show, and heading into Sunday’s afternoon game against the Dallas Stars.
