Winnipeg Jets remain without a regulation loss vs the East as they defeat the Lightning 4-2

The Jets are undefeated in 2024 as they defeat the Lightning 4-2 to improve to 23-9-4 on the season. They remain without a regulation loss to an Eastern Team (10-0-3).

It has literally been two months since the Jets gave up more than three goals. The streak is currently 26 games.

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:

For the first time I can recall ever seeing it live the Bolts used a 13/5 configuration.

The refs made a pretty bad call on Adam Lowry for high-sticking except it wasn’t 17’s stick. To add insult to injury the Lightning opened the scoring courtesy of this phantom call as Mr. Automatic on the power play Steven Stamkos wired a shot top corner (which may have been deflected) to give Tampa a 1-0 lead.

Connor Hellebuyck with a wave to the crowd as they celebrate his being named NHL Third Star of the Month.

Brenden Dillon with the heads up slap pass to Neal Pionk who tips it into the back of the net. Number 4 scored at 4:44 with the 4th line on the ice. That’s some serious numerology. Unfortunately that was Neal Pionk’s third goal of the season (not his fourth). So not so serious numerology.

Good pressure by the Jets second line results in the home team taking a 2-1 lead. Play some Poison for Alex Iafallo as he buried the Cole Perfetti rebound.

I will say it is worth mentioning that with the score tied 1-1 the Jets played some Saxophone Squirtle and Nate Schmidt. Coincidence I think not.

Empty net for the Jets with 2.6 seconds left in the 2nd as they go for it to try to increase the lead. That’s a bold strategy cotton.

Bad giveaway by Andrei Vasilevskiy which Vlad Namestnikov grabbed and then fed Nikolaj Ehlers who buried it to make it 3-1 for Winnipeg. That was Ehlers 12th goal of the season which matches his total from last season in nine fewer games.

A smart play by Vlad Namestnikov with the Lightning attempting to get within two as he calmy grabbed a loose puck in the Winnipeg end, fired it off the wall to get it out of the zone before Dominic Toninato (1G 3A in four games) passed over to Morgan Barron who found the empty net to make it 4-1. That’s his seventh goal of the campaign in game 35. He had eight in 70 last season.

Jets head coach Rick Bowness kicking off 2024 with a Seinfeld reference is pretty, pretty, pretty hilarious.

As per NHL PR the Jets”extended their point streak to nine games (7-0-2), their longest since relocating to Winnipeg in 2011-12 and tied for the longest in franchise history”.

Multipoint Game:

Vlad Namestnikov 3A
Morgan Barron 1G 1A

Highlights:

Coach post-game media:

Illegal Curve Post-Game Show:

Up next:

The Jets are travelling tomorrow to California where they will kick off three games on the road. They may have an optional skate tomorrow. Start your day with the Morning Papers which will go live at 7 am tomorrow on illegalcurve.com.

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