Was a strange game, where the Jets carried momentum for most of it, but Binnington was sharp. I mean it's not every game you get almost 12 minutes of PP time in the first 40 minutes, which helped, and didn't help because the PP did not really generate any momentum. Wheeler had some bad turnovers on the PP, and the other part that was frustrating was the inability to start with the puck. If the Jets acquired Toews I almost think you'd want him on PP1 instead of Ehlers, just to have the puck to start.
Give up a tough PK goal, which was kind of a broken play, bad change, and another breakaway goal and suddenly you're down 2 in the 3rd.
I liked the Morrissey-Pionk pairing tonight, both played over 25 minutes, they won a lot of matchups, played physical and got the puck to the net. Pionk gets trashed the most of any defenseman besides Stanley, but if you watch the first Jets goal it starts from quick accurate puck movement from Pionk, which allows Morrissey to fly from his defense position. That's such a drastic difference from playing with Brendan Dillon who rarely supports the rush up ice, and boom the fragility of Binnington is finally exposed, with Josh taking charge. I loved the reaction after scoring. That's a player you know cares about this game, and that's the kind of leadership this team needs when the pressure is on.
It's funny because that play started with Ehlers lying on the ice injuring himself I guess. A play that probably shouldn't have been blown dead.
I don't know what was up with Ehlers tonight but that might have been the softest game I have ever seen from him. Any contact and he went down, and I don't think he spent more than 15 seconds of the game between the circles, but one lucky break on some hard work by Scheifele a nice feed by Connor, and he gets a key assist to tie the game up. That said if coach hadn't moved Ehlers up to that line they probably don't score there, as his zone entry was the key to that offensive zone pressure.
For me the best players tonight all night were Barron and Maenalanen. That's not the first time those two have had success together, and I hope it's not the last. Really strong game at both ends by both players. Dubois wasn't even the catalyst for their success more like the complimentary piece to it.
I didn't think Perfetti-Lowry-Wheeler were terrible. I don't think they gave up a quality chance as a line besides the one that Perfetti got beat off the wing on, I mean you can't really fault anyone but Capobianco on the 2nd Blues goal, by making it a breakaway, instead of an odd man rush. Perfetti wasn't very engaged in board battles but he didn't have to be...Not a lot of synchronism though. Best chance came off a Lowry faceoff win.
As for Capobianco I thought he played rather well for the long layoff. Was mostly a 4D effort tonight though.
If the coach's message tonight was towards Ehlers and Dubois to start the game, I'd say they responded rather well, and maybe both are back in the top 6 after the break, though I'd like to see Scheifele get a chance to run with the star wingers. From the opening draw you could see Scheifele being vocal on the bench, from his play you saw a lot of effort on both ends of the rink. I have no problem making a 30 goal scorer the #1C if his play warrants it.
That wasn't a very strong Blues team the Jets beat, with a lot of guys missing, and if I was a Blues fan I'd say the reffing was definitely tilted for home ice advantage, but take the two points and stay in the hunt if you are a Jets fan who hasn't jumped off yet.
