In what may doubtlessly be a preview of a primary spherical playoff match up, the Winnipeg Jets travelled to British Columbia to tackle the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night time. With the True Northers hoping to additional solidify their grasp on the Western Convention’s prime spot and the Nucks actually needing to string some victories collectively in the event that they need to maintain off the challengers (Flames, Blues, and many others), the 2 factors up for grabs is essential to each franchises.
Sadly my again continues to disrupt my REM periods (not the band), so admittedly I’m a bit grumpy that the Jets and Canucks are retaining me up late with their west coast conflict…so right here’s hoping they made it well worth the lack of sleep.
GAME RECAP
Winnipeg & Vancouver went again & forth to begin the match, although the Canucks seemed a bit extra motivated within the early minutes. 5 minutes in, Nino Niederreiter had a great probability at one finish of the ice, however a Canucks’ 2 on 1 rush the opposite manner ended with a 1 timer from the left face-off dot that beat Connor Hellebuyck cleanly. VAN 1-0. Good response by the Jets that noticed Kyle Connor get robbed with a large open internet by the Canucks’ Kevin Lankinen, then Gabriel Vilardi didn’t money within the rebound. Winnipeg’s offensive zone stress picked up, however Vancouver virtually scored once more when Hellebuyck misplayed a puck behind his internet. Luckily the Vezina candidate hustled to get again in internet to disclaim a wrap round try with a stretched out purpose stick. Jets adopted that up with a pair nice shifts, Cole Perfetti bought an amazing look from the low slot and Vilardi virtually knocked residence the rebound of a Josh Morrissey level shot. Good tempo from each squads within the 1st interval, however Winnipeg appeared to be catching up with Vancouver’s quick begin. With about 5 minutes to play within the interval, Vladislav Namestnikov carried the puck into the Canucks’ zone earlier than sending it to Nikolaj Ehlers on the best wing. The shifty Dane shortly reduce into the excessive slot, dropping the defender earlier than he snapped a shot by Vancouver’s tender to tie the sport. TIE 1-1. A robust response by the Nucks noticed the Jets’ take their first penalty of the sport and so they needed to kill an extended interval of 6 on 5 hockey earlier than they really bought all the way down to the penalty kill. The house crew managed the puck your entire benefit, however Winnipeg did a great job of retaining the puck to the perimeter. Sadly, that didn’t cease Brock Boeser from getting a stick on a degree shot to offer Vancouver a powerplay purpose. VAN 2-1. Winnipeg’s third line seemed utterly misplaced within the remaining minute of play and that allowed the Canucks to shortly transfer up the ice to attain with simply 3 seconds left within the body. VAN 3-1.
The Jets teaching workers broke up Adam Lowry’s third line to begin the 2nd, shifting the captain to play with Brandon Tanev & Alex Iafallo and seven minutes into the body, the swap paid off when a Luke Schenn level shot prompted a scramble in entrance of the web and allowed Iafallo to pocket his eleventh purpose of the season. VAN 3-2. Winnipeg seemed like they had been decided to proceed the comeback over the subsequent 7 minutes, however the wind was taken out of their sails when Hellebuyck didn’t utterly cowl a rebound, permitting Boeser to attain his 2nd purpose of the competition. VAN 4-2. Lower than a minute later, the Canucks lead was prolonged to three when Pius Suter beat Bucky on a shot that he would love one other stab at. VAN 5-2. Winnipeg did have some scoring appears to be like earlier than the interval ended, however weren’t in a position so as to add a third purpose to their whole regardless of getting a number of powerplays (incl. a 5 on 3 benefit).
Needing an enormous variety of targets within the remaining body, the Jets did handle to out-shoot the opposition (8-4) and had a couple of alternatives to lower the Canucks’ lead however Lankinen & Vancouver’s protection did a great job of defending the excessive hazard areas. Finally, the doable spotlight of the third interval was a pleasant bodycheck by Morrissey as Winnipeg was unable to change the rating earlier than the late sport fortunately ended.
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FINAL SCORE: VANCOUVER CANUCKS 6 WINNIPEG JETS 2
FINAL STATS
Photographs: 22-21 VAN / Hits: 28-27 VAN / Face-Offs: 54.8% WPG / x Objectives: 4.04 WPG – 3.44 VAN /
MoneyPuck’s Need to Win: 59.4% WPG / Excessive-Medium Hazard Scoring Possibilities: 18 to 11 WPG
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SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN
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SHOT CHART from MoneyPuck
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ADVANCED SKATER STATS from MoneyPuck
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GOALIE STATS from ESPN & MoneyPuck
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If you need to dive deeper into the sport’s stats, comply with the hyperlinks beneath to the sport pages:
MoneyPuck: Winnipeg Jets vs. Vancouver Canucks – Tuesday March 18 2025 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: Winnipeg Jets @ Vancouver Canucks, 2025-03-18
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BOJA’s Observations:
- A whole lot of the stats above aren’t that dangerous for the Winnipeg Jets, however that was primarily as a result of Vancouver Canucks having a wholesome lead for many of the sport. There are some horrible numbers up there although, together with the downright terrible efficiency by the third line of Adam Lowry, Nino Niederreiter, & Mason Appleton. The trio was out-shot 8 to 0 and out-scored 2-0 versus the Nucks…in solely 4:35!! The as soon as heralded backside six unit hasn’t been excellent currently and I feel Apples & Nino have to take a fair proportion of the duty.
- One other ugly efficiency got here from a participant it’s not often anticipated from. Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck seemed shaky many of the night time and whereas not one of the 3 first interval targets may very well be thought of “dangerous“, the Canucks solely had 0.97 anticipated targets but walked into the intermission with 3 targets on the scoreboard. 16 saves on 21 photographs gave Bucky a .762 save proportion on the sport and he completed with a -2.27 Objectives Saved Above Anticipated.
- The shot chart above reveals that the Jets had loads of good scoring possibilities, much more than the Canucks managed. That is probably a bit deceiving (as is MoneyPuck’s projecting Winnipeg deserved to win) and was actually the results of Vancouver laying again to guard their lead. Our Jets didn’t play horribly, however there isn’t any doubt my eyes felt the Nucks had been the a lot sooner & hungrier squad on Tuesday.
- The Haydn Fleury & Colin Miller pairing had one other poor outing (18.2% xG) so I totally count on coach Scott Arniel to contemplate making adjustments to the defensive core earlier than the subsequent match. Unsure inserting huge lumbering Logan Stanley into the lineup is one thing that may assist towards the speedy Oilers, however I might put cash on that taking place.
Too grumpy to go on any additional about Winnipeg’s disappointing effort final night time….right here is hoping the crew can proper the ship for a giant sport in Alberta on Thursday.
UP NEXT: Winnipeg Jets @ Edmonton Oilers – Thursday, March twentieth @ 8:00 pm CST
