Jets Wrap Up Season With Win Over Predators

In a rough and close-checking game, the Winnipeg Jets wrapped up their 2016-2017 season with their franchise-record, seventh consecutive victory in a 2-1 win over the Nashville Predators last night at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg.

The Jets won 11 out of their last 12 games.  The penalty-kill unit went 6-0.

Before the game, General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff was on hand to hand out the Jets team year-end awards.

Nashville opened the scoring 11 and half minutes into the second period, when Ryan Ellis scored short-handed.  After that, the Jets turned it on and scored three unanswered into the third including the winner by Blake Wheeler, his 26th, with just 45 seconds remaining.
Before that, it appeared that the Predators had scored shortly after their shorty, but it was called back when a review showed goaltender interference on Connor Hellebuyck.

Call-up, future phenom, Kyle Connor returned to the line-up since being reassigned to the American Hockey League's Manitoba Moose near the start of the season.
Connor scored on a partial breakaway on a nice feed from Nikolaj Ehlers, It was his second NHL goal.

Mark Scheifele recorded his 50th assist last night, giving him, along with his 32 goals, a career-high 82 points and the Jets scoring title.
Wheeler finished with 26 goals and 48 assists for 74 points.
Patrik Laine finished the season with 36 goals and 28 assists for 64 points in 73 games played.
Nikolaj Ehlers bounced back a bit late in the season and scored a very respectable 25 goals with 39 helpers for 64 points as well.
Dustin Byfuglien ended the season with an assist last night, giving him 39 to go along with his 13 goals for 52 points.
Unsung hero, Bryan Little missed 23 games from the start of the year with a neck injury, but returned to score 21 goals and 26 assists for 47 points.
Adam Lowry, the Jets bruising third-line center, scored a respectable and career-high 15 goals and 14 assists for a career-high 29 points.

Connor Hellebuyck finished with a 26-19-4 record in 56 games played, with a 2.89 GAA and a 0.907 save % with four shutouts.
Micheal Hutchinson, in 28 games played, had a record of 9-12-3, a 2.92 GAA and a 0.903 save % with one shutout.
Ondrej Pavelec made it up back to the big club briefly when the Jets were out of ideas concerning their goal-tending problem, playing in eight games.  Pavelec won some games when the Jets needed them the most, and collected a record of 4-4-0, but also garnered a (perhaps predictable?) 3.07 GAA, a dreadful 0.888 save % with no shutouts.

You won't be seeing Ondrej Pavelec in Winnipeg anymore, as his contract runs out in June, and the Jets will not be offering him an extension.

Before the game, General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff was on hand to hand out the Jets team year-end awards.

Winner of the 3 Stars Award (for Most "Stars of the Game"):  Patrik Laine
Winner of the Community Service Award (for dedication to hockey and the Winnipeg community): Joshua Morrissey
Winner of the Dan Snyder Memorial Award (for recognition of dedication, preserverence and hard work without reward or recognition):  Bryan Little


       

Speaking of awards, Austen Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs will win the NHL Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year.  *SIGH*  Patrik Laine will not.
 Matthews notched his 40th goal of the season tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins to help the Toronto Maple Leafs clinch a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
 Laine did not.  Matthew's team is going to the post-season, Laine's is not.  Actually, pretty simple as
that, as much as I hate it.

But! The 2016-2017 season of the Winnipeg Jets ends on a positive note.  I'm glad they hit at least 40 wins.  We have a couple of superstars in the making, just ready to explode with talent and believe the Jets time will come.
The Pittsburgh Penguins went through the building process before they maintained a level of competitiveness and built a winning culture in that city.
Same with the Chicago Blackhawks.  Same with the Detroit Red Wings.
Soon.

Now, lets see Chevy go to work again.  He's due for another good deal that will somehow improve the Winnipeg Jets.

Whoever we lose to the expansion draft, will come back to us in either a player-for-player deal in the off-season, or through a prospect call-up already in our possession.
Dare I say another lucky day at the lottery draw?

Apparently, the entry-draft field falls, well, pretty much right after projected first overall center Nolan Patrick of the Western Hockey League's Brandon Wheat Kings.
Another center, Gabriel Vilardi of the Ontario Hockey League's Windsor Spitfires and winger Owen Tipett of the OHL's Mississauga Ice Dogs, projected to go #2 and #3 respectively, deserve a look as well I suppose.

The Jets really need to fix their goal-tending conundrum and stay out of the box and score on the power-play more, but overall, they're really not in bad shape.
Chevy knows what he's doing.  Remember, he's been involved crews that have built championship hockey teams.  I'm not worried about that.

I'm worried about signing players that will complete the puzzle.  You know what I mean.  You can draft and develop all you want, and that's a very good thing and has been working very well for the Jets organization.  But, there are those players that everybody wants, they just don't fit with every team.  Another veteran and a good goalie is what the Jets need.  I think that's it.  That's all they need. They have the talent.  I still believe they have the coach.
They just need to come together.


                      I expect pretty good things out of this guy in the very near future.