Winnipeg Jets Shut Out By Nashville Predators in #Umpshow

The Winnipeg Jets and Nashville Predators seem like they’re leaning into the rivalry thing, which is great for us and the NHL as a whole. Last night, things were hectic.

The Winnipeg Jets discipline continues to be an issue, perhaps more so at this point than it had been at any other.

Perhaps we should start with that, since it’s pretty much everything we got. There’s some fun stats here, though. First of all, Winnipeg’s PK was on it. Things weren’t going there way, that much was certain.

Some of it seemed to be the refs making their mark on the game a bit too much. That doesn’t mean penalties weren’t there. You don’t give the other team nine powerplays for no reason.

But the Jets killed off all nine of them. They took an entire game’s worth of penalty minutes, 60, just in this game. Three misconducts. Two fighting majors. Two five on three tries.

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Josh Morrissey led the team on the PK at 10:37! Kristian Vesalainen barely played half that much.  This was no way to win a hockey game, and hey, the Jets didn’t. They were shut out.

The second period was embarrassing. Only two shots on goal for Winnipeg. But to their credit, I didn’t notice frustration really take over on the ice in that second. They killed off all the penalties.

They even had a little rush there at the end. And the refs threw them a pity penalty to start the third. Blake Wheeler and Nikolaj Ehlers took penalties in the second. Then, with about five minutes remaining, all hell broke loose.

There was a late hit, then a cross check. Then Ehlers fought Colton Sissons and Wheeler fought Matthias Ekholm. Then, Dustin Byfuglien took a penalty to put the Jets on a short 5 on 3.

Then, 25 seconds later,  Jacob Trouba took another penalty. I have no idea how the Jets killed this all off. Look, these all could’ve been called penalties. But if you’re not going to give the Jets a power play for that late hit, you can turn a blind eye to some of these.

Frederick L’Ecuyer and Ian Walsh are not names I needed to know. They went all Angel Hernandez or Joe West. I had never seen an umpshow in hockey. And yes, this wasn’t full of egregious calls. They did leave Tyler Myers golf-clapping in the official’s face, which earned him a ten minute misconduct.

But it sure seemed like it was home to some emotional ones. And while the Jets didn’t let things get away in the second, they did lose. And fail to score, the entire game. Pekka Rinne and the Nashville defense deserves quite a bit of credit for that.

But the Jets kept this surprisingly close, despite the penalties. The shot battle was 29-30, in favor of Nashville. Faceoffs were 49% to 51%. Both teams had 19 hits and six blocks. The Jets had nine giveaways to Nashville’s ten.

Only, Winnipeg had two powerplays. Nashville had NINE. That’s how you lose a hockey game to a good team. They didn’t play bad defense. Their offense never got time to get going against a rock-solid defense.

STOP TAKING STUPID PENALTIES. The Jets had 60 PIM this game. No other team has that many for the whole season. The Jets have 89 penalty minutes as a whole. Detroit is second with 58. Unreal.

They’re tied for the league lead in penalty kill opportunities. Good thing their PK is 85%, or this team would be staring down the barrel of last place. But hey, four points after four games isn’t going to cut it.

This team has to improve, plain and simple. I don’t know how they go about that, but I know it starts with Paul Maurice.