I guess you could say it was a goaltending duel last night in Winnipeg as the Jets hosted the Oilers at Bell MTS Place although neither goalie played against the other. The game had it's moments though and while many would call a 0-0 draw after 60 minutes boring this game seemed not to suffer from the lack of goals.

There was a goal that was disallowed as Mark Scheifele was offside for Dahlstrom's first career NHL goal one that beat Mike Smith from off the circle with a big slap shot. The Jets centre probably owes the hulking defenseman a beer or meal for that small mistake.

The game had it's moments though and one key recurring one was the play of rookie defenseman Ville Heinola. At times he was on the ice against McDavid while paired with Neal Pionk and he seemed to hold his own, as best as anyone could. The young Fin made some mistakes but unlike other players in the past at his age he was not defeated by them, instead he made every effort to mitigate the severity of them.

In fairness to McDavid he seemed off of his game. He took an unnecessary slashing penalty in the second period and during the non-goal he was lying on a Jets player, Kulikov I believe, as the Jets had control of the play and eventually scored. All that being said the Jets did a fine job of keeping McDavid and his partner in crime Draisatl in check for the game, only 5 shots between them at even strength. Even goal scoring savant James Neal was held in check with 2 5v5 shots.

The Oilers controlled a fair bit of possession when it came to shot volume but it was the Jets who controlled the scoring chances and high danger chances. Within these details one observation that came out from many was the play of Blake Wheeler, a bit sloppy for him with passes and reads. One read he did see was in OT when he managed to catch McDavid and affect his shot proving he still have turn it up when needed for an 'older' guy.

In the end it was the player who are expected to score who did for the Jets as Kyle Connor put a filthy little move on Mike Smith as he came in with pace before doing some stick work right at the crease. After McDavid tried to slide one by Hellebuyck, ultimately missing the net Patrik Laine stepped up and when it appeared Smith was preparing for Laine to come in close the Fin put his laser focused shot past the veteran goalie and the game was over.

The Jets now siting at 5-5 got back on the right side of the ledges but still have some work to do, particularly one defense as this group still remains a work in progress. There was talk in the crowd of Niku being called up and the return of Beaulieu. Also does Heinola stay past 9 games played? And of course, 'where's Byfuglien' and no update there.

What happens now for the Jets is hopefully a run of consistency with their play. Can they iron out some kinks and most importantly can Connor Hellebuyck maintain the kind of game he played last night? In seven games played he's rocking a .929 save percentage. If that is where he can stay the Jets will have more chances to win if they clean up their play.

Two other notes should be made, congrats to Maurice on his 700th win as a head coach and also more respect to the evolving game of Patrik Laine who was engaged in all areas of the ice last night again. While off the score sheet last night that won't be a frequent event given the way he is playing and the Oilers deserve credit for keeping him in check as much as McDavid was too.

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