While it was not the electric atmosphere that was the Pittsburgh game in Winnipeg, you need fans for that. (Ouch! I know) The game in Carolina last night was exciting and had all the makings of a rodeo, two teams trying to stay on a horse many had thought they'd been riding long enough.
The Jets opened the scoring when the favourite whipping mule of yours truly, Mark Stuart, put a sly puck on net from the blue line and Blake Wheeler tipped it in. Stuart made his mark again when unbeknownst to him the puck used his skate as stick and beat Michael Hutchinson to tie the game early in the second period.
The teams traded chances but it was Ward and Hutchinson standing tall for both teams. Blake Wheeler got his second of the game when Mark Scheifele took the puck from down low up through the slot to the blue line. Be honest- you were screaming at your TV watching this happen. Scheifele then slid a soft back hand pass to a waiting Bogosian who fired a wrist shot on net and guess who tipped it- Blake Wheeler for the eventual game winner.
Paul Maurice did his best late in the game to get Wheeler out there for the hat trick but the Jets line kepy pinning the Canes in and Ward could not get out of his net for the extra attacker. Frolik potted the insurance goal and that was it for a solid road game in Carolina a team that had not lost in regulation or OT in 5 games.
Zach Bogosian had a stand out game, making some big defensive plays to keep Canes players from having some grad 'a' scoring chances. In one case Gerbe came out of the penalty box for a breakaway and Bogosian not only caught him but did a sweep with his stick to knock the puck to the corner. Also, Bogo was aware enough to get back on his feet and careen away from his net and taking out Hutchinson.
The point I made last night about this game and a few others is that the Jets are competing (don't you love that term) and playing their peers and underlings like they should; as the better club. That's a big change from the previous years and coaching regime. This version comes out prepared and expecting to play to win every game.
Ask the Canes bloggers what they saw last night and they will tell you the Jets pressured and disrupted the Carolina attack all night long. The guy leading that attack was once again Evander Kane. I don't have this graph for lat night but thanks to War-on-ice.com you can see where Kane is this season and it explains why he might not be on pace for 30 goals again. If he had some puck luck he might. Basically Kane is killing the opposition and still getting scoring chances just no luck around the net.
Kane is a beast
There's no time to rain on this parade nor should there be a reason to, the Jets did what the are supposed to do. Why criticize that. It's fair to say more than a few Jets fans are holding their breath, waiting for the landing gear to drop and hopefully avoid a hard landing but the long this team goes the less likely that happens.
Think of it this way if Winniepg gets just two points out of the next 2 games vs the Preds and Wild they will have earnd 6 of 10 on the road. That's a .600 points percentage on the road. No one should be complaining about that.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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