Jacob Trouba returned to action last night for the first time since January 25th, his last game. To say his impact was felt was a mild understatement and for many Jets fans the realization of how much he means to this team was hammered home.

Before discussing Trouba's game it would be somewhat irresponsible to not highlight the problems with the NHL's video review system...again.

Last night the Blackhawks ran a sort of set play right off the opening face-off and within 11 seconds they had a 1-0 lead courtesy of Saad. It was a slick play that caught the Jets flat-footed but it was offside, or was it?

The Hawks won the draw pulled the puck back to the defence across the ice and up to Saad along the boards at the Jets blue line who came in and scored. Very effective and pretty. Except that it appears Jonathan Toews was 2 feet offside on the far side of the rink along the boards. In fact it you cold se where Saad was and where Toews was and the call should have been offside...or should it have?

The problem is the play was along the boards and the offside was the opposite side 80 feet away along the boards. There is no camera angle that shows the puck and Toews in the same frame. In fact you would have use an overhead camera mounted in the jumbotron array at centre ice or have one mounted at each end of the rink to be seen. Even then you would not have a definitive horizontal view of the blue line. So in this case the evidence of offside was there it's that you could not see the puck and the player at the same time so it was inconclusive.

I know what kind of plays I would be running if I were a coach.

The funny thing is that when a puck is in the goalie's glove and cannot be seen but the glove is over the line the NHL calls it a goal. Interesting double standard. This is the exact reason the review needs to be gone. It's only used to dispute goals not for any other purpose so if you cannot get it right- get rid of it and let the officials make the call or find a technology that works.

While the Blackhawks had the lead they certainly lost the momentum as it took over four minutes to make the decision and by that time the Jets had woken up and were ready to deal with a one goal deficit and plenty of time left.

Two-and-half minutes later after one of the filthiest toe-drags in recent history the Jets tied it up when Stastny redirected a pass to the net and Forseberg did some sort of spin-o-rama to create a near own-goal. But check this out:

.@PatrikLaine29 showing off some utterly sick moves before the @PaulyWalnuts26 goal. pic.twitter.com/5r5zBzuT7V

— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) March 16, 2018

At that point the race was on and the Jets never looked back as they ratcheted up four more goals in the first period before ended. What was incredible is all the goals were even strength. However Laine was shutout but on the first goal Patrik Laine added to his consecutive game point streak and set a new record as well.

Patrik Laine of the @NHLJets extended his franchise-record point streak to 14 games, the longest by a teenager in NHL history. #NHLStats #CHIvsWPG pic.twitter.com/Ss8eOFpUTQ

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 16, 2018

By the end of the game Connor had added an empty net goal to make it 6-2 and give him 25 on the season.

Back to Trouba.

He was paired with Morrow and clearly his minutes were being managed in his first game back. He was given conservative minutes and finished with 14:45 on the night just ahead of Morrow. Trouba made a huge impact though has he set the point shot for Armia's deflection in and he also fed Bryan Little a laser pass to set him free in behind Chicago for the 5th goal of the first period.

The best news for the team and perhaps most importantly Paul Maurice was that Trouba was not required to do any heavy lifting and the Jets built enough of a lead that they could be choosey with ice time. As those in the infirmary gets healthier there was no need to take risks with anyone with that kind of lead even when Chicago made it 5-2.

The best news for the team aside from being healthier is that it was scoring by committee and the Jets did it well and with style. It probably felt good to get more than three goals in a game the first time since March 2nd and in seven games.

Dallas is up next on Sunday as they try to finish out a strange road trip that has them in Ottawa tonight before Winnipeg and then back to Washington. That being said the Jets keep a firm grip on second in the Central and continue on with five more games at home.

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