Five takeaways ahead of tonight’s game
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/04/2015 (2961 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Five takes as the Winnipeg Jets ready to face the Anaheim Ducks tonight in Game 3 of their Western Conference First Round series.
1. Snow. Of course, snow. It makes sense that if the Stanley Cup playoffs are returning for the first time since 1996 and this town is truly going to embrace the Winnipeg Whiteout thing that – for full effect – we should all wake up to a light dusting of the white stuff this morning. That said, I’m sure my initial reaction when looking out the window was the same as just about everybody in River City – a string of expletive deleteds that we simply can’t use in this space.
Home-ice advantage — in the rink, not on the roads – will be THE story tonight as the Jets try to get a foothold in this series. Down 2-0 they hope to be energized by the rabid home crowd. Don Cherry and Ron McLean will be here. Ditto the guys from TSN and national outlets like The Globe and Mail, The National Post, ESPN and Yahoo.
This can go the other way, too. We’ve all seen those stretches where the crowd is in full throat and the home side is tighter than the bolts on a new bridge.
A solid first shift with a big hit or a huge stop by Ondrej Pavelec helps build momentum. An early Jets goal and the joint will erupt.
To get properly stoked for the night, check out my buddy Randy Turner’s 50 Shades of White piece that was our front-page story today.
2. I know it can’t always be easy to score Jets tickets, let alone seats for a game like tonight. Somehow, I hope the fur-coat-wearing/face-painted/popcorn-spilling guy found a way to get back to the game.
And, this ummm… person of royal interest:
3. Worth noting this morning: The Jets/Atlanta Thrashers remain the only franchise in the NHL without a postseason victory. The Jets franchise is 0-6 all-time in the post-season dating back to its days in Georgia. The NHL Jets 1.0 were 12-16 in home playoff games while the AHL’s Manitoba Moose were 27-18 in playoff tilts at MTS Centre.
4. Not Jets-Ducks related, but just because there is a growing fascination with Nik Ehlers in town, you should know he had four points for his Halifax Mooseheads in Sunday’s win over Moncton, forcing a Game 7 on Tuesday. And Nic Petan was busy last night, too, with a goal and two assists for Portland
5. And finally, just spit-balling here, but we’ll hazard a guess that Jets fans will target one player in particular tonight: former Moose product Ryan Kesler. He’s the kind of player who can score, is an excellent defender but is also a pain in the backside to play against. He goaded Mark Scheifele into a penalty in Game 1 and has an Esa Tikkanen/Ken Linseman layer to his game.
The Jets will need to turn away from any scrum featuring the Ducks #17 and will need more of this from Dustin Byfuglien.
Ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @WFPEdTait
