Bedard, Mrazek too much for Jets

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/12/2023 (674 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CHICAGO — They sure do love Connor Bedard around here, with seemingly everyone who lives in the Windy City wearing a Chicago Blackhawks jersey sporting his name these days, the way they used to when Michael Jordan was draining big-game buckets for the Bulls.

The 18-year-old hockey phenom showed Wednesday night why he’s going to be a big problem for NHL teams – especially those in the Central Division – for years to come. Bedard scored twice, including the first OT winner of his young career, as his team downed the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 at United Center.

“This is a great young player. He is. It’s great to see the stands filled here in Chicago again,” Jets coach Rick Bowness told the Free Press following the game. “He’s probably the big reason for it. An outstanding young player. He is. He’s got a great release. I thought for the most part, we did a good job around him. The two chances he got he put them in the net. Give him credit for that.”

Indeed, Winnipeg largely dominated the game and might have deserved a better result, but a poor power play, some red-hot goaltending and some frustrating lack of finish around the net proved costly.

“I thought we did a lot of good things. You’ve got to take some positives out of the game, as well as look at the things we didn’t do (well),” said forward Vlad Namestnikov. “We did get a point on the road, so we’ve got to forget about this game and move on.”

“We did get a point on the road, so we’ve got to forget about this game and move on.” Vlad Namestnikov

The Jets fall to 20-9-4, including 8-1-2 in the month of December. The three games they didn’t get two points were against Montreal (currently ranked 23rd in points), Chicago (31st) and San Jose (32nd). Go figure. Winnipeg also extended a franchise-record streak of games without giving up more than three goals, now at 23 straight.

Chicago improves to 11-22-1, winning for just the second time in the last eight outings as they are in the early stages of their rebuild.

Here’s a breakdown of what stood out in this one:

1) The longest day: The winter solstice actually occurred last week, but you’ll forgive members of the Jets if Wednesday felt like the longest day of their year.

Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, teams are not allowed to travel together on Boxing Day. That meant players had met at the airport bright and early to make the 7 a.m. charter to the Windy City. They then raced from the airport to the United Center for their 11:30 a.m. morning skate – the first time they’d hit the ice together since last Friday – and then headed to a nearby hotel to grab a pre-game nap. Then it was back to the rink for the later-than-usual 8 p.m. puck drop, which was followed by another mad dash to the airport to charter home in the wee hours of the night.

“It’s a long day,” Bowness said prior to the game. “But you could prepare for this. You know coming into the break you’re gonna have three, four days off and then it’s going to be a long day on the 27th. Getting that early wake-up call after Christmas is never easy but it is what it is. You fight through it.”

“Getting that early wake-up call after Christmas is never easy but it is what it is. You fight through it.”–Rick Bowness

The only exception to the above scenario involved a handful of players who made their way to Chicago on Tuesday from their holiday locales, including Namestnikov, Alex Iafallo, Nate Schmidt and Mason Appleton.

The Jets had their legs going early and often in this one, so it didn’t appear to be a major factor.

“I felt like we carried the play for a lot of the game,” said forward Morgan Barron. “For the first game coming out of the break, obviously you want to come away with a win but to get a point and play well is going to help us get back on track here and we’ll be able to move on from that game.”

---

2) Ring-a-ling: The Jets were making plenty of noise in this one, as Nino Niederreiter, Josh Morrissey and Namestnikov rang shots off the post before the game was halfway done.

Niederreiter’s came on the opening shift on a bizarre play in which his dump-in wasn’t picked up by Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek until it was over his head and off the crossbar. Morrissey’s came later in the frame when he grazed the post off the rush, and Namestnikov’s happened on a clear-cut breakaway in the second period.

That’s some tough puck luck, for sure.

It continued into the third period, as Dominic Toninato caught the pipe with just over nine minutes left in regulation, and then Namestnikov rattled another one off the post seconds later.

“You’ve got to find a way to get a greasy one there. We didn’t do that tonight.”–Vladislav Namestnikov

“We had our looks, definitely. Sometimes you’re going to hit crossbars and posts. It just doesn’t go in sometimes,” said Namestnikov. “But at the same time, you can’t make excuses. You’ve got to find a way to get a greasy one there. We didn’t do that tonight.”

---

3) Three for a dollar: The currently constructed Blackhawks are basically a one-man band. But the music being made by Bedard is quickly climbing the NHL charts. He was at it again Wednesday, opening the scoring at 15:57 of the first period.

Winnipeg had dominated at that point, holding the Blackhawks to one relatively harmless shot. But then Bedard registered the second, third and fourth of the frame, getting three chances from in tight and finally beating Connor Hellebuyck.

Bedard has now scored in both games against Winnipeg this season and is up to 15 of the year to top all rookies. He also leads Chicago in all offensive categories by a significant margin and has points in six straight games.

“He’s a good player. Very shifty, very mobile. A good skater,” said Namestnikov. “We didn’t shut him down completely. We’ve got to be better.”

“He’s a good player. Very shifty, very mobile. A good skater.”–Vladislav Namestnikov

Chicago might not be much right now, but once they start building around their No. 1 overall pick, they will start making plenty of noise again.

---

4) Fourth line comes through: Winnipeg’s fourth line has been extremely effective lately, and that continued in this one despite a personnel change. David Gustafsson was unable to play after suffering a lower-body injury during the morning skate, so Toninato took his spot on the line with Barron and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby.

The trio came through with the tying tally at 3:47 of the second period, with Barron finishing off a nice passing play and scoring his sixth of the season.

He’s now back in a tie with his younger brother, Justin, a defenceman with the Montreal Canadiens.

Toninato was playing in his first game of the season for the Jets and can now say he’s a point-per-game player.

Unfortunately for the Jets, that would be all the offence they could muster as Mrazek stood tall.

“We hit a few posts too, but he made some good saves. But it’s on us to make his life a little tougher in there and get some guys in front of him and find a way to get ugly or greasier goals.” Morgan Barron

“He tracked the puck well,” said Barron. “We talked about it a little bit. He seemed to be playing out of his crease and just finding a way to get his eyes on most of the shots we were able to get through. So, it was one of those nights. We hit a few posts too, but he made some good saves. But it’s on us to make his life a little tougher in there and get some guys in front of him and find a way to get ugly or greasier goals.”

---

5) Power outage: Winnipeg’s power play had shown signs of heating up in recent games, including scoring twice last Friday against Boston, but they had a tough night at the office against Chicago, going 0-for-4.

“Our power play was ineffective. Simple as that,” said Bowness, who is starting to sound like a broken record on the subject. He was especially frustrated by the final one, which came with about three minutes left in the third period and presented a golden opportunity to pull out a victory.

“We’ll work at it and we’ll keep working at it. You get that opportunity with three minutes to go, you get your best players on the ice, you want them to step up and make a difference in the game,” said Bowness. “It’s not going to happen every night, so it didn’t happen tonight. We’ll work on it and make sure it’s ready the next time they go.”

“Our power play was ineffective. Simple as that.”–Rick Bowness

So what’s the issue?

“We were moving the puck. Something we have to fix is to get in front of the goalie,” said Namestnikov. “We’re getting shots, but the goalie can see them. We’ve got to fix that and move on.”

On the flipside, Winnipeg killed both penalties they took and has now gone three straight games with a clean sheet on the PK.

---

6) Extra, extra: Hellebuyck finished with 23 saves, while Mrazek stopped 37 pucks.

“Mrazek was great. Give him a lot of credit. He was outstanding,” said Bowness. “Four goalposts and a crossbar, it was one of those nights for him. We certainly created enough opportunities to win a hockey game. We didn’t score. Could we have done more on the power play? Yes. Without a doubt. Could we have done a better job screening (Mrazek)? Yeah. We had, what, 82 shot attempts? We created enough chances to win a hockey game, it’s as simple as that.”

“We had, what, 82 shot attempts? We created enough chances to win a hockey game, it’s as simple as that.”–Rick Bowness

The Jets will hold their annual skills competition on Thursday night at Canada Life Centre, then practise on Friday to get ready to close out 2023 with back-to-back games against the Minnesota Wild. The Jets host their closest neighbours on Saturday afternoon, then head down to the Twin Cities for a New Year’s Eve matinee.