Predators-Jets is the best sort of rivalry: one born almost solely from the fact that both teams are very good and each stands in the other’s way of the Central title, the West, and, perhaps ultimately, a Cup. And even though we’re months and months away from what we all hope is a playoff rematch of last year’s…
Winnipeg strongman Dustin Byfuglien won’t stop asserting his dominance against lesser men, as the Vegas Golden Knights learned once more in Game 3 of their series tonight. In a big testy scrap near the end of the second period, Byfuglien grabbed hold of both Tomas Nosek and Colin Miller—who are listed at 210 and 196…
The Vegas Golden Knights have made a habit out of spectacularly over-the-top performances to kick off playoff games, and their home opener in the Western Conference Finals might have been their best yet. The Game 3 pregame party had everything: a drumline, an archer, a swordfight, a flying dude with a Winnipeg flag,…
Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien is a big boy. Listed at 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, I would call him an immovable object if not for the fact that he’s usually moving toward you. And it’s gonna go badly for you.
The Golden Knights chalked up their Game 1 loss to effort. “They outworked us,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “We have to compete harder. We got to battle harder.” It’s the sort of thing a coach says all the time, but it’s also just about the only thing a team can try to change when they’re up against the most talented…
After dispatching the Golden Knights with a three-goal barrage in the first-period of Game 1, the Winnipeg Jets found Vegas to be a much tougher opponent in their second series meeting, and couldn’t get anywhere near a repeat performance. The Knights rode a pair of first period goals and a brilliant bounce-back…
The Jets are now the Stanley Cup favorites, after dispatching Nashville in an occasionally disjointed seven-game series that saw the team alternate wins and where the road team generally ruled. In the end, Connor Hellebuyck was better than the increasingly erratic Pekka Rinne, and while that’s a fine topline summary…
Predators goalie Pekka Rinne—or, just as plausibly, some amateur wearing his sweater and pads—ended Nashville’s Stanley Cup bid tonight with two incredibly soft goals allowed in the first period of Game 7 against the Jets, leading to an eventual 5-1 Winnipeg victory. Rinne, a Vezina Trophy finalist who looked shaky…
The Predators beat the Jets 4-0 in Winnipeg tonight to fight off second-round elimination and force a Game 7 back in Nashville. It was a mostly tense game despite the final, with the danger of a two-goal lead particularly looming over the Preds when the Jets had an early third-period power play. But it was Filip…
In the highest leverage game of their playoffs so far—don’t you hate the term “must-win” in non-elimination games?—Predators goalie Pekka Rinne turned in his best performance of the postseason yet, anchoring Nashville as they beat Winnipeg 2-1 on the road in Game 4 to tie their second-round series at two games apiece.
Because these are two relatively young franchises, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking of the Jets’ and Predators’ rosters the same way, as playoff ingénues. But Nashville has been here before, seven postseasons in nine years, and has carried over most of the same faces from last year’s Finals run. Winnipeg…
First off, I have to admit that I actually like the current NHL playoff format, and its focus on intra-division competition in the opening two rounds. I think the general geographic closeness of the early-round games is a plus for the competitors, but more importantly, the repeated match-ups year after year create…
The NHL announced today that Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey would be suspended for his team’s Game 5 against the Wild, after Morrissey smashed Minnesota’s Eric Staal with a cross check to the back of the head in Game 4.
It had been 22 years since a Winnipeg Jets team won a playoff game, and that wasn’t even these Winnipeg Jets. That was a different franchise altogether; it’s in Arizona now. This Jets franchise, including its time in Atlanta, had never won a playoff game. But before a crazy, popcorn-erupting, whited-out crowd, the…
The next generation of the NHL is in good hands, with the likes of McDavid and Matthews and Patrik Laine not merely promising to be superstars in the near future, but playing like superstars now. Laine, Winnipeg’s 19-year-old winger, with a pair of goals in last night’s 4-2 win over Dallas, is now tied for the NHL’s…
This weekend and into this week, the Prairies were shaken to their very core by three hockey men saying they didn’t really like going to Winnipeg on road trips because it’s dark (it is dark), it’s cold (it is cold), and the hotel wi-fi is substandard (unresolved). The Jets mostly declined official comment on the…
Ahead of the San Jose Sharks’ trip to Winnipeg on Sunday, NBC Sports California tweeted a video that appears to be culled from a larger one asking Sharks players their least favorite road trip destination. Three players—forward Tomas Hertl and defensemen Justin Braun and Tim Heed—picked Winnipeg, and explained why:
It all started so well for the Wild, with two goals in the first 14 minutes on the road in Winnipeg. And then the Jets started scoring, and wouldn’t stop scoring, and wouldn’t even pause to let Minnesota have another.
Winnipeg Jets center Matt Hendricks and defenseman Dustin Byfuglien have both been dealing with minor injuries, a foot problem and a “soft-tissue issue,” respectively. Their rehab of choice this week involved taking advantage of a mandatory off-day to head out on British Columbia’s Fraser River and catch a 600-pound…
