In a battle between the two teams with the worst penalty kill units in the NHL, he thought that special teams could play a big role in deciding the outcome.
In fact, he did it on Friday night in Vancouver.
The Canucks fighters scored on their first two power play attempts and held on for a 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets.
“You sure want a better execution on any night,” said head coach Paul Maurice. “5 against 5 we were pretty good, I thought.”
With the victory, the Canucks ended a five-game losing streak.
It was the first time since December 20, 2016 that Vancouver beat the Jets at home, ending the Jets’ eight-game winning streak in Vancouver City.
“It sucks when you get a chance to take a great road trip,” defender Nate Schmidt said. “It was a good-paced game, right? I think we skate pretty well. I thought we had a few chances, right? I think when you look at the game as a whole, we were a bit sloppy in some areas.
“I felt that at certain points it was like playing ping-pong, back and forth, back and forth.”
The Jets were trailing by two goals at the end of the contest, but Pierre Luc-Dubois scored with the keeper down with just 2:28 left to make it a one-goal game. The Jets had a chance to get the tie and Kyle Connor broke his stick on a one-time attempt in the last minute.
“It’s a shame our leading scorer breaks the stick at the rear,” said Schmidt. “Of all time, true. I think he has a great chance to score from there. “
After a slow start to the season, the Jets’ penalties improved tremendously during their recent winning streak. But after the Canucks scored a pair of power play goals, the Jets have now surrendered four goals with the opposition in the men’s lead in just the last three games.
“It is much better than it was. Tonight it cost us, ”Maurice said. “We may have to add other people and change some people. I know where he is in terms of the entire season, but actually we have done quite well. “
For the season, the Jets’ powerplay ranks 31st out of 32 teams with a success rate of just 63.8 percent.
It was the Jets’ third game in just four days in the third different city, and there were probably some tired legs after two very close games against the Edmonton Oilers.
“I don’t think it’s an excuse,” Adam Lowry said. “We played a decent game. It wasn’t like we weren’t in it, or like we were giving up a lot of zone time, or things like that. We only want to clean a couple of areas of our game. Maybe the sharpness wasn’t there, maybe the kind of execution. You pass two really close games in Edmonton, and I think the trend is perhaps a disappointment. You are playing against a team that has had a bit of trouble. They played a good game. “
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After an intense loss to the Oilers in Edmonton the night before, it was fair to question what kind of energy the Jets would have in this game.
They looked solid coming out, but Vancouver was the first to get on the board thanks to a power play goal from Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
The home team were up 2-0 early in the second when a seemingly harmless shot to the wrist from defender Kyle Burroughs passed over Eric Comrie, Burroughs’ first career NHL goal.
Exactly 60 seconds later, Nikolaj Ehlers responded in a big way. The speedy Danish winger spun his man into the Canucks area, dived into the middle and fired a searing shot over Thatcher Demko’s glove to cut the lead in half.
But with the Jets trying to regain momentum in their favor, Blake Wheeler received a very high penalty and Conor Garland made them pay for the power play that followed to restore the two-goal advantage.
From there, the Canucks sat in the lead with Demko holding the fort for most of the duration.
There was a glimmer of hope for the Jets when Dubois scored his 10th of the season with Comrie retired, but Winnipeg couldn’t find a tie before the final horn sounded.
For the second night in a row, the Jets stoned the opposing goalie. Demko was the first star of the night thanks to his 37-save performance. Comrie made 26 saves in the loss.
It is only the second time in 15 games that Winnipeg has lost a game in regulation. The other time also turned out to be the back-to-back second leg against the Islanders on November 6.
The Jets also didn’t take advantage of the Canucks’ league-worst penalty kill, as they didn’t generate a penalty overnight.
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Winnipeg returns home for a date with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night.
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