Recap: Winnipeg Jets @ Vancouver Canucks
In what could potentially be a preview of a first round playoff match up, the Winnipeg Jets travelled to British Columbia to take on the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night. With the True Northers hoping to further solidify their grasp on the Western Conference’s top spot and the Nucks really needing to string some victories together if they want to hold off the challengers (Flames, Blues, etc), the two points up for grabs is important to both franchises.
Unfortunately my back continues to disrupt my REM sessions (not the band), so admittedly I’m a bit grumpy that the Jets and Canucks are keeping me up late with their west coast clash…so here’s hoping they made it worth the lack of sleep.
GAME RECAP
Winnipeg & Vancouver went back & forth to start the match, though the Canucks looked a bit more motivated in the early minutes. Five minutes in, Nino Niederreiter had a good chance at one end of the ice, but a Canucks’ 2 on 1 rush the other way ended with a 1 timer from the left face-off dot that beat Connor Hellebuyck cleanly. VAN 1-0. Good response by the Jets that saw Kyle Connor get robbed with a wide open net by the Canucks’ Kevin Lankinen, then Gabriel Vilardi failed to cash in the rebound. Winnipeg’s offensive zone pressure picked up, but Vancouver almost scored again when Hellebuyck misplayed a puck behind his net. Fortunately the Vezina candidate hustled to get back in net to deny a wrap around attempt with a stretched out goal stick. Jets followed that up with a couple great shifts, Cole Perfetti got a great look from the low slot and Vilardi almost knocked home the rebound of a Josh Morrissey point shot. Good pace from both squads in the 1st period, but Winnipeg seemed to be catching up with Vancouver’s fast start. With about 5 minutes to play in the period, Vladislav Namestnikov carried the puck into the Canucks’ zone before sending it to Nikolaj Ehlers on the right wing. The shifty Dane quickly cut into the high slot, losing the defender before he snapped a shot by Vancouver’s tender to tie the game. TIE 1-1. A strong response by the Nucks saw the Jets’ take their first penalty of the game and they had to kill a long period of 6 on 5 hockey before they actually got down to the penalty kill. The home team controlled the puck the entire advantage, but Winnipeg did a good job of keeping the puck to the perimeter. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop Brock Boeser from getting a stick on a point shot to give Vancouver a powerplay goal. VAN 2-1. Winnipeg’s 3rd line looked completely lost in the final minute of play and that allowed the Canucks to quickly move up the ice to score with just 3 seconds left in the frame. VAN 3-1.
The Jets coaching staff broke up Adam Lowry’s 3rd line to start the 2nd, moving the captain to play with Brandon Tanev & Alex Iafallo and 7 minutes into the frame, the switch paid off when a Luke Schenn point shot caused a scramble in front of the net and allowed Iafallo to pocket his 11th goal of the season. VAN 3-2. Winnipeg looked like they were determined to continue the comeback over the next 7 minutes, but the wind was taken out of their sails when Hellebuyck failed to completely cover a rebound, allowing Boeser to score his 2nd goal of the contest. VAN 4-2. Less than a minute later, the Canucks lead was extended to 3 when Pius Suter beat Bucky on a shot that he would like another stab at. VAN 5-2. Winnipeg did have some scoring looks before the period ended, but weren’t able to add a 3rd goal to their total despite getting multiple powerplays (incl. a 5 on 3 advantage).
Needing a huge number of goals in the final frame, the Jets did manage to out-shoot the opposition (8-4) and had a few opportunities to decrease the Canucks’ lead but Lankinen & Vancouver’s defense did a good job of protecting the high danger areas. Ultimately, the possible highlight of the 3rd period was a nice bodycheck by Morrissey as Winnipeg was unable to alter the score before the late game thankfully ended.
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FINAL SCORE: VANCOUVER CANUCKS 6 WINNIPEG JETS 2
FINAL STATS
Shots: 22-21 VAN / Hits: 28-27 VAN / Face-Offs: 54.8% WPG / x Goals: 4.04 WPG – 3.44 VAN /
MoneyPuck’s Deserve to Win: 59.4% WPG / High-Medium Danger Scoring Chances: 18 to 11 WPG
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SCORING SUMMARY from ESPN
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SHOT CHART from MoneyPuck
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ADVANCED SKATER STATS from MoneyPuck
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GOALIE STATS from ESPN & MoneyPuck
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If you would like to dive deeper into the game’s stats, follow the links below to the game pages:
MoneyPuck: Winnipeg Jets vs. Vancouver Canucks – Tuesday March 18 2025 – MoneyPuck.com
NaturalStatTrick: Winnipeg Jets @ Vancouver Canucks, 2025-03-18
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BOJA’s Observations:
A lot of the stats above aren’t that bad for the Winnipeg Jets, but that was mainly due to the Vancouver Canucks having a healthy lead for most of the game. There are some terrible numbers up there though, including the downright awful performance by the 3rd line of Adam Lowry, Nino Niederreiter, & Mason Appleton. The trio was out-shot 8 to 0 and out-scored 2-0 versus the Nucks…in only 4:35!! The once heralded bottom six unit hasn’t been very good lately and I think Apples & Nino need to take a fair share of the responsibility.
Another ugly performance came from a player it is rarely expected from. Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck looked shaky most of the night and while none of the 3 first period goals could be considered “bad“, the Canucks only had 0.97 expected goals yet walked into the intermission with 3 goals on the scoreboard. 16 saves on 21 shots gave Bucky a .762 save percentage on the game and he finished with a -2.27 Goals Saved Above Expected.
The shot chart above shows that the Jets had plenty of good scoring chances, even more than the Canucks managed. This is likely a bit deceiving (as is MoneyPuck’s projecting Winnipeg deserved to win) and was really the result of Vancouver laying back to protect their lead. Our Jets didn’t play horribly, but there is no doubt my eyes felt the Nucks were the much faster & hungrier squad on Tuesday.
The Haydn Fleury & Colin Miller pairing had another poor outing (18.2% xG) so I fully expect coach Scott Arniel to consider making changes to the defensive core before the next match. Not sure inserting big lumbering Logan Stanley into the lineup is something that will help against the speedy Oilers, but I would put money on that happening.
Too grumpy to go on any further about Winnipeg’s disappointing effort last night….here is hoping the team can right the ship for a big game in Alberta on Thursday.
UP NEXT: Winnipeg Jets @ Edmonton Oilers – Thursday, March 20th @ 8:00 pm CST...
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