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Posted

That's 1!  Great win.  Lot's to clean up.  Too many turnovers leading to good looks.  But gritty fucking win down the stretch after another Miko superman performance.  Unreal by Miko.  Great game by Otter.   Lot's more to digest between now and Friday but great start to the series!

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, Skipper said:

That's 1!  Great win.  Lot's to clean up.  Too many turnovers leading to good looks.  But gritty fucking win down the stretch after another Miko superman performance.  Unreal by Miko.  Great game by Otter.   Lot's more to digest between now and Friday but great start to the series!

My biggest takeaway was even when they were pressing, we seemed in good position and good stead. It just didn't "feel" like they were going to score on every chance like Colorado. We seem more settled in, even when there's chaos

Edited by Longhorn_Fan68
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Posted

Absolutely right.  I just had the heebie jeebies every time because the Jets always seem to get that key goal.  But yeah, positional defense was outstanding.  Combined with Ott's confident holding the fort, it was beautiful.

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Posted (edited)
11 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Next two on TNT/TBS, so no more snooze chick for a little while. 

That was awful. At least they acknowledged that Dallas has the best announcers and in arena DJ. had to give props on that

Edited by Longhorn_Fan68
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Posted (edited)
18 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

as good as the win is seeing their very knowledgeable crowd with the life sucked out of them

The ones that had the temerity to call Jake a backup? Yeah it was delicious watching them file out early. League should have fought harder to keep them in Atlanta. Oh well

1 minute ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I heard Def Leppard tonight so their dj must be near the top too

My wife actually commented on how soft the in house music was. We are spoiled

Edited by Longhorn_Fan68
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Posted
Absolutely right.  I just had the heebie jeebies every time because the Jets always seem to get that key goal.  But yeah, positional defense was outstanding.  Combined with Ott's confident holding the fort, it was beautiful.

Was at Wilco/Waxahatchee show in Las Colinas. Tried to follow the score on my phone. Knew about the Rantanen hatty before the show ended. Flipped on Razor/Bogorad in car with about 14 mins left on third and got home for the final 7 mins where we were just holding on. Otter was great. Glad we kept it out of the net at the end. Jets not nearly as dangerous offensively as the Avs but if Hellebuyck is his regular-season self, they’re a bear. I think he’ll have to be great to beat us this series.
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Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, C-Man said:


Was at Wilco/Waxahatchee show in Las Colinas. Tried to follow the score on my phone. Knew about the Rantanen hatty before the show ended. Flipped on Razor/Bogorad in car with about 14 mins left on third and got home for the final 7 mins where we were just holding on. Otter was great. Glad we kept it out of the net at the end. Jets not nearly as dangerous offensively but if Hellebuyck is his regular-season self, they’re a bear. I think he’ll have to be great to beat us this series.

In Helle's defense, I'm not sure any goalie would have stopped any of those goals. The first was pure will one hander and the other two were deflections

Edited by Longhorn_Fan68
Posted
1 hour ago, Skipper said:

That's 1!  Great win.  Lot's to clean up.  Too many turnovers leading to good looks.  But gritty fucking win down the stretch after another Miko superman performance.  Unreal by Miko.  Great game by Otter.   Lot's more to digest between now and Friday but great start to the series!

*Lots

50 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:


Eye test said Bischel played great. Stats’s back it up. 

*Stats

  • Drool 1
Posted
On 5/5/2025 at 10:28 AM, C-Man said:

Stars’ playoff monster Mikko Rantanen has been unlocked:

Mikko put the team on his back

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6332221/2025/05/04/mikko-rantanen-stars-avalanche-nhl-playoffs-2025-game-7/

 


Well, you’re not going to see THAT again.

 

52 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Was at Wilco/Waxahatchee show in Las Colinas. Tried to follow the score on my phone. Knew about the Rantanen hatty before the show ended. Flipped on Razor/Bogorad in car with about 14 mins left on third and got home for the final 7 mins where we were just holding on. Otter was great. Glad we kept it out of the net at the end. Jets not nearly as dangerous offensively but if Hellebuyck is his regular-season self, they’re a bear. I think he’ll have to be great to beat us this series.

 

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Posted
22 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

That really happened right? I didn't just dream that shit?

Went up there and took game one and shut them up?

Nah, that just doesn't happen in real life 

Their in-house DJ shut them up. That place had minimal energy.

When a place is dead like that and you have Obi Wan Mikkobi on a heater, Canucks are fucked. 

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Posted
42 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

place had minimal energy.

I refuse to listen to the bullshit on the networks 90% of the time so it's just visual clues. We've got the best damned announcers in the entire fucking league and I am not going to trade them for someone that doesn't know shit about our team much less without any investment of time and energy. I don't care if it isn't synced. I'm ride or die with Josh and Razor.

Posted

After Mikko’s third goal I checked the Score app to see about any assist. The score said 3-2 not 3-1. It was then I realized the tv broadcast is about 10 seconds behind live, so my euphoria of the hat trick was immediately dulled by the knowledge they were about to score. It was a bummer. 

Posted
7 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

The ones that had the temerity to call Jake a backup? 

I thought that was pretty good shit actually.   Points for creativity.  If we have one of those games where at the AAC where Helle lets in a few softies and we are rolling, I wouldn't mind throwing that back at them.

Posted (edited)

Is there any way we can Jedi Mind Trick the guys into believing they LOST game 1?  I'm not sure they will know how to play up 1-0.

maybe we can get the aggy football dude to 'hipmotize' them.

Edited by dcar00
Posted
1 hour ago, dcar00 said:

Is there any way we can Jedi Mind Trick the guys into believing they LOST game 1?  I'm not sure they will know how to play up 1-0.

maybe we can get the aggy football dude to 'hipmotize' them.

image.gif.42dd4b3d16e416c11646d66fea9b83b5.gif

  • Haha 1
Posted
1 hour ago, dcar00 said:

Is there any way we can Jedi Mind Trick the guys into believing they LOST game 1?  I'm not sure they will know how to play up 1-0.

maybe we can get the aggy football dude to 'hipmotize' them.

OKmfjt.gif

Posted

it's crazy to think we've gotten almost nothing from Duchene, Seguin, Benn, Marchment (he does have one goal) and even Roope, and yet we've won 5 playoff games. watch the fuck out if others start clicking. it won't even require all of them. if robo and a couple others start clicking, I don't see another loss. lol, jk

Posted
2 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

it's crazy to think we've gotten almost nothing from Duchene, Seguin, Benn, Marchment (he does have one goal) and even Roope, and yet we've won 5 playoff games. watch the fuck out if others start clicking. it won't even require all of them. if robo and a couple others start clicking, I don't see another loss. lol, jk

Seguin scored two gargantuan goals vs Colorado early in that series. He's probably still playing himself into game shape after being out since December. Benn hasn't scored much but he was huge in a couple first-round games, as was Mush. Duchene has been very, very quiet but had two mammoth assists in Game 7, a secondary assist on Rantanen's wraparound game-tying goal and then the primary on Wyatt's game-winner.

I know hope can be a dangerous thing but this team is giving off a certain feeling. One that I'm not really wanting to talk about yet. Yet.

  • Drool 1
Posted
2 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

it's crazy to think we've gotten almost nothing from Duchene, Seguin, Benn, Marchment (he does have one goal) and even Roope, and yet we've won 5 playoff games. watch the fuck out if others start clicking. it won't even require all of them. if robo and a couple others start clicking, I don't see another loss. lol, jk

Seguin had a couple of goals I believe (including the game 3 OT winner).  He's been solid on faceoffs.  I think Seguin of that group has had a pretty good playoffs so far.  Duchene had those 2 great assists on huge Wyatt PP goals but I'm definitely waiting for him to break out.  He's clearly been frustrated and just off a bit (including on some passes last night it looked like he was trying to force).  He's due for a big game.   Benn is getting older and it is what it is.   He had a bad game last night in particular although has also looked good in spurts (I think game 2 Avs in particular maybe).  But to your point, yes, we need more out of these guys.  Robo was just shaking rust off last night.  Was glad to see he didn't seem to need reduced minutes.  Hopefully no setbacks and he can get back to it.

Posted
7 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Seguin had a couple of goals I believe (including the game 3 OT winner).  He's been solid on faceoffs.  I think Seguin of that group has had a pretty good playoffs so far.  Duchene had those 2 great assists on huge Wyatt PP goals but I'm definitely waiting for him to break out.  He's clearly been frustrated and just off a bit (including on some passes last night it looked like he was trying to force).  He's due for a big game.   Benn is getting older and it is what it is.   He had a bad game last night in particular although has also looked good in spurts (I think game 2 Avs in particular maybe).  But to your point, yes, we need more out of these guys.  Robo was just shaking rust off last night.  Was glad to see he didn't seem to need reduced minutes.  Hopefully no setbacks and he can get back to it.

Benn looked like absolute dogshit last night.  Apart from a terrible penalty, he had a bad give-away in the defensive zone that ended up in the back of our net for their second goal.  He was really sub-par.

I didn't realize that this is a contract year for him and that he's a UFA after this year.  I really don't know what we do about that.

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Posted
5 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

That really happened right? I didn't just dream that shit?

Went up there and took game one and shut them up?

Nah, that just doesn't happen in real life 

Winning a Game 1 is a novel concept.

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Posted
6 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Seguin scored two gargantuan goals vs Colorado early in that series. He's probably still playing himself into game shape after being out since December. Benn hasn't scored much but he was huge in a couple first-round games, as was Mush. Duchene has been very, very quiet but had two mammoth assists in Game 7, a secondary assist on Rantanen's wraparound game-tying goal and then the primary on Wyatt's game-winner.

I know hope can be a dangerous thing but this team is giving off a certain feeling. One that I'm not really wanting to talk about yet. Yet.

 

5 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Seguin had a couple of goals I believe (including the game 3 OT winner).  He's been solid on faceoffs.  I think Seguin of that group has had a pretty good playoffs so far.  Duchene had those 2 great assists on huge Wyatt PP goals but I'm definitely waiting for him to break out.  He's clearly been frustrated and just off a bit (including on some passes last night it looked like he was trying to force).  He's due for a big game.   Benn is getting older and it is what it is.   He had a bad game last night in particular although has also looked good in spurts (I think game 2 Avs in particular maybe).  But to your point, yes, we need more out of these guys.  Robo was just shaking rust off last night.  Was glad to see he didn't seem to need reduced minutes.  Hopefully no setbacks and he can get back to it.

forgot about Seg's goals early in the series. was trying to remember who else scored for us without looking it up. but yeah, kinda wild that the main producers for us in the regular season have been relatively absent and yet we keep trucking along

Posted
6 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

Petrovic has been pretty fucking solid.  Props to Pete for being willing to scratch a veteran to play a career AHLer instead.  

I remember screaming about Suter this time last year. 

When that veteran is Matt Dumba, there's really not much choice. (Or is there somebody else I'm forgetting about.)

 

5 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

Benn looked like absolute dogshit last night.  Apart from a terrible penalty, he had a bad give-away in the defensive zone that ended up in the back of our net for their second goal.  He was really sub-par.

I didn't realize that this is a contract year for him and that he's a UFA after this year.  I really don't know what we do about that.

I would assume he comes back at a much smaller number. I highly doubt he would want to go anywhere else at this point, nor will anybody break the bank to get him.

Posted
2 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

Benn looked like absolute dogshit last night.  Apart from a terrible penalty, he had a bad give-away in the defensive zone that ended up in the back of our net for their second goal.  He was really sub-par.

I didn't realize that this is a contract year for him and that he's a UFA after this year.  I really don't know what we do about that.

that was the impetus for the regular season thread title. it was a quote from Benn at the beginning of the season when he was asked what he thought about heading into the end of his contract and his reply was "win now, talk later" I'm glad we don't rely on him for much other than leadership, because as others have pointed out, he has not been very good so far these playoffs. another player than could step up and take us to another level competitively. I think he'll get there

Posted

winnipeg free press

Spoiler

Rantanen on a rampage
Stars red-hot sniper sinks Jets with second-period hat trick
Ken Wiebe By: Ken Wiebe Posted: 11:55 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 7, 2025 Last Modified: 12:49 AM CDT Thursday, May. 8, 2025 | Updates

This time, there was no personal vendetta to sort through, but Mikko Rantanen still made life miserable for the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday.

On the heels of eliminating his former team with a four-point effort in Game 7 against the Colorado Avalanche, the Dallas Stars winger delivered a natural hat trick to propel his team to a 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets before a sellout crowd at Canada Life Centre.

Rantanen now leads the Stanley Cup playoffs with eight goals and 15 points in eight games, an impressive total, especially when you consider he’s gone through the emotional toll of being traded twice this season before signing an eight-year extension with the Stars.

“He went to the net. He’s a big man that got there with his stick and he’s just somebody that you always have to know when he’s on the ice,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “Whenever you face elite players, you have to know where they are. Obviously, he’s feeling it coming off of Game 7. We’ve got to know when he’s on the ice. He’s a guy that you have to make sure especially you tie up that stick of his.”

Rantanen seems to be getting more and more comfortable in his new surroundings and that’s a scary proposition for opponents.

“He’s an absolutely fantastic player — big, strong and does a lot of really, really good things out there,” said Jets centre Mark Scheifele. “He’s an absolutely phenomenal player and when you need to take away that time and space, it makes it harder but obviously, he’s a fantastic player I’ve got to really watch out for him.”

“I mean he’s a game changer,” said Stars head coach Pete DeBoer. “You saw that last game. But he’s a game changer in a league where everybody’s only got one of those guys, maybe two. The eight teams left probably have a couple each. I think the games get tight checking, the scores get lower, there’s less and less room and those types of players have the ability to make something out of nothing.”

That was definitely the case in Game 1 and that’s why the Stars drew first blood in this battle for Central Division supremacy.

The best-of-seven series resumes on Friday night before the series shifts to Texas for Game 3 on Sunday afternoon.

Let’s take a little closer look at what transpired in the series opener:

THE MISSED OPPORTUNITY

For the first time in four playoff series, the Jets have dropped the opener.

Arniel was a tad perplexed with the slow start when he spoke to reporters after the game at the podium and broke things down.

“I’m disappointed. And the players are disappointed too,” said Arniel. “We know we just gave up home-ice advantage. And that wasn’t a game where they rolled over top of us for three periods. That was a game where we weren’t at our best, and we should have been here, especially at the start of another series at home.”

It was another slow start, as the Jets gave up the first eight shots on goal of the contest.

Although they turned the tables before the period was complete, the lethargic start is something they’ll look to change for Game 2.

“Our start was once again, not very good,” said Jets winger Nino Niederreiter. “It’s something we know we’ve got to do better. They are obviously a very experienced team. They know how to be in a tight game, they are extremely patient. That is something we’ve got to learn from.

“I wish I could give you a better answer, but we need to be sharper, we need to be better, we just need to be better on details. As cliche as it sounds, our overall game wasn’t good enough.”

THE CHANCE

After scoring twice in less than two minutes with the goalie out in favour of an extra attacker on Sunday in Game 7, the Jets nearly had another late tally with the net empty on Wednesday.

Scheifele had a great chance in tight and the rebound was loose momentarily in front, but Gabe Vilardi’s shot was blocked by the foot of Stars defenceman Esa Lindell.

“Yeah, I didn’t really see. I was kind of over to the side, so it’s just kind of sitting there,” said Scheifele. “I think Gabe tried to get a stick on it, and kind of got tied up. (Nikolaj Ehlers) tried to get a stick on it, and they just beat us to it. And it was obviously right there.”

Close, but there was no miraculous rally to be had on this night.

“It was a mad scramble,” said Arniel. “Had a couple whacks at it, but (Stars goalie Jake) Oettinger found a way to get a piece there. Their defence all piled in, it looked like kind of a big rugby scrum happened there. Just couldn’t find the puck to get it loose.”

THE STRETCH PASS

Jets defenceman Haydn Fleury went from being a healthy scratch in five of the first six games of the Stanley Cup playoffs to playing 33:02 in Game 7 against the Blues.

When Josh Morrissey was forced to miss Game 1 of the second round due to a suspected shoulder injury, Fleury took his spot on a pairing with Dylan DeMelo.

Fleury’s skating ability should be a big benefit in this series against a Stars team that plays a heavy game.

“We need some mobility and that’s what Haydn brings,” said Arniel. “We’ve asked him over the course of the season to step up his role at different times and he’s done that. He’s played some big minutes that maybe he hadn’t in the past. Obviously, the other night was big for him.”

Fleury carried some of that momentum from the seventh and deciding game into the series opener.

On the first goal of the contest, Fleury made a heads up play, coming around the net and making a stretch pass to Mason Appleton at the offensive blue line.

Appleton found Nino Niederreiter, who beat Jake Oettinger with a sneaky backhand at 3:30 of the second period.

Fleury was in the box for cross-checking when Rantanen completed the hat trick, but that was more of a push to the pants that caught Tyler Seguin off guard.

And after the Jets had the first three power plays of the contest, it wasn’t a surprise that Fleury was penalized on the play.

THE RETURN

Although he was officially listed as a game-time decision, there was little doubt that Scheifele was going to be back in the lineup for the first time since suffering an undisclosed injury in Game 5 against the St. Louis Blues when he was on the receiving end of a pair of jarring hits from Brayden Schenn and Radek Faksa.

After sitting out Games 6 and 7, Scheifele was back for the opener and made an immediate impact, skating on the top line with Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi.

After the Jets fell behind 3-1, Vilardi took advantage of a defensive-zone turnover by Stars captain Jamie Benn, who lost control of the puck below the goal line.

Vilardi found Scheifele alone in the slot and he buried his shot for his third goal of the postseason.

Getting Scheifele back in the lineup allowed the Jets to run their full forward group for the first time since Mar. 23, when Vilardi suffered an upper-body injury late in the third period against the Buffalo Sabres.

“It certainly helps your group when you have that depth and that’s the biggest thing for me. That depth is now back there,” said Arniel. “As you guys know, I’m pretty confident, as Pete is with his group, to throw four lines out there and to throw them against anybody at any time.”

THE CHESS MATCH

Both teams aren’t afraid to run four lines and all three D pairings, which is important when you consider how hard the Jets and Stars had to work in order to advance to the second round.

The Jets didn’t use a hard match in Game 1, although they did run out captain Adam Lowry against Stars top centre Roope Hintz for a chunk of the contest.

Prior to the game, DeBoer was asked if there was anything from the blueprint the Blues put forth to have success in the first round battle with the Jets that he might try to implement in this series.

“Well, I think that’s all part of our pre-series planning. We’d be crazy not to look at what we felt St. Louis did well and where we felt maybe St. Louis fell short, that maybe we’d have to be better at,” said DeBoer. “The recency factor is always critical when you’re pre-scouting. There’s no more recency than the seven games those two teams just played. So, we’ve looked at that pretty heavily.”

THE KEY PLAY

Rantanen’s pass attempt for Roope Hintz goes off the skate of Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg and into the net to complete his second hat trick in consecutive games.

THE THREE STARS

1. Mikko Rantanen, Stars, Recorded a natural hat trick.

2. Thomas Harley, Stars, Had an assist, logged 25:07 of ice time.

3. Mark Scheifele, Jets, Scored a goal in his return to the lineup.

EXTRA, EXTRA

Special teams were a factor in this one, as the Jets power play finished zero-for-four, while the Stars got the game-winning goal on the power play from Rantanen at 16:38 of the second period and finished one-for-two.

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck finished with 21 saves, while Stars goalie Jake Oettinger finished with 30 and was serenaded with “U.S. backup” chants during the second period.

While both teams got a top forward back from injury, the Jets were without Morrissey and the Stars were without top D-man Miro Heiskanen. Morrissey, who left Game 7 against the St. Louis Blues in the first period after taking four shifts and playing 2:09, was moving well at the morning skate and looks like a candidate to suit up in Game 2 against the Stars. As for Heiskanen, his timeline is a bit unclear, though he continues to progress from the knee injury he suffered in an awkward collision with Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone on Jan. 28. The Jets were also without defenceman Logan Stanley (undisclosed injury) and the Stars played without winger Colin Blackwell (undisclosed).

Stars winger Jason Robertson suited up in his first game of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs after suffering a knee injury in Game 82 of the regular season. Robertson played on a line with Wyatt Johnston and Mason Marchment and took 19 shifts for 13:44 of ice time, recording one shot on goal.

Spoiler

Fiesty Finn a challenge for Jets
Dallas superstar Rantanen shows no signs of slowing down
Mike McIntyre By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 7:06 AM CDT Thursday, May. 8, 2025

The Winnipeg Jets have a big problem.

A six-foot-four, 215-pound problem, to be more precise. His name is Mikko Rantanen, and the man known to teammates as “Moose” is running wild these days.

How exactly do you stop him?

Rantanen’s former employer, the Colorado Avalanche, couldn’t find an answer. They’re making tee times now after he torched them for 11 points (five goals, six assists) in the final three games of their first-round series, which went the distance.

Now it’s the Jets who are tasked with trying to corral the scorching-hot Finnish power forward. They’re not off to a great start, with Rantanen scoring all three goals for the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night in a 7:55 span of the second period. That’s all the offence the visitors needed to wrestle home-ice advantage away from the Presidents’ Trophy winners.

What Rantanen is doing so far in these playoffs isn’t just special. It’s historic. He’s now been involved in 12 straight Dallas goals — either scoring them himself or making an assist on them — which is an NHL record. He entered Game 1 against Winnipeg tied with Mario Lemieux (points on nine straight goals in 1992) before quickly making it his own.

He’s also just the third player in NHL history — and the first since Jari Kurri exactly 40 years ago — to record hat tricks in consecutive playoff games.

“Keep it going. Let’s see how long he can run this for,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said following the 3-2 victory over the Jets. “Yeah, he’s rolling and he’s feeling it. Pretty impressive, what he’s doing. I mean, considering the opponent and the time of year and how he’s dominating games, really impressive.”

We take you back to February when the Avalanche, apparently believing they wouldn’t be able to meet Rantanen’s asking price as a pending restricted free agent, shipped him to the Carolina Hurricanes in a blockbuster trade. At the time, Jets coach Scott Arniel and several players expressed relief he was finally out of the Central Division and Western Conference.

Yeah, about that.

Rantanen was back in the blink of an eye, with the Hurricanes unable to sell him on a long-term hockey home in Raleigh. The Stars swooped in, landing him in yet another blockbuster and quickly getting his name on an eight-year, US$96-million extension.

We’d say that deal is aging pretty well, so far.

“He’s an absolutely fantastic player — big, strong and does a lot of really, really good things out there,” said Jets centre Mark Scheifele.

The Jets have first-hand experience seeing the type of damage Rantanen can do in the playoffs. While still with the Avalanche last spring, he had nine points in five games (two goals, seven assists) as Colorado eliminated Winnipeg in the first round.

He may be wearing different colours now, but he’s the same lethal player who doesn’t need much time or space to make an impact. His first goal came when he poked home a loose puck during a goal-mouth scramble, while his second came on a perfect tip of a Thomas Harley point shot. His third, on the power play, was a bank shot off Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg.

“We all know how elite he is. He’s really done it these last few games and throughout his whole career,” said Nino Niederreiter. “Always a fantastic player, but we’ve got to find a way to shut him down and not make it too easy on him.”

Easier said than done. Consider that on Wednesday night, Arniel wisely had his shutdown line of Niederreiter, Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton out at five-on-five against Rantanen’s line with Roope Hintz and Mikael Granlund as much as possible.

“I thought the Lowry line did a great job,” Arniel said after the game.

He’s right. They did. The problem is, DeBoer also did a great job in double shifting Rantanen, getting him out at times with fourth-line skaters Sam Steel and Evgenii Dadonov and, it would appear, catching the Jets a bit by surprise and tilting the ice at times.

“He’s used to playing big minutes in Colorado with (Nathan) MacKinnon. We’ve traditionally been a four-line team so he’s taken a little bit of a haircut ice-time-wise with us,” said DeBoer.

“But I’ve been trying to supplement that a little bit because he is used to getting more ice and it’s a lot easier when he’s going like he is now, obviously. I don’t think it matters to him who he’s out there with. He’s trying to make a difference when he’s on the ice every time he’s out there.”

The game is won between the lines on the ice, of course. But give credit to a veteran coach like DeBoer for finding a way on the road, without the benefit of last change, to create some mismatches. That’s something Arniel will no doubt want to guard against heading into Game 2 on Friday night.

“He’s just somebody that you always have to know when he’s on the ice,” Arniel said. “Whenever you face elite players, you have to know where they are. Obviously, he’s feeling it coming off of Game 7. We’ve got to know when he’s on the ice. He’s a guy that you have to make sure especially you tie up that stick of his.”

Arniel mentioned having plenty to video to review with his club during Thursday’s off-ice session, and we suspect a huge chunk of that involved clips of Rantanen doing his thing. There’s only a handful of legitimate superstars like him in the league, and the Jets certainly didn’t face anything similar in their first-round series against the St. Louis Blues.

Although he struggled mightily during his brief time with Carolina and got off to a slow start with the Stars, Rantanen has clearly settled in and found the perfect fit in Dallas. It doesn’t hurt that the team is filled with fellow Finns.

“Obviously, they’re good, dear friends of mine and I knew them from before, before even I came to Dallas,” Rantanen said Wednesday night. “But all the guys, the rest of team are good friends of mine, too. They’ve been very welcoming and helping me a lot to settle in.”

That’s bad news for Central Division foes like the Avalanche and Jets.

They don’t give out the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP until the end of the Stanley Cup Final, but Rantanen is making a compelling case as the overwhelming early favourite.

The Moose is loose and showing no signs of slowing down.

winnipeg sun

Spoiler

From Game 7 high to Game 1 low: Jets burned by Stars in series opener
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Published May 08, 2025  •  3 minute read

There would be no miracle finish this time.

The Winnipeg Jets threw everything they had at the Dallas Stars in the dying minutes of Wednesday’s game, but came away with a 3-2 loss in their second-round playoff series opener.

All five goals came in the second period, the Jets opening and closing the scoring.

It’s in between those goals where they got burned.

The red-hot Mikko Rantanen produced a natural hat-trick, his second straight playoff hattie, as the Stars had handed Winnipeg’s its first home-ice loss of the post-season.

“There was a lot of sloppiness to that game,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “That did not feel like a playoff game, Game 1 in Round 2. That felt like Game 45 in the middle of December. Obviously we know the high that we’re on coming off that St. Louis game, but man, this is the playoffs.”

With the crowd on its feet and looking for a repeat of Sunday’s two-goal comeback in Game 7 against St. Louis, the Jets came close on a mad scramble with a little more than a minute left and their net empty, but couldn’t jam it by Jake Oettinger.

Mark Scheifele returned from an injury to score the Jets’ second goal, Nino Niederreiter the first.

But the Jets misfired and mishandled pucks all night, hurried when they didn’t have to and find themselves down in a series for the first time against a Central Division rival that hounded them all season.

“I’m disappointed,” Arniel said. “And the players are disappointed, too. We know we just gave up home-ice advantage. And that wasn’t a game where they rolled over top of us for three periods. That was a game where we weren’t at our best. And we should have been here, especially at the start of another series at home.

“There’s a way we have to play as a group and that’s not how we played.”

Final shots favoured the Jets, 31-24, including 10-4 over the final 20 minutes.

“I don’t think we really found it until the third period,” Scheifele said. “It obviously wasn’t a great start… we didn’t play great and we were right in it, so there’s a positive you can take out of it.”

Arniel was hoping his team wouldn’t have to deal with stage fright again after suffering cases of it in Games 1 and 7 of the first round.

Call it whatever you want, but Dallas was all over the Jets early, getting the first nine shots on goal, a couple of them high-quality.

The Jets finally registered their first some nine minutes in, and with the help of a couple of Stars penalties the tables turned from there, taking the next nine shots on net.

Oettinger and Connor Hellebuyck were up to the task, and it was zeroes on the board through 20 minutes.

That all changed, big-time, in the second.

The Stars goalie had no answer for Niederreiter’s quick backhand 3:30 in, and the crowd came alive.

Several minutes later The Moose, a.k.a Rantanen, horned his way into the series, reaching to shovel a rebound past Hellebuyck for his sixth goal of the playoffs.

The Jets got their third power play soon after but didn’t do much with it.

Rantanen struck again in the second, tipping a point shot for his fifth goal in his last two playoff games, and Dallas had its first lead.

“Whenever you face elite players, you have to know where they are,” Arniel said.

Before the period was up, the big Finn made it back-to-back playoff hat-tricks, the first player to do that in 40 years, his innocent-looking shot deflecting off Haydn Fleury’s skate and fooling Hellebuyck on a Dallas power play.

A Stars trade deadline acquisition, Rantanen’s natural hattie came in less than eight minutes.

Less than a minute later, Scheifele weighed in.

Fed by Gabe Vilardi in the slot, No. 55 made no mistake for his third of the playoffs, and the Jets were down, 3-2, after a five-goal second period.

After the way the Jets rescued Game 7 against the Blues, a sellout crowd may have shrugged off a simple one-goal deficit with 20 minutes remaining.

Arniel won’t shrug off the loss.

“I saw a lot of stuff that we’ll look at on video.”

One is the power play, where the Jets went 0-for-4, the Stars 1-for-2.

“We still had some good chances,” Scheifele said. “We had a pretty good power play all year. We’ve just got to put one in the net.”

 

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Posted
6 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

I refuse to listen to the bullshit on the networks 90% of the time so it's just visual clues. We've got the best damned announcers in the entire fucking league and I am not going to trade them for someone that doesn't know shit about our team much less without any investment of time and energy. I don't care if it isn't synced. I'm ride or die with Josh and Razor.

The ESPN broadcast crew mentioned that Razor and Josh were the best in the business last night, which was cool of them. 

Fuck I’m tired. Anytime we get a big win I usually pour myself another glass or two of wine and watch highlights over and over again. Wrecks my next day. 

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