I’m pretty happy that I predicted the right winner because I don’t think many people did, but 4 games? Really Edmonton? That’s just embarrassing. Ken Holland better make big changes this offseason, McDavid isn’t taking much more of this. This team had absolutely no depth, and I don’t think enough people realized that. But what exactly happened here?
Game 1 was just all Hellebuyck, like most of this series. Despite the Oilers outshooting the Jets 33–22, the Jets took the game 4–1. This game only had 1 penalty called, and the Oilers couldn’t convert. The Jets ended up getting two empty netters, and that was it. Hellebuyck proved how good he is once again, but the real story here is that McDavid was held off of the scoresheet. That was the key for the Jets in this series, and I feel like they did a solid job. In this game, and more to come.
Game 2 was a battle of the goaltenders. The unfortunate part for Edmonton is that they had a 39-year-old Mike Smith against the reigning Vezina winner and best goalie in the league. The Oilers defended better than I thought they would be capable of, but the Jets showed their poise by adapting and playing a slower game as well. It didn’t take long for Paul Stastny to bury the overtime winner, and all of a sudden the Jets were heading back to Winnipeg with a 2–0 series lead after a 1–0 win. Once again, McDavid was held off the scoresheet.
Game 3 was one the Oilers certainly want back. It was a showing of development in that the stars were able to come back and have a big showing after going down 2–0 in the series. Then, their lack of leadership showed. Look, I’m not going to speak poorly of McDavid here, but he hasn’t proved himself as an actual leader yet. No one expected the Oilers to win the cup this season, but this was just embarrassing. Even Steven A Smith agrees with that. After being up 4–1 with 9 minutes left in the 3rd, the Oilers blew it. The game went to OT, and with the heroics of Nikolaj Ehlers in his first game back in a month, the Jets all of sudden took a 3–0 series lead over the higher-seeded Edmonton Oilers.
Game 4 was where I thought the Oilers would redeem themselves by at least stealing one from the Jets, but the hockey gods had different plans in mind. The game was very tight the whole way through, and it going to triple OT didn’t help. If it was a game 6 or 7 this game would’ve been seen a lot differently, but in this situation, it just became a snooze fest. Both teams locked up defensively, but a turnover from McDavid led to an outlet pass to Kyle Connor, who wristed it past Mike Smith to end the series. This ended an embarrassing season for the Oilers. I don’t care if your top 2 players get 189 points in 56 games if you can’t win a single playoff game against the NHL’s coldest team heading into the playoffs.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, McDavid was disappointing this series. He was a point per game, yes. 3 of those points were secondary assists, however. It should be known that his 1.875 points per game in the regular season weren’t going to keep up in the playoffs, especially against the best goalie in the world. I still thought he had more to offer this year in the playoffs. Darnell Nurse was also very disappointing. Besides him playing the 3rd most time in an NHL game ever (62:07) in game 4, the pairing of him and Barrie wasn’t very good to me. I’ve never liked them in their own end, and when they aren’t producing offensively they’re basically just logging minutes and having a negative defensive impact. I really hope Edmonton doesn’t overpay for Barrie this offseason, but with all of the cap space they have this offseason I feel like they will. Mike Smith became more human this postseason, but he still played solid for them. I think that he was at the most fault for the blown 4–1 lead, but that’s the only game that should be pinned on him here. You can’t imagine that he does this again next year, can you?
I think Scheifele was good in this series. I still don’t think that’s he’s the best forward on the Jets, but he did his job very well. Because I did it for McDavid’s secondary assists, Scheifele had 2 empty net points and a secondary assist, but I thought he played very well all series. He’s going to have to play that good, maybe better, if he wants to help Winnipeg get to the final 4 however. Josh Morrissey proved me wrong here. I thought he had a really bad year for the Jets, but I honestly really liked him in this series. He did his part in shutting down the Oilers' stars, and he averaged a point per game while doing it. Like Scheifele, he’ll have to be really good for the Jets in round 2 if they want a chance. Nikolaj Ehlers only played two games, but his impact was felt immediately. He scored 2 goals on Winnipegs way to complete the 4–1 comeback, including the OT winner. Ehlers is very very good, and he’s a very important player for the Jets. I don’t know if they win game 3 or 4 without him. Hellebuyck was his usual self, just posting insane numbers against two of the best offensive players in the NHL. Winnipeg will go as far as Hellebuyck takes them, and something tells me he isn’t going to be happy with just a second-round appearance.
For a lot of people saying special teams aren’t a big deal in the playoffs, every team that has lost so far has been much worse when it comes to their PP%. Weird. The Oilers came into the playoffs with the best powerplay in the regular season, but they weren’t able to capitalize enough against a somewhat defence lacking Winnipeg Jets. The Jets were able to take advantage of this by having a really good powerplay of their own. The Oilers did what they had to do by outshooting the Jets, but it wasn’t enough for them to consistently beat Hellebuyck more than Winnipeg was able to beat Smith, and showcased by both of their GFPG. It’ll be an interesting offseason for the Oilers, who have a lot of cap space to hopefully be able to finally surround McDavid with some decent talents, and maybe get a better blueline as well. The Jets will await the winner of Toronto vs Montreal, and if I were either of those teams, I would hate to go up against a more rested Winnipeg team.