JEts miss playoffs but scheifele reaches 100-point plateau
LAS VEGAS -- The Winnipeg Jets playoff hopes officially died in the desert on Monday night.
Most fans had already given up hope, but the Jets weren’t mathematically eliminated until news that the L.A. Kings had beaten the Seattle Kraken 5-3 in Seattle.
Then, when the final buzzer sounded at T-Mobile Arena here in Las Vegas, the Jets were on the short end of a 6-2 score as the Vegas Golden Knights started preparing for the playoffs and the Jets got set to finish the season with games in Utah on Tuesday and at home on Thursday.
On Monday night, Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele became the first member of Jets 2.0 to garner 100 points in a season when he picked up an assist in the third period and Gabriel Vilardi scored his 30th of the year, just about finished with the best season of his NHL career. But those were two rare bright spots in a very disappointing Jets campaign.
Despite his remarkable season, Scheifele was deeply disappointed in missing the playoffs.
“Yeah, it sucks,” said Scheifele, who had a goal and an assist on Monday night and now has 101 points and is tied for fifth in NHL scoring. “You know, we were pushing until the end and it's a tough reality.That's just the game of hockey.”
The other dressing room was much louder than Winnipeg’s and for good reason. Jack Eichel had a goal and three assists while Mark Stone had a goal and two assists as they led the Golden Knights to a decisive win at home. They looked like a team that was ready for the post-season.
Unlike the Jets, who now have to start building for next year.
“You know what, it's a terrible feeling,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “We said at the Olympic break when we had our chance to have our little mini-camp and kind of get ready for the stretch run, the final 29 games, we wanted to put everything we could into it. We went from 11 points down to one at one time.
“It's a tough feeling. I know the guys are hurting. We all want to be in the playoffs, that's what our job is and our role is. When you get the reality of missing the playoffs, it sucks.”
There was no scoring in the first period as the Jets played surprisingly well despite being outshot 10-3. Winnipeg simply doesn’t want to shoot the puck until they’ve made that last perfect pass and on Monday, despite some legitimate chances, Winnipeg either passed the puck too often or fired it high and wide.
Connor Hellebuyck stopped all 10 shots he faced but wasn’t really tested. The shots he faced were primarily from the perimeter and on almost all of them, he had a clear view.
The Jets also killed a couple of Vegas power plays.
Vegas opened the scoring shorthanded at 7:38 of the second period when Jack Eichel gathered up the puck at his own blueline and went in on a two-on-one with Mark Stone. Eichel fed a perfect pass to Stone who fired a shot that Hellebuyck seemed to corral, but it rolled off the Jets tender and dribbled across the goal line. It was Stone’s 28th of the season.
The Knights made it 2-0 at 18:56 of the second when Reilly Smith tipped a Noah Hanifin shot past Hellebuyck. It was Smith’s 14th of the season.
Vegas outshot Winnipeg 16-10 in the second period (26-13 after 40 minutes) and at times, Hellebuyck had to be a magician in the Jets net. Winnipeg, however, went zero-for-four on the power play and gave up a Vegas shorthanded goal so obviously, the power play was an issue.
The Jets season effectively ended on Saturday night after that 7-1 loss to Philadelphia, but the exclamation point was put on the disappointing campaign when Ivan Barbashev drilled the puck into a wide-open net at the 31 second mark of the final period. It was Barbashev’s 23rd of the year and it made the score 3-0 Vegas.
On the bright side, the Jets made it 3-1 at the 2:34 mark on the power play as Gabriel Vilardi scored his 30th of the year, redirecting a perfect pass from Colin Miller. Mark Scheifele also pick up an assist, his 66th of the season and his 100th point.
“I'm very blessed. I've played with some amazing players,” said Scheifele. “I'm a very blessed man. I've just got to thank God for it all. I'm proud of myself and I know there's still more, so that's exciting.
I'm very, very lucky to play with all of the players I play with. Josh Morrissey is a guy that does so much for this team that gets unrecognized. One of the best defensemen in the league. KC (Connor) is one of the best players in this league too. That's my boy and I'm very, very lucky to have him on my wing. Gaber (Vilardi), he's just getting better each and every year. Al (Iafallo), who obviously wasn't here. Missed him out there tonight. He sent me a nice text this morning. I'm very, very lucky and very blessed to play with the guys I play with.
But any thought of a comeback was short-lived as Rasmus Anderson scored at 3:37 to make it 4-1.
The Jets made it 4-2 when Scheifele scored at 4:41, banging home a loose puck to the side of Vegas netminder Carter Hart. It was Scheifele’s 36th of the year and his 101st point. Kyle Connor (52nd) and Gabriel Vilardi (37th) drew the assists.
But only a few minutes later, Scheifele high-sticked Anderson and took a four-minute double minor. During the double power play, the Knights got goals from Pavel Dorofeyev and Jack Eichel and that was all she wrote.
Carter Hart made 21 saves to get the win while Hellebuyck stopped 32 of the 38 he faced.
The Golden Knights are now 6-0-1 since Bruce Cassidy was fired as head coach and John Tortorella took over.
The Jets have two games remaining this season. They play in Utah on Tuesday night (8 p.m. CDT) and then come home to finish the season against San Jose at 7 p.m. at Canada Life Centre.
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