CENTRAL CLASH HAS THE MAKINGS OF AN NHL CLASSIC
Jets, Predators set for battle after dominant regular seasons, writes Paul Friesen.
No NHL playoff series has absolutely everything. But the Winnipeg-Nashville clash in Round 2 promises to come close.
As the Central Division foes took turns having at each other during the regular season — five games with an average of eight goals in each — fans and pundits alike took to social media to say, “More of this in the playoffs, please.” Your wish, hockey world, is their command. “You’ve got one and two playing each other in the second round,” Jets defenceman Tyler Myers said Monday. “We know a lot of people were wanting this series and were very excited about it. Players are too.” What about this matchup makes it must-see TV?
Let’s count the ways.
The regular season says these
■ are the top two teams in the NHL. OK, so the regular season has been known to tell the occasional bald-faced lie. For now, we believe it.
“The teams are pretty evenly matched,” Myers said. “It’s going to come down to who handles it the best and who wants to win more.”
Both teams are among the
■
NHL’s top 10 in scoring, the Jets ranked second, the Predators at No. 8.
But it’s not like hockey purists will throw up their hands in disgust at the lack of defence. They’ve got that covered, too: Nashville ranked second in goals against, Winnipeg fifth.
It’s that defensive pressure that causes all hell to break loose on offence.
“They’re high-event games,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said, “because something is happening all the time. They’re either very physical, really fast, great saves — neither team is passive in how they play.”
It sounds like even the coaches are giddy at the entertainment possibilities.
“The easy nights to coach, you know exactly what’s happening with the puck and why and where everybody is on the ice,” Maurice said. “The change of possession in these games and the opportunities off those changes in possession are as fast as you’ll see.” Sounds like a coach’s nightmare. “You end up looking at the floor a lot in this series, trying to figure out what happened,” Maurice said, referring to the replay screens built into the bench. “They’re more fun. There’s just more energy. There’s something going every faceoff. You’ve gotta be on from the time the puck drops against Nashville right straight through.”
The series features two of the
■ three Vezina Trophy finalists in the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck and Nashville’s Pekka Rinne. That’s right, all those forced turnovers and all that offence will still have Hellebuyck and Rinne to contend with. These may be the two loudest
■ buildings in the league.
The Jets had the NHL’s best home record this season, an astonishing 32-7-2, and it’s not because downtown Winnipeg was too great a temptation for visiting players. Nashville was fine at home, but get this: the Preds had the league’s best road record at 25-9-7. Something ’s gotta give. “Both barns are going to be very hostile,” Myers said. “They’re going to be feeding off their crowd. We’re definitely going to be feeding off ours. It’s going to be fun to be a part of.” What’s the one thing you need
■ to make a great story? A villain, of course.
This series just happens to have one on each team. Preds defenceman P.K. Subban has been despised by some of his own teammates, never mind what mayhem he’ll cause when he introduces himself to Mark Scheifele for the dozenth time. “I wouldn’t say we’re focusing too much on one guy,” Myers said. He was the last time these teams faced each other, dropping his gloves, grabbing two handfuls of jersey and pinning Subban to the glass after his run-in with the Jets’ star centre.
On the other blue-line is Dustin Byfuglien, who’s one thundering bodycheck away from being the most hated man in Nashville.
“Yeah, it may not be a friendly series,” Maurice said. “Who knows?”
Neither team is a one-line
■ wonder. In fact, there’s only one player from either team in the NHL’s top 30 individual scorers: the Jets’ Blake Wheeler with 91 points.
So this isn’t a case of shut down
■ one line and you win the series. Both teams will throw four lines at each other.
Still not convinced?
The Preds have the league’s most offensively inclined blueline, led by the combined 112 points from Subban and Roman Josi. The Jets have the league’s No. 1 power-play sniper in Patrik Laine (20 goals), whose 44 goals overall was second only to Alex Ovechkin.
On special teams, get a load of this stat: the two combined for 19 short-handed goals this season. So what’s not to like?
We’ll leave the last word on this matchup to a first-year player. “It just brings out the best in both of us,” the Jets’ Kyle Connor said.
Here’s hoping.