Hits have a purpose
If the players wore capes and masks, you might have mistaken Sunday's Game 1 between the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche for an old episode of Adam West's Batman . Thwack! Swoosh. Kapow!
The running play-by-play compiled by the league led with the opening faceoff, as it always does, and then the next six plays were a concert of violence.
Six hits, including Mikko Rantanen's on Josh Morrissey, Adam Lowry's on Cale Makar, Morrissey returning the favour on Rantanen, Zach Parise separating Lowry from the puck, Mason Appleton smacking Sean Walker, and then Lowry getting his lick on Walker, too.
All of that came within the first 25 seconds of the game.
Over the next 59:35, the thuds kept coming from the caped crusaders.
Lowry put Nathan Mackinnon on his posterior not long after, and then Brenden Dillon delivered one of the game's biggest hits on poor Walker, who had absorbed three in the first 3:22 of the game.
After 60 minutes, Winnipeg had edged out the Avs 7-6 in a wild affair. It was a minor miracle that everyone was still standing.
Both teams combined for 101 hits in the game.
“Everyone was grabbing ice packs and trying to get as much sleep as possible,” Dillon said on Tuesday morning ahead of Game 2.
There's a method to the madness. Physicality is a big part of a seven-game playoff series. There's gamesmanship to be had. There's a psychological battle at hand.
You want the team second-guessing whenever they enter a corner or come quickly through the neutral zone.
“You want to send a message that every shift is not going to be easy,” Dillon said. “You want them, at the end of the game, to be thinking, `Hey, that Dillon, he was tough that game.' “
Dillon's presence was certainly felt.
He had an early battle against Valeri Nichushkin in front of Connor Hellebuyck, both exchanging cross-checks and slashes. Others, too.
Lowry had a team-high six hits, and Vladislav Namestnikov may have rendered Miles Wood unconscious if he had drilled him on a near-miss between the blue lines in the second period.
“It's important to be physical at the right time,” Namestnikov said. Dillon agreed.
Ahead of Game 2, he was reeling himself back in. Maybe it was the adrenalin or the 15,225 clad in white, eager to see him send someone into a different dimension. “It's a different emotion,” Dillon said. “You're excited. You're fired up. It's hard to describe when you're there, and you're in it.
“But usually, when you do get excited or you get super emotional, that's when you're not thinking clearly. You're not thinking right.”
The Jets are a big, physical team. But they strayed from their game plan when they went hunting for violence, evidenced by being outshot 11-1 through the first half of the opening frame.
“Listen, it's a seven-game series and every chance you get, you've got to finish your checks,” head coach Rick Bowness said. “Does that mean you want to run all over the ice and hit them? Absolutely not. Don't want to chase the game.
“But when the opportunity is there to finish checks, they're doing it, we're doing it, every series is doing it. So, you're hoping as the series goes on that you're wearing guys down.
“Dilly's point is right: Don't go chasing the game, don't go running all over the ice. We want to get the structure back, we don't want to keep opening things up by running around going for big hits. But certainly, when it's there, you've got to take advantage of it. They are, and so are we.”
Given the toll it takes on the body, maybe the bigger question is whether both teams can keep up.
Let's just say Bowness doesn't expect it to slow down just yet.
“We have a two-day break after today,” he said. “So yeah, for the short-term, it will continue.”