Topped With Walnuts

Somewhere in the middle of that scrum of Winnipeg Jets is Paul Stastny. Stastny, affectionately known as "Pauly Walnuts", scored the overtime game-winning goal tonight against the Edmonton Oilers that will send the Jets back home with a 2-0 lead over the Oilers with a chance to wrap up the series by Monday night if they can win the next two games of the series. For a team that struggled to find any way to stop the Oilers this season, this is the one scenario that no one expected.

To say that the Jets coming home up up two games on the Oilers is a surprise would be an understatement. I think a lot of fans hoped for a split based on the way Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl destroyed the Jets this season, but the reality was that the Oilers had won seven of nine regular season games so there wasn't a lot of joy in Winnipeg when it came to this first-round matchup.

Tonight, the city of Winnipeg is in "party mode" after Paul Stastny's shot found twine behind Mike Smith in overtime to give the Jets the 1-0 overtime win and a 2-0 series lead. How is this being down after both teams have scored just four goals (plus two empty-net goals) in this series? Let's take a deeper look.

McDavid By Committee

I had mentioned on Twitter that I was hoping the Jets would "Esa Tikkanen" Connor McDavid in this series; that is, find a player who can skate with him and just attach him to McDavid's hip no matter where McDavid went. A few people on Twitter came back and said they liked the idea, but wanted to see one player from each line do that job as opposed to assigning one player to him as I had suggested.

Not gonna lie: I didn't think the Jets had enough players who could effectively check McDavid based on how 97 carved up the Jets all season. It was ugly at times, to be blunt.

Instead, they've not only proven me wrong, but shown that a vast number of Jets have bought into the idea that gap control on McDavid and Draisaitl is good for their success. At no time in this series has McDavid or Draisaitl been able to operate without a Jets player stalking them, and the end result is that both players have gone pointless in the opening two games of this series despite Edmonton controlling the line matchups with the home-team advantage.

That gap control has been impressive as players that normally don't play an overly-physical game - Morrissey, Perreault, Appleton, DeMelo - have all become thorns in the sides of McDavid and Draisaitl with physical play and a relentless pestering of the stars. In having the Jets collectively bother Edmonton's two biggest stars, the scoring has been left to the Oilers' depth, and it's pretty clear that they're not going to hurt the Jets as much as 97 and 29 would. As a result, the Oilers have just one goal through two games on home ice, and they lose the matchup game they wanted to exploit as they move to Winnipeg.

Winnipeg is putting on a clinic thus far in demonstrating a death by a thousand checks to opposing star players.

The Connor We Know

There was some concern towards the end of the season that the most-played goalie and the most overworked goalie in the league may have been tiring down the stretch as Connor Hellebuyck looked human during the Jets' losing streak to close out the season.

Hellebuyck played in a league-high 45 games this season, amassing 2602:49 between the pipes, as the goalie who stood in the blue paint most often. He faced 98 more shots than second-place Andrei Vasileskiy, so there was some concern that after another season where Hellebuyck was relied on a little too foten that he might be slowing down heading into the playoffs.

We should probably start believing Hellebuyck when he says he feels fine because he's looked unbeatable in the first two games of this series. Hellebuyck has stopped 70 of 71 shots, has yet to be in "scramble mode" to deny shooters, and appears to be seeing the puck easily through traffic. Since Jesse Puljujarvi scored at 8:24 of the second period of Game One, Hellebuyck has stopped 59-straight shots, so the goalie is certainly on his game.

As captain Blake Wheeler noted in the post-game press conference, "He's the reason we have a chance."

There's no qualifier needed on that statement - Hellebuyck's play has not only given Winnipeg a chance in each game, but a chance to win this series where they were thought to be heavy underdogs.

An Unsung Hero

Every year, the playoffs allow for players to write a fun narrative about their own careers. Heroes are found on the fourth-line, the unheralded defenceman makes a play that saves a game or season, and backup goalies become the stuff of legend with big wins. We don't have any goalie stories here yet, but the first two stories have been written in the first two games of the series.

Dominic Toninato, a player who was supposed to be a veteran signing for the Manitoba Moose, grabbed some spotlight in Game One with his deflection that beat Mike Smith to put the Jets up 2-1 in an eventual 4-1 victory. Toninato, for the record, played in just two AHL games with the Moose and just three NHL regular season games with the Jets this season, and now he has one of two game-winners for the Jets this post-season.

Toninato earned a spot on the playoff roster after looking like the Energizer Bunny in the final few games for the Jets as he was recalled to fill a few injury spots for the Jets. He's clearly made an impact after it looked like his season was going to be derailed by a positive COVID-19 result in November, and now he's making the best of his moment after scoring a huge goal in Game One.

If the Jets are going to win this series and advance deep into the playoffs, their depth players have to be factors in the scoring. Players like Dominic Toninato, Nate Thompson, and Trevor Lewis are going to have to find the scoresheet occasionally, and Toninato's goal on Wednesday was a big one for the Jets in their quest to advance.

Defence Wins Championships

Sometimes, a player gets heralded for a play that doesn't show up on the scoresheet, and defenceman Dylan DeMelo gets that nod after his ridiculous arm save on Connor McDavid to preserve the 0-0 tie in the third period tonight. DeMelo, who was flat on his back on the right side of the crease after battling in front of the net, threw his arms up in the air with McDavid staring at an open net, and DeMelo's forearm made the save during the frenzy in front of the Jets' net.

DeMelo's known as a defensive defenceman - he hasn't scored a goal since playing with Ottawa in the 2018-19 season - and his work on McDavid and Draisaitl in the first two games of this series has been exceptional in keeping those two off the scoresheet. Again, you won't see DeMelo get credit in the stats or appear on many highlight reels for the save, but he likely made the biggest stop of the series thus far in keeping that puck out of the net. If McDavid had scored there, it's 1-0 Edmonton late in the game and the series could be tied at 1-1.

"Honestly, it was just pure chaos and desperation," DeMelo said after the game. "I just put my hands up and luckily it hit me."

Thanks to that luck, the Jets head home up 2-0 because of an unlikely hero putting himself in harm's way. When players talk about sacrificing the body in the playoffs, that's the kind of play they mean.

Is It 2018 Again?

I'll finish this examination off by crediting Paul Stastny for another big goal while centering the second line for the Winnipeg Jets. His overtime marker tonight was the difference in the 1-0 game, and it's another big moment for Stastny while with the Jets.

Let's not forget that Stastny centered the second line in 2018 when the Jets advanced to the Western Conference Final, and he was a force in the series against the Nashville Predators playing alongside Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers. Stastny scored the game-winner in Game Seven against the Predators that year, scoring 14 points in 12 games to that point in the playoffs that year, so his legend with the Jets was already pretty lofty without tonight's heroics.

Instead, Stastny added another chapter to his Jets story with a seeing-eye shot that eluded Mike Smith to give Stastny his first goal of the playoffs, but, more importantly, his goal moves Winnipeg one step closer to moving on to the North Division Final.

As shown above, the Jets are getting the most out of every player on the roster right now, and it's a large reason why they're up 2-0 in the series despite scoring just three goals with Mike Smith in the net. From the buy-in on checking McDavid and Draisaitl all over the ice to the depth players stepping up, from the lucky plays in keeping pucks out of their net to the lucky plays that have seen pucks go into the Edmonton net, I'll credit Paul Maurice and his staff because the preparation they did to get the Jets for Edmonton has worked perfectly thus far.

The series isn't over, though, so there's nothing to celebrate yet. With games in Winnipeg on Sunday and Monday, there's a chance for the Jets to do something they've never done in sweeping the Edmonton Oilers out of the playoffs, but no one is putting the cart before horse here. The Jets still need 120 minutes of solid hockey like they played in the first two games before they can put a feather in their caps.

See you Sunday, Edmonton. Bring your A-game.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!