Recap: Washington Capitals @ Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets deployed their new players when they faced off against the Washington Capitals on Monday evening, hoping they would give the team a boost after a real bad performance on the weekend. Let’s see if Toffoli and Miller made a difference..

Things didn’t start out promising as the Capitals got a quality scoring chance on their opening shift, but the Jets quickly took over the game with a relentless forecheck leading to numerous cycle shifts. All the forward units spent time in the offensive zone getting looks on Washington’s Lindgren as Winnipeg jumped out to an early 8-1 shot lead. In fact, the visitors only managed to spend one shift in the Jets’ end in the first half of the period, and that was due to a Winnipeg turnover at their own blueline. At the mid-point of the frame, Lowry was battling for the puck along the boards just inside the Caps’ zone and managed to free the puck to Appleton. The oft-criticized winger made a beautiful cross-ice pass to find Pionk pinching with a step on his defender. The defenseman skated into the slot before firing a puck far-side to beat Lindgren, giving Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at the 10:05 mark. The game evened out a bit after this with both squads getting looks (Toffoli’s first good chance as a Jet and Carlson & Ovechkin testing Bucky). Neither squad could light the lamp before the period ended, but the Jets had the edge in the 1st frame as the stats/shot chart below displays (6 medium-high danger shots to 3 and 6.5 minutes of o-zone time to 2).

First Period MoneyPuck Stats:  Score: 1 to 0 for the Jets, shots 12 to 5 for the Jets, 67% Deserve To Win for the Jets, Expected Goals – all situations (1.29-0.56 WPG), & 5 on 5 (1.29-0.56 WPG)

Washington almost tied the game up on the 2nd’s opening shift when Carlson had a chance on a point shot and then the follow up rebound attempt. Winnipeg took control after this, with Morrissey & Ehlers creating a bunch of scoring opportunities, including Fly ringing one off the post from the low slot. The 4th line had an excellent cycle shift netting them a couple good looks, but the best was a nice slot deflection by Perfetti that found iron instead of twine. The 2nd line of Iafallo-Monahan-Toffoli followed up by buzzing around the Caps’ zone and finally were rewarded when Morrissey let a point shot go with both Toffoli & Iafallo providing screens. Thinking that may not be enough to beat Lindgren for a second time, Iafallo opted to…