The Vegas Golden Knights did their homework and tied the series up at 1-1. The series is now heading to the province of Manitoba. The Winnipeg Jets will want to use a home-ice advantage and take Game Three.
What should fans expect from the Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets?
As the last match was really mind-blowing, we all can hope the quality won’t drop. If you are a fan of the Jets or the Golden Knights or an unbiased observer, you want to see another game like the last one.
Key to victory – Winnipeg Jets
I feel like everybody sees the Jets playing at their peak. Even the coaching staff knows. Don’t get me wrong, they had two wonderful performances, but there is nothing more you can expect from this group.
So again, they need to keep doing what they are doing. From now on, Winnipeg has to hope Vegas will repeat the game one performance (ideally thrice); otherwise, the Jets are done.
The only thing that can make the Jets at least slightly better is Nikolaj Ehlers coming back, but his status is still day-to-day.
We will see them playing all-in, putting their hearts in every time, but with Vegas playing what they are capable of, the balanced matches are the most we can ask Winnipeg’s players for.
Key to victory – Vegas Golden Knights
Consistency is the key. I think even Vegas players were surprised with themselves after game one. The feedback was not nice, and they put things together. If they can put 30 shots on the net and their goalie won’t have a terrible match, I see every game going to Vegas.
This might be a sad ending for the Jets fanbase, but even if Vegas has another bad game, you cannot expect them to have another three bad matches. It is not happening, as Vegas has a better team.
Projected lineups
The line combinations listed below are according to Shawn P. Roarke.
Winnipeg Jets
Kyle Connor – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Mark Scheifele
Nino Niederreiter – Vladislav Namestnikov – Blake Wheeler
Morgan Barron – Adam Lowry – Mason Appleton
David Gustafsson – Kevin Stenlund – Saku Maenalanen
Josh Morrissey – Dylan DeMelo
Brenden Dillon – Neal Pionk
Dylan Samberg – Nate Schmidt
Connor Hellebuyck
David Rittich
Injured: Cole Perfetti, Nikolaj Ehlers
Vegas Golden Knights
Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Jonathan Marchessault
Reilly Smith – William Karlsson – Phil Kessel
Mike Amadio – Chandler Stephenson – Mark Stone
Brett Howden – Nicolas Roy – Keegan Kolesar
Alec Martinez – Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague – Zach Whitecloud
Laurent Brossoit
Jonathan Quick
Injured: Logan Thompson, William Carrier