Following last night's win in Nashville, the Jets flew home Sunday in preparation for Game Six on Monday. Read More
CLOSE Ivan Santamaria and Deborah Glenn Powers, aka GMA, stop for a chance to cheer on the Predators before Game 5. Autumn Allison, USA TODAY NETWORK- Tennessee
Nashville Predators center Nick Bonino (13) and goaltender Pekka Rinne (35) defend against Winnipeg Jets center Andrew Copp (9) during the second period of Game 5 of the second round NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bridgestone Arena, Saturday, May 5, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / Tennessean.com)
It was 25 minutes of Nashville domination with nothing to show for it, then another one of those second-period Winnipeg flurries with the Predators collapsing and the Jets crushing.
Kind of like Game 1. Kind of like Game 3. But Game 5 was its own special kind of misery in Bridgestone Arena, which could not have been more primed Saturday night for the series-defining victory that ended up in the hands of the other team.
More: Predators teetering on edge of elimination after blowout Game 5 loss to Jets
The Jets got loose, as they’ll do if you let them, and put four goals on the board in less than 10 minutes in the second. There would be no ensuing drama — Winnipeg rolled from there to a 6-2 stunner to go up 3-2 in the Western Conference semifinals. The Jets are home Monday with a promising opportunity to advance and to end the Predators’ season well short of expectations.
"It's going to be awesome," said Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who kept his team even in the first period despite waves of Nashville chances. "Our home fans have been waiting for this for a while."
Of course, every game of this series has departed significantly from its predecessor, leaving us at this point to simply wait and see what’s next without preconceived notions. The Predators came apart in humiliating fashion in Game 5. Pekka Rinne was pulled early in the third for Juuse Saros, a mercy move more than anything because everything in front of Rinne was going wrong.
But the Predators aren’t technically done until they’re done. They need a road win Monday to force a Game 7, back home Thursday. The Nashville locker room could not produce a solid explanation for what had just happened late Saturday night, but it did produce some bold words about the next game.
CLOSE P.K. Subban was adamant that the Nashville Predators were "going go to Winnipeg, win a game and come back here' to complete the series. Autumn Allison, USA TODAY NETWORK- Tennessee
"We're going to go there, we're going to win a game, we're going to come back here," said Preds defenseman P.K. Subban, who uttered that sentiment three straight times, regardless of the questions that came at him. "It's that simple."
Need some manufactured sunshine to go with that semi-guarantee? Nashville was the NHL’s best road team in the regular season. The Predators have been better in hostile environments than their own this postseason — 3-2 away, 3-3 at home, after they went 9-2 in Bridgestone a year ago on the way to the Stanley Cup Final. They stifled the Jets in Game 4 at MTS Bell Place, 2-1, to set up the opportunity they just squandered. The home team in this series is 2-3.
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Those are the numbers that give hope. There are others that make it seem slim. Stanley Cup playoff history tells us teams that win Game 5 of a tied series go on to win it 79 percent of the time. Nashville Predators playoff history tells us they have never won a series that they trailed 2-1 — they are 0-9 all-time and one loss away from making it 0-10. Not that either of those historical trends necessarily apply to this, the best Predators team in franchise history.
Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne (35) stands near the bench in the second period of Game 5 of the second round NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bridgestone Arena, Saturday, May 5, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: George Walker IV / Tennessean.com)
It’s a team that has always answered when absolutely necessary and now must do so twice to overcome Winnipeg. The numbers that really sting after this one are as follows — 26 shots on Rinne and six past him. Just like in Game 3, the defense in front of him was disastrous. The Predators needed him to bail them out once things started going sideways, and he couldn’t do it.
"We're giving them way too much, too many great chances," said Nashville captain Roman Josi, the leader of a defense corps that has not played nearly as well as needed overall through five games. "Tonight you saw it again, the goals, they're all like backdoor, empty net, rebounds in front of the net. I mean, they're a dangerous team, they're going to get their chances, but we've got to make sure we stay calm. ... There's no panic. We know what we have to do. There's no panic in the room."
More: 5-year-old with new heart lives out dream by tossing catfish on ice at Predators game
So let’s review. The Predators dominated the territorial battle at home in Game 1, outshooting the Jets 48-19, and lost largely because Hellebuyck outplayed Rinne. The Jets played better in Game 2, overcame deficits three times, forced overtime with 65 seconds left in regulation, but lost on a swooping Kevin Fiala goal. The Predators rolled to a 3-0 lead in Game 3 at Winnipeg, lost that lead in less time than it takes to spell Byfuglien without cheating, and ultimately fell 7-4 in a cloud of ill-timed penalties.
Winnipeg Jets center Mathieu Perreault (85) celebrates his goal with Winnipeg Jets left wing Nikolaj Ehlers (27) who got the assist during the third period of Game 5 of the second round NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bridgestone Arena, Saturday, May 5, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: George Walker IV / Tennessean.com)
Peter Laviolette made a surprise move for Game 4, sitting Fiala and putting Scott Hartnell in his place. Nashville gummed up the Jets, turned them to paper airplanes, and Rinne did the rest to even things. Laviolette switched back for Game 5, Hartnell out and Fiala in. Fiala was flying around and the return of an end-to-end game seemed to suit the Predators. Until it really, really didn’t.
"We played hockey not too much after that," Laviolette said of the second-period takeover.
Also in the second, Yannick Weber ripped one past Hellebuyck after a neutral-zone takeaway and Ryan Johansen scored short-handed, or the third period would have been meaningless. As it was, Mark Scheifele took a pass from Kyle Connor and got an easy one past Rinne 32 seconds into the third with Johansen and Subban crossed up on a 2-on-2. That killed the idea of any late dramatics.
Nashville Predators left wing Kevin Fiala (22) moves the puck in the second period of Game 5 of the second round NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bridgestone Arena, Saturday, May 5, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / Tennessean.com)
I wouldn’t go so far as to say Laviolette erred and cost his team. If the Predators cash in early this might be a totally different kind of game. His magical touch lost some zing, though. Stylistically, the first 25 minutes was the game the Predators employed to win their first Central Division and the Presidents' Trophy. But Hartnell’s brutish touch around the boards seemed to be a source of inspiration in Game 4.
In every inch of Bridgestone other than on the ice, this was a championship effort. Well, except Lady Antebellum botching the lyrics to the national anthem. Blame them if you like. Otherwise, the place was perfectly primed on a rainy Cinco de Mayo on Broadway. Catfish flew. Scott Hamilton got the towels waving. The noise was plentiful and, as always, real.
At least the people who love the Predators can say they did all they could. The Predators sure couldn't. But one of them is now on record that they're going to find a way to make it so Saturday wasn’t the last home gathering until next fall.
Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.
NASHVILLE – There are two kinds of hockey players at this time of year.
“Sometimes guys get scared of the moment,” Paul Stastny says. “Some guys just go and play.”
Truth be told, we weren’t certain which category to slot Kyle Connor.
Then Saturday happened.
Heading into the biggest game in Winnipeg Jets history until the next one, Winnipeg’s top-line super rookie had yet to score in nine post-season outings.
A 28-day drought can make 31 goals in the regular season seem like a distant memory. Sure, Connor had four assists and a few nice plays, but there have been several games where he’s been restricted to the perimeter. Linemates Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele were doing all the heavy lifting.
Coach Paul Maurice recently suggested the left winger may have been snubbed by the writers who did not elect Connor as one of the Calder Trophy finalists.
“You score 30 goals as a rookie, though, you think you’d like to be in there,” Maurice said. “I didn’t vote on it. Whoever did, you can answer that one.”
But Connor’s whisper of an individual performance as the physicality and pressure escalated wasn’t exactly making voters look foolish.
“It’s a tighter series,” Maurice defended.
Winning masks all.
“I don’t lose sleep,” Connor says. “The bottom line is team success. If you score as a line, it’s just as good. If the team is winning, everybody’s happy.”
And so, the 21-year-old has been holding his head high even as his conversion rate plummeted.
“Just a matter of time. Keep shooting,” the kid would say, often. “You have to trust your skill, trust your work ethic. For me, if it’s not going in, I just try to work even harder. Results will come if you keep working.”
The dam broke in Nashville.
The Jets won 6-2 and can now eliminate the defending Western Conference champs on home ice. Connor snapped a game-high six shots, scored twice, and added an assist prettier than all of that.
After a monster second period for the visitors, Nashville needed to push in the third.
Instead, Wheeler sprung Scheifele for a rush not 30 seconds into the final frame. Connor, a straight-line skater, zipped into the 2-on-2 rush.
Noticing one of the defenders was actually a forward, Ryan Johansen, Scheifele drew the D-man and dished to Connor, who dusted Johansen with a between-the-legs dangle coming soon to a highlight show near you. (Connor would later admit he didn’t know it was Johansen he beat until Scheifele told him on the bench.)
Needing to respect the kid with the hat trick on his stick, Pekka Rinne had no chance when Connor slipped a quick pass back to Scheifele for his third point on the night.
“He has got a ton of confidence in himself. He’s scored goals his whole life. Good for him,” Wheeler says.
“He’s a young player used to putting the puck in the net, and when it doesn’t happen right away in your first taste of playoff action, it can be tough to stay with it. His confidence hasn’t wavered a bit.”
Wheeler and Maurice both pointed to a little dart and deke Connor made early in the game to get a shot off as an indication that he was dialed in.
“You can play not to make mistakes, that’s fine. We all want to play smart hockey,” Maurice said. “But those kind of players, your really highly skilled guys, have to have a certain amount of [confidence] in their game.”
Funny. Connor didn’t even make this roster out of training camp. But after five points in four games with the AHL Moose, he was called up for good.
“It’s tough any time you don’t make a team,” he reflects. “You have to realize where you’re at. You can’t feel sorry for yourself, thinking, ‘I should be playing [in the NHL].’ ”
Getting dropped to Stastny’s second line for the bulk of games 3 and 4, Connor says, was a little uncomfortable. He was happy Maurice put him back where he’s familiar on Saturday.
“He’s really simple. Sheif and I know where he’s going to be on the ice. He’s very dependable, and like you see tonight, you get him in space, he can make some pretty great things happen,” Wheeler explains.
“That’s what’s made our line go this year. Scheif and I try to drive every shift, create time and space, and when we get him moving in those holes, he’s pretty dynamic.”
It speaks volumes about Winnipeg’s forward depth that a 31-goal man can wait until the 10th game of the post-season to light the lamp, that a 29-goal man (Nikolaj Ehlers) is still looking for his first, that Patrik Laine has yet to take over a game this series, and they’ve still chased Rinne twice and have all the Presidents’ men on the ropes.
“We have a certain way that we play, and that’s what you want,” Maurice asserts.
“It’s a hard-on-the-puck game. It’s like Kyle Connor’s game. We have to do some things with the puck. We can’t be afraid to make mistakes. That’s all you want.”
Wheeler says this team can score and star by rotation. One night it’s Connor Hellebuyck standing on his head, another it’s Laine shooting the light out. Maybe Ehlers goes off Monday.
As for Kyle Connor, who just kept shooting?
“Tonight,” Wheeler says, “it was his turn.”
“I’m man enough to admit that I cried,” said Austin Kitchens, 24, who had just completed his junior year of high school when the Thrashers moved.
His friends joke that he is a northerner living in the South, loving hockey as he does. Heading into that first season without the Thrashers, Kitchens tried not to like the Jets. He was jealous that Winnipeg could cheer for his team, for his players. Then he started scanning message boards and watching preseason games on the internet and following Jets reporters on social media and traveling to Nashville and Tampa, Fla., for games.
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Over the Jets’ seven seasons, Kitchens estimated, he has missed maybe a dozen games on television. Whitlock has rarely missed a game on TV or radio since he re-engaged with hockey after a few years of indifference. He often works nights, setting up events, which is conducive to the later start times of Jets games, but he tries to watch with Claire — born on a Jets off-day, naturally — because Winnipeg tends to win when she does. Except for that double-overtime loss at Nashville in Game 2.
“She fell asleep,” said Whitlock, turning to Claire. “Don’t worry — it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault.”
Whitlock hopes she will grow up to love the Jets as much as he does, which is even more than he loved the Thrashers. Hockey, fast-paced and physical, appealed to him more than football or baseball ever did. When the Thrashers left, he missed having a rooting interest.
“I felt kind of like a guy without a soul, you know?” Whitlock said.
The thought of adopting a perennial contender, like Chicago or Pittsburgh, repulsed him. So did switching to Nashville, the team closest to Atlanta. The Predators capitalized on the void by offering weekend ticket packages to abandoned Thrashers fans. They included discounted hotel rates and a gas card, and Nat Harden, the senior vice president for tickets and youth hockey, said the Predators sold almost 150 packages.
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One went to David Pugliese, 58, a former Thrashers season-ticket holder from Milton, Ga., who said the team’s departure topped the list of disappointments in his life. Pugliese attended several Predators playoff games last year and drove up for Game 5 Saturday in Nashville against the franchise he once supported.
“I think it would be much weirder if it was the same roster, but the roster has changed so much,” said Pugliese, noting that only five players on the Jets were part of the Thrashers organization. “There’s really no mixed emotions.”
Had Matt McReynolds, 26, followed his impulse, he, too, might have changed his allegiance. Angry at the league and at Commissioner Gary Bettman, who he felt did not do enough to keep the Thrashers in Atlanta, McReynolds tried cheering for Nashville. It felt strange, artificial.
In 2012, about halfway through the Jets’ first season back in Winnipeg, McReynolds had his left shoulder tattooed with the Thrashers’ logo. Gradually he began watching the Jets again, sucked in by players he liked who were now wearing a new insignia on their chests.
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“Now,” he said, “it’s pretty much my kid, my wife and Jets hockey.”
As a hockey fan in Georgia, McReynolds already felt isolated and lonely; he has never met another Jets fan that he did not convert to the team himself. It seemed natural to devote himself to a team in a city he has never visited, that plays in an arena whose smells and sounds and sights he cannot conjure.
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Once, he said, a customer at a Publix supermarket in Conyers, Ga., where McReynolds lives, spotted him wearing Jets gear and called him a traitor. When Whitlock wears his Jets hat, with a fighter jet atop a red maple leaf, people ask why he supports the Canadian air force. When he wears his Thrashers hat, with a bird gripping a hockey stick, people ask whether it’s a skateboarding company.
Without that kinship, Kitchens said, rooting for the Jets feels like a private endeavor.
“You’re not about to go to work and say, ‘How about those Jets last night?’ ” said Kitchens, a union pipe fitter from Stockbridge, Ga. “They’d be like, ‘Who?’ ”
Lipman had long wanted to visit Winnipeg. Seeking a more communal experience, he booked airfare and a hotel room for the Jets’ playoff opener before the regular season ended, betting that they would secure home-ice advantage in the first round against Minnesota.
To score a ticket to Game 1, Lipman, an interventional radiologist, cold-called another one in Winnipeg, Brian Hardy, and presented his bona fides: a Thrashers season-ticket holder with a closet full of Jets jerseys who watches practically every game on his laptop or phone.
A day later, Hardy invited Lipman to sit with him and his family, but on one condition: that Lipman give grand rounds at the hospital. For the occasion, Lipman wore a navy Jets jersey — his dress blues, he said — and in a show of gratitude, was presented with a trove of Jets paraphernalia.
“I got all kinds of nice Winnipeg booty,” Lipman said.
An unopened Jacob Trouba bobblehead sat behind the bar in his basement, where Lipman watched Game 3 on Tuesday on a television topped by another bobblehead, that of Jets center Mark Scheifele. From his seat in the arena, Hardy called Lipman on FaceTime, letting him absorb the pregame atmosphere.
His blazer long discarded, draped over an easy chair, Lipman agonized as Nashville scored the first three goals (you’ve gotta have that!), rejoiced as Winnipeg scored the next four (that’s more like it!) and kicked the coffee table when the Predators equalized in the third period.
With six minutes remaining, he rose from the couch to wave his “We Are Winnipeg” rally towel and rub the Scheifele bobblehead for good luck. A minute later, a Scheifele shot caromed to Blake Wheeler — a former Thrasher — whose snipe from a sharp angle proved the winning goal in a 7-4 victory.
With Winnipeg one win from the conference finals, a playoff round neither incarnation of the franchise has reached, Lipman was thinking about his next potential trips — to Las Vegas, maybe, with his son, Jonathan, if the Golden Knights also advance.
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But, really, he wants to return to Winnipeg, to revel with fans who lost their beloved team and grieved its absence and are now celebrating the best hockey they’ve ever seen. People dressed in white but dreaming of silver, of the Stanley Cup, just like him.
