The Winnipeg Jets had a chance to punch their ticket to the second round in Friday’s Game 6 against the St. Louis Blues at the Enterprise Center, but got mostly punched around — allowing four goals in quick succession in the second — to eventually lose 5-2.
Here, we’ll dive into five takeaways from the disappointing contest.
1: Jets Got Off to a Slow Start
The Jets didn’t exactly get off to the ideal start for a team looking to close out a series and didn’t look like they had any momentum after their 5-3 Game 5 victory. Connor Hellebuyck allowed a goal on the first shot he faced and the Jets only mustered two shots on Jordan Binnington in the entire first period. They also ran into penalty trouble, giving up a pair of power plays the Blues generated some good looks on.
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Due to a combination of some solid saves by Hellebuyck and a bit of luck on a goal-line scramble during the Blues’ second power play, the Jets managed to enter the first intermission trailing by only one.
2: Hellebuyck Unravelled Badly in Second
Hellebuyck, who had two disastrous starts in St. Louis in Games 3 and 4 where he allowed a combined 11 goals and got yanked in each, completely unraveled in the second period in an eerily-similar fashion after it seemed like finally had things sorted out.
After Cole Perfetti scored on the power play to tie the game 1-1, the Jets were pushing hard for the go-ahead goal and Hellebuyck had seemed to settle in. However, he then gave up four goals in just 5:23, to Nathan Walker, Brayden Schenn, Cam Fowler, and Alexey Toropchenko in that order. Schenn’s 3-1 goal, just 53 seconds after Walker’s go-ahead marker, was of the especially-weak variety and visibly deflated the Jets. They were out of structure from there and Hellebuyck got the hook once again after the second.
Hellebuyck gave up four goals on 15 shots in the frame and his unravelling rendered the third period basically meaningless. The “narrative” that he folds in the postseason seems to just be a stone-cold, undeniable reality by this point. The Vezina and Hart Trophy nominee’s numbers — an ugly 4.42 goals against average (GAA), terrible .815 save percentage (SV%), and negative-10.6 goals saved above average.
His numbers in six-and-a-half periods in St. Louis are even worse: a 7.24 GAA, .758 SV%, and 16 goals against. Not every goal has been his fault, of course, but the fact he continues to be not even close to average for an NHL goaltender in this series is confounding.
It’s hard to see how head coach Scott Arniel can justify going with Hellebuyck for the deciding Game 7 in Winnipeg Sunday. He needs to strongly consider starting Eric Comrie, who has stopped 12 of 13 in three mop-up appearances.
3: Blues Continue to Be Unbeatable at Home
The Blues are absolutely beastly at Enterprise Center and have now won 15-straight there. Their last home loss came when they fell to the Jets 4-3 in a shootout on Feb. 22 in the first game out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
Give the Blues’ fans a ton of credit: they’ve been loud since puck drop on Game 3 (17 goals in three games never hurt an atmosphere, to be fair) and have made it a really hostile place for opponents to play.
4: Ehlers and Vilardi Didn’t Have Much Impact
Nikolaj Ehlers returned to the lineup after missing the final two games of the regular season and first five games of the series due to a lower-body injury, while Gabriel Vilardi played in his second game of the series after missing 15 games with an upper-body injury.
The duo combined for 51 goals in the regular season, but neither had much impact as they were both held off the scoresheet and limited to a combined five shots. Ehlers did have one good chance on a two-on-one in the second when the game was tied 1-1, but Binnington bested him.
5: Jets One Loss Away From Third-Straight First-Round Exit
The Jets enjoyed a historic Presidents’ Trophy-winning season and captured a franchise-record 56 wins, but it all could be pretty meaningless. Considering they crashed out of the playoffs early in 2023 and 2024, it was obvious this campaign was going to be judged a success or a failure solely on their playoff performance, not on anything they did before.
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The Jets have not played nearly as well in this series as they did in the regular season, similar to 2023 against the Vegas Golden Knights and in 2024 against the Colorado Avalanche. With their failure to take care of business in Game 6 and losers of three of the past four after winning Games 1 and 2, they are now just one loss away from a third-straight first-round exit.
If they cannot vanquish their playoff demons in Game 7 and advance to the second round, some serious questions are going to have to be asked about their core and about who might have to go.
Game 7 goes Sunday at Canada Life Centre. Puck drop is 6 p.m. CT.