3 things that led to the Jets' demise vs. Golden Knights

After taking out the Nashville Predators in a heated seven-game series in the second round, it seemed like a near formality that the Winnipeg Jets would cruise into the Stanley Cup Final.

There was just one problem, though - they met a determined Vegas club. After taking Game 1, the Jets were grounded by the Golden Knights in the final four games and ousted from the playoffs.

After such a promising campaign followed by two strong rounds in the postseason, the loss in the conference finals has, presumably, left an emptiness with the Jets and their fans. In the end, there were three main aspects that led to the team's downfall:

Goaltending

Entering the series, the goaltending battle was expected to be among the best in the playoffs. In one end, a Vezina Trophy nominee in Connor Hellebuyck, and in the other, the Conn Smythe Trophy front-runner Marc-Andre Fleury.

Game 1 was a bit of a wash with Hellebuyck coming out slightly ahead statistically, but from Game 2 to Game 5, it was quite clear that Fleury had the upper hand over his counterpart.

Fleury	Stat	Hellebuyck
4	GP	4
135	Shots Against	118
6	Goals Against	11
.956	SV%	.907
1.50	GAA	2.82

Overall, Fleury was by far the more tested goalie, facing 161 shots to Hellebuyck's 139. Fleury also faced a higher number of quality scoring chances and once again came out the victor against Hellebuyck.

Lack of secondary scoring

Now, while Hellebuyck might shoulder a lot of the blame for the Jets' exit, the fact is, many of the club's most dependable scorers also failed to get results.

Through five games, the Jets found the back of the net just 10 times, and among those, only six came at five-on-five. Meanwhile, Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine were the only Jets to score more than a single goal in the series, accounting for half of the team's production.

Further, Blake Wheeler, Mathieu Perreault, Paul Stastny, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Bryan Little all went goalless in the series (though Wheeler did record six assists). In all, only four forwards mustered a goal against the Golden Knights.

Entering the series, it was quite clear that the Golden Knights were up against a potent offense, the likes of which they had not encountered in the previous two rounds, but in the end, they were able to neutralize the Jets' most deadly weapons.

Golden Knights' opportunistic play

What was easily the most demoralizing part of the Golden Knights' attack was how opportunistic they were.

After Game 1 of the series, the Golden Knights clamped down on the Jets' offense, so much so that Winnipeg never held a lead at any point through the rest of the series. This was mainly due to the fact that on three separate occasions, Vegas quickly responded to a Jets goal by scoring one of their own less than 90 seconds later.

Game 2: Jets score, VGK responds in 88 seconds.
Game 3: Jets score, VGK responds in 12 seconds.
Game 4: Jets score, VGK responds in 43 seconds.

- Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) May 19, 2018

On top of that, the Jets largely outplayed the Golden Knights in the series. Winnipeg outshot Vegas 161-140 and owned the majority of quality scoring chances.

At five-on-five, the Jets had 60 high-danger scoring chances compared to 40 from the Golden Knights. However, Vegas was able to capitalize on seven of those chances while the Jets were successful on only three. That comes out to a high-danger save percentage of .950 for Fleury and .825 for Hellebuyck.

The Jets took a huge step forward this season. They won their first playoff game and their first two series in franchise history. They proved to be among the best teams in the league, but when it came to the Western Conference Final, it's evident that these three things ultimately brought their run to a halt.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)

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