Something BIG is brewing…

Something BIG is brewing…

Something big is brewing as two of the best teams in the NHL are set to face off in the second round of the playoffs. And with both teams riddled by injuries, one team in particular has a lot of soulsearching and questions to answer in this series. We’re going to break it all down in this episode of Hatrick HQ. But before we do that, a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. About 72% of you who watch these videos are not subscribed to the channel. So, if you want to stay up to date with everything that’s happening around the NHL, you know, playoff previews, all that fun stuff, and of course, updates on the Dallas Stars and the Winnipeg Jets, we see the support in the comments and on the channel. Be sure to hit that subscribe button. It is free and you get to stay up to date with everything going on around the league. But, let’s dive right into it. Casey, this is going to be an electric series between the Winnipeg Jets and the Dallas Stars. And I think there’s a lot of question marks on both ends right now. I think Dallas’s future is a little clearer. We’ll get to that in a bit as well. But to kick it off, what are you seeing from, you know, this series? First of all, it’s going to be absolutely electric. There’s a lot of star power and both teams just went to game sevens that were arguably some of the best game sevens we’ve seen in a long time. Yeah, this is going to be a great series and like you said, both teams coming off a seven game series. They’re both going to be around the same, you know, tiredness level. you know, there’s no advantage on either side when it comes to the winning in the amount of games in this series, but I think it’s going to be great. I I think we have was the first in this team in the Central in the regular season versus the second team in the Central in the regular season. So, you know, this is going to be a good matchup. And on both sides of the coin here, it kind of differentiates cuz Dallas has such a hot offense right now. And I mean, Winnipeg has probably one of the hottest defenses in the core right now. So, it’s a really good uh matchup between both of these sides, and I know we’re going to dive into it a little bit more, but I’m very excited for this one. Absolutely. And again, it should be absolutely electric. And when you look at the Dallas Stars, I mean, we can kind of start with them and and their goal scoring. I mean, Miko Ratin leading the way for the Dallas Stars. And don’t worry, Jets fans, we’ll get to the Jets in a second because there’s a lot to get to there, believe me. But Miko Randon leading the way with the Dallas Stars. And I thought what the Dallas Stars did in round one was very impressive. I mean, they completely stripped down the Colorado Avalanche to the studs. U you know, the Avalanche were a team that really threw everything at the wall at the trade deadline. Completely rebuilt their team. Honestly, credit where credit’s due. They completely rebuilt their team on the fly this year. No other team has ever done that, especially with the goalending. So, what they were able to do to the Avalanche was very impressive with a bunch of injuries. I mean, Jason Robertson hasn’t played in the playoffs yet. Mero Heiskin, one of the best defenseman in the league, hasn’t played in this playoffs yet. and they’re both set to return in this series. Do you think that’s going to kind of, you know, mess up the dynamic of the team at all? I mean, I don’t I don’t think it will. Obviously, getting two great players back, but what does getting them back do for the team? Because you got guys stepping up like Wyatt Johnson, we know he’s a great player, but he’s stepping up. Thomas Harley, people are really learning what Thomas Harley’s all about. He’s going to be a star in this league. So, you know, do you think adding these two guys back into the lineup is going to mess up the chemistry, or are they going to be that much more dangerous? It’s going to it’s only going to make them better. I mean, getting a guy like Jason Robertson, who yes, maybe he had more of a down year than what he was used to in the regular season, but we know how good this guy is. He’s such a tremendous goal scorer, his shot is next level. And getting a guy like that back is going to amplify your offense even more than what it is right now. Which is crazy to think about because, you know, Rantin, like you said, was a big guy for them in this series. Having was it a third period hat-tick against his former team to then secure them that series just shows how clutch this guy is. And I really came back to bite the Avalanche in the butt for trading this guy. And just get having him and adding a guy in Robertson here to play either alongside him or you know in this lineup is only going to make the the goal scoring uh even more and it’s going to make Hellabuk have a way harder task on his hand. And Heiskinan, we know how good of a defenseman this guy is. He’s been the franchise defenseman for the Dallas Stars ever since he was drafted. So getting him back in this lineup is definitely going to help uh them for sure on the defensive side of the puck. This is a guy who can shut down top offenses like he’s eating breakfast. That’s how good of a defenseman this guy is. And he also has a big shot from back there as well. So getting both these guys back is definitely X factors in this series and I think it’s definitely something a lot of people should look out for. Winnipeg Jets should be hoping that it doesn’t happen. Absolutely. And I think, you know, getting them back lengthens the lineup. They’re still playing great, right? They won that game, seven, that seven game series against a really good team in Colorado and now they get two of the best players back, right? So, it’s going to be very interesting. And another thing in this series, because you spoke on Connor Halabuck a little bit as well, is going to be goalending. I think it’s always goalending in almost every, you know, playoff series, but this is going to be a big one. I mean, Jake Ander has been fantastic. a 911 in this year’s playoffs, a 285 goals against average, which I think is more of a team stat, but still, you know, it says something about a goalie because when you look over at the other side of Connor Hallell, he’s sporting an 830 in this year’s playoffs and a 385 goals against average. So, I mean, if Connor Halabuk plays the way that he played in the first round, the Winnipeg Jets have no shot in this series, but I’m not so sure that that’s going to happen. Again, I want to throw it over to you and your thoughts on Connor Hellabuk because, you know, before I do that, I just want to say that again, if he plays the way that he did in the first round, the Jets have no chance here. I mean, the Stars are just going to eat this team alive. It doesn’t matter how good your offense is, how good the power play is going, how good your defense is. It really does not matter. You need goalending in a series like this, and it’s going to be a long and tight series. So, I don’t believe that that’s going to happen. I think the mental block, everything we’ve been talking about, I think he left that in the past in the first round. that’s what he needed to get past because ever since 2018 he hasn’t been able to do that right so I think that he was able to do that he actually settled in very nicely into game seven as well so I think that that might be gone but Casey do you still see that being a factor and you think goalending is going to be or play as big as a factor in this series as everyone seems to believe yeah it always is a big factor in this especially when you have one of the best goalenders in the league in helluck not playing up to standard I mean allowing almost four goals a game in the playoffs You can’t do that. You know, I know it is kind of a team stat and you know, it doesn’t all come back on the goalender right here, but there has been some goals in this last series and I know Jets fans will agree with me that, you know, maybe Eric Comry would have stopped. You know what I mean? Like not taking away from how good of a goalie Hellbuck is. It just seems like in that last series in the first round, he had this mental block and it it just was letting, you know, pucks go in that normally don’t go in against Hlebuck. you know, it was stuff that we haven’t seen from him probably since he came up from the AHL. That’s how long it’s been since we’ve seen Halle Buck been, you know, that shaky in the crease. So, it is going to play a big factor into this cuz if you’re giving up almost four goals against St. Louis, not to take any away from that team, but Dallas has such a better offense than what the St. Louis Blues did have. So, if you’re giving up four to them, you know, you can bump that up by two to six if that the way he’s playing. You know, it’s it it sucks to say because I really like Hellbuck and I think he’s such a great goalender, but when you have Attener here on the other coin who’s posting a 931 save percentage, he’s a young guy. He’s still only 26 years old, which blows my mind. This guy is one of the hottest goalenders in the playoffs right now. Very undertalked about and he’s going to be a hard one to score on for this Winnipeg Jets team. So if they start going down in games 2 nothing, 3 nothing like we seen in the last series, it’s going to be a hard feat to climb back of. So hopefully I said in the last Jets video we did, Halleuck is going to flip a switch here and get an extra boost from winning that series and get back to him old self, his old self. And I think that’s what we’re going to see here. Yeah, I think that that is very likely at this point. It could go the other way, right? Much of the same could continue, but I think that was a really good point there. And I think when you look at the Winnipeg Jets too, another, you know, storyline coming into this series is how many injuries they’re dealing with as well. Looks like Mark Shley, again, lots of speculation, could be a concussion, right? Josh Morsy, you got hurt in game seven as well, missed almost the entire game. But it says a lot about this team that they went, you know, without Mark Schiffley. They went without Josh Moresy for almost the entire game seven. Neil Pianc was playing almost 50 minutes in that game and they still won the game. They found a way to come back and win that game. So, it does say a lot about the team and I think that that’s going to translate to the next round as well. And um again, the Dallas Stars are going to get a bunch of players back and it’s going to be very interesting to see what happens. This is the schedule for, you know, pretty routine schedule for this series one day in between games. So, it’s going to happen very quickly. Both teams are going to be, you know, have to be ready to go here because, you know, it doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with injuries. This is the playoffs and I’m sure a lot of guys are playing through injury. One guy I wanted to highlight too from the Dallas Stars, I am curious about your thoughts on this too before we wrap up and how the Winnipeg Jets can maybe contain him is, you know, Wyatt Johnson. He’s been fantastic since he’s come into the league and he’s continuing to do that in this year’s playoffs. So, I could really see him being a player, you know, alongside Mika Randon because of course he’s going to be a constant, right? He’s he’s an elite player in this league. But Wyatt Johnson, you know, do you think this is a series he goes off in? Is he going to be an X-factor for the Dallas Stars? Is he a guy that maybe the Winnipeg Jets have to put a lot of attention to detail in this series? Yeah, I have nothing bad to say about Wyatt Johnson. Ever since I seen this guy step on the ice for the Dallas Stars, I fell in love with this guy. He’s one of my favorite players in the league right now. So, he’s going to be a hard one to contain, especially coming off such a great season, more of a breakout year. I know he had a good year last year as well, but this guy in the playoffs this year has just been finding a different way to score and create scoring chances. It’s going to be a tough uh player for the Jets to navigate. I know they have a great defensive core, but I do think that the Jets could potentially shut this guy down. And we’re going to have to wait and see here, Darius. It’s going to be an interesting series. The Dallas Stars have a lot of offense coming at them, but on the other side, you know, the Jets have Connor who has been playing good as well. Absolutely. Kyle Connor, I mean, there’s a lot of equals in this series. It’s going to be really fun to watch. Honestly, both teams are dealing with a lot of adversity. Both teams went to a game seven. Both teams have very high octane offense, so it’s going to be a lot of fun. Now, speaking of fun, this is the fun part of the video where we give our predictions on the series. So, Casey, I’m going to throw it over to you once again. Who do you have winning the series? How many games? Yeah, I know. I pumped the tires at a Dallas Stars a lot here in this video and it kind of made me think that I’m going to pick Dallas, but I’m going to I’m going down the other side. I’m going to pick Winnipeg in six games here. I think Winnipeg coming off that, you know, 1.6 second tying goal to then win in second overtime. The momentum is flowing in Winnipeg right now and I think there’s not a team that’s going to be able to stop them even as good as the Dallas Stars. So, I got the Winnipeg Jets in six here and I think we’re going to see a huge b bounce back from Helluck and just him showing why he deserves to win the VZA this year. And like we talked about a lot in this video, the mental block. Once you get over that, we’ve seen it with a lot of teams, you know, anything’s possible. So, I think that’s a good pick. But, I’m going to go on the other side. I’m going to go with the Dallas Stars. I’m going to go in seven games as well. And it’s going to be a similar series, I think, to the St. Louis Blue series where I feel like a lot of the time the home team is going to win the games. uh except for game seven which would be the Dallas Stars. So picking Dallas Stars in seven, I I think they’re just too strong of a team. I think when fully healthy, which I expect them to be in this series, uh they’re going to be too much to to handle for almost any team in this league. I I I have them going to the Stanley Cup finals. So should be very interesting to watch. But let us know in the comments who you think is going to win this series. Again, the support from Jets fans, Stars fans on the channel has been unbelievable. So let us know down below who you have winning the series, how many games, and why. We’re curious to see why. cuz both these teams got a lot going on, that’s for sure. But, uh, let us know what you think in the comments. And if you haven’t yet, hit that subscribe button so you can stay up to date with everything Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars, and of course, everything around the league.

Darius Domingues and KC break down the series between the Winnipeg Jets and the Dallas Stars.