Jets defenseman Morrissey suspended 1 game

“I’m still a little heated at it, but I have to watch what I say”.

“It’s exciting and I’m looking forward to it”, Hellebuyck said of the Vézina nomination. There’s not much more you can say. Had there been another penalty coming, the Wild may very well have caused the Jets to touch it sooner, which would have given them a slightly longer 5-on-3.

The Wild are still bitter about that.

“Goalies are incredible people in that they can let those things go and come back and play great”, said coach Bruce Boudreau.

But for the next 60 minutes of Game 4 of this ornery matchup, it was Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck who felt the most at home playing in what is usually a hostile environment for the opposition. He was also thankful Staal played the rest of the game. Or, so the Minnesota thinking goes.

Boudreau had just heard about Morrissey having a hearing before he spoke to the media Wednesday in Minnesota.

Well said, roared the Wild fans. The pressure for Minnesota to win Game 4 at home Tuesday night is palpable.

Maurice pointed to other nasty hits and non-calls in the series that impacted games.

The refs didn’t notice, Staal made it clear he has enough calcium in his diet and even Maurice agreed it was a missed call.

Coyle and Niederreiter have been paid, and their subsequent performances will make it harder, financially and mentally, for Fletcher to commit big to the next group.

Maurice might have a point there. But he’s out week-to-week after suffering a fractured sternum in Game 3. He took runs at Jets players, arguably targeted the head on Trouba and wound up knocking Myers out of the game. A lot of these guys see this as simply the price skill players must play to score goals.

That doesn’t make what Morrissey did right, of course.

Still, I think the Wild can overcome the injuries by playing like they did in game No. 3.

The department acknowledged the 23-year-old Calgary native had never before been fined or suspended in his 164-game National Hockey League career. “You can not use an excuse of, ‘Well, I haven’t played in awhile.’ That to me is a crock”.

Just don’t expect the Jets to agree with the decision.

The Minnesota Wild are looking to tie the series. And the Jets would have been forced to play two-plus periods with only five defensemen.

Morrissey posted a career-best 26 points and plus-15 rating in 81 games this season while averaging 20:27 of ice time. Rookie Tucker Poolman, a native of Iowa who played in college at North Dakota, replaced Myers on Winnipeg’s third blue line pairing with Chiarot.

Dubnyk responded with a bevy of brilliant saves when it was still a one-goal game, holding serve and buying time for Minnesota’s cathartic scoring burst. That means the Winnipeg Jets could be without another hugely important defender for Game 5, while already dealing with injuries on the back end.

Parise is the Wild’s all-time leader with 14 goals in the playoffs and six power-play goals.