Tyrel Bauer has built his short NHL career on being willing. The Winnipeg Jets rookie won fights in each of his first two games in the league and had opponents looking him up by the end of the week.
On Sunday afternoon in Raleigh, with his team losing 7-0 on Kids Day, he went looking for a dust-up behind the Carolina net and found Juuso Valimaki instead.
Valimaki didn’t engage. Instead, he delivered a hilarious chirp by pointed at the scoreboard.
The home crowd found it funnier than Bauer did.
The Jets’ last nine games:
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Record | 0-7-2 |
| Goals scored | 16 |
| Goals per game | 1.78 |
Why are the Winnipeg Jets struggling?
Sunday was a ninth straight defeat and left them at 4-8-3. Across those nine games they have scored sixteen goals, which works out at under two a night and is most of the explanation on its own. Captain Adam Lowry didn’t attempt to dress it up afterwards.
“There’s gonna be changes,” Lowry said.
Valimaki had done his share of the damage himself, one-timing a Shayne Gostisbehere pass from just inside the blue line at 1:55 of the second for his second goal of the season. He is only in the lineup while Alexander Nikishin completes a conditioning stint.
“I don’t think there’s a hockey player in the world who doesn’t like scoring goals,” Valimaki said afterwards.
The Carolina Hurricanes have become difficult to watch for anybody who isn’t from North Carolina. Pyotr Kochetkov made 26 saves for his tenth consecutive win to open the season, making him only the third goaltender in NHL history to start a year 10-0 and setting a franchise record in the process. Sean Walker scored twice, Logan Stankoven added a goal and two assists, and six Carolina players finished with multiple points.
Bauer logged 8:25 and four hits. Nobody wanted to fight him.
Read more:
