Jonathan Marchessault believes Pierre-Luc Dubois was the Jets’ best player in the playoffs

The Vegas Golden Knights surprised many with an easy elimination of the Winnipeg Jets in just five games.

As we’ve seen over the past few days, even if a team seems to be built for the playoffs, it’s the team that wants to win the most that will advance to the next round.

The Jets came into the playoffs with a very good, well-balanced club, littered with veterans and talented players. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough hunger for victory in the Winnipeg dressing room in the first round.

On Monday, Quebec winger Jonathan Marchessault appeared on the JiC show on TVA Sports. The winger spoke briefly about the series, but also had kind words for Pierre-Luc Dubois.

For Marchessault, Dubois was by far the Jets’ best player in the playoffs.

“I think Pierre-Luc Dubois was their best player on the ice, every night. He worked hard and was physically involved. Honestly, I have nothing but good things to say about him.” – Jonathan Marchessault

I agree 100% with Marchessault. Dubois was involved in every facet of the game and gave his opponents a hard time. Unfortunately, he seemed to be the only one in his clan who wanted to win so badly.

The Golden Knights forward believes he could have used more help from his teammates.

I love Kyle Connor and he didn’t have an atrocious series. But he performed below expectations and wasn’t as electrifying as he was the last two seasons.

Not to mention Connor Hellebuyck, supposedly one of the best goalies in the league. His 3.44 GAA and 88.6% save percentage are simply unacceptable.

Of course, a bad round of the playoffs happens to all the best goalies in a career.

Based on Marchessault’s comments, Dubois seems to be the kind of player Montreal is looking for. A power forward who delivers the goods physically, while collecting plenty of points and giving 100% on the ice, may indeed attract some general managers.

I invite you to watch the entire interview between Jean-Charles Lajoie and Marchessault.

Looking back on the first round, Marchessault said that Vegas got off to a bad start with their first game, but that they made up for it afterwards.

The Quebecer believes he knows what tipped the balance in this series.

“When you have a lot of veterans in the line-up, you understand that it’s not about scoring as many goals as you can in the playoffs. You have to play well defensively and let the other team make the mistakes. That’s what we were able to do in the first round.” – Jonathan Marchessault

Looking ahead to the second round of the playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers, Marchessault acknowledges that his team will have to play more physically and contain the two-headed monster as best they can.

“We’ll have to be alert when they’re on the ice, because it’s virtually impossible to keep them off the score sheet. We’ll have to limit them to one point each. That’s how we can win against this team. We’ll have to play physical and not give them a lot of space.” – Jonathan Marchessault

Sounds like a great plan from the Cap-Rouge native. However, it will be a huge challenge to follow this plan by limiting Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to just one point each.

With a thirst for victory and a good system in place, anything is possible, like the surprise elimination of the Colorado Avalanche or the Boston Bruins.

In gusto

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