On a positive note, I focused on Girard quite a bit during the game in terms of his breakouts and skating with the puck. I thought he was tremendous for most of the game and made some Jets players look absolutely foolish at times, including Wheeler and Scheifele. I had to stop the game and watch a few Girard sequences multiple times because they were simply that good. It appeared that the Jets were becoming frustrated with him and their inability to disrupt his game and catch, which led to some cheap plays (some of which may have been simply designed to throw him off of his game).
He has struggled at times lately, but he seems to have found his game against Nashville (even though he was a -3 in that game, which I believe was misleading) and even more so against Winnipeg.
Girard does some little things that are simply outstanding. His biggest deficiency at the moment appears to be his shot, which I think he simply needs to work on getting through better in traffic, as I don't believe that you need a canon shot from the point in today's NHL.
On another note, Rantanen impressed me at times. The MacKinnon line struggled over all to create and teams really have done a nice job eliminating their transition chances in open ice and on the PP. They have looked strong at times when they cycle the puck down low at even strength. Rantanen has shown flashes this year of finally understanding his strength on the puck and simply controlling plays down low. It is something that he needs to consistently apply but I can see him continuing to develop that part of his game.
I have no idea what was/is going on with MacKinnon, but one of his biggest issues is that he is thrown off his game mentally far too often. He is easily frustrated and teams recognize this and play him accordingly. I think he also needs to do a better job of focusing on his positional defensive play and competing at times. He is trying to cheat too much to the offensive game (a perimeter based offensive game).