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Lars Eller (right) is congratulated by teammate Travis Moen after scoring the first of his four goals Wednesday. (DAVE SIDAWAY / POSTMEDIA NEWS)

MONTREAL -- A 3-2 game went 6-2 in just 50 seconds early in the third period, a lightning bolt the visiting Winnipeg Jets were not expecting from a snowy, biting-cold night in Quebec.

Jets coach Claude Noel had predicted a difficult game and said the explanation was easy after his team was trounced 7-3 by the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.

"I don't think it was fun for anybody but we weren't prepared to do the things we were doing for the last month and it showed," Noel said after his team dropped to 5-9-4 on the road this season. "You can't play with half the players, meaning some guys were in and some guys were not."

Winnipeg's strong month of December, 10-3-1 built mainly on a schedule at home, had been cause for some optimism heading into 2012.

That's not the kind of game that showed up Wednesday.

"Is it because we were satisfied for the month?" Noel said. "For me, we didn't play well enough to win the game. We chased the game. We didn't play the way we played the month before and that's the bottom line.

"You can use all the excuses you want. There are no excuses."

Noel wasn't convinced the Jets were "back in" the game at 3-2.

"It looked that way but realistically, take the whole 40 minutes, are you playing to win?" he said. "We didn't play with the same heart, determination, passion, the same fire that you played the whole month before.

"At the end of the day, you can't fake this thing. Great, we got ourselves back in the game and then boom, they got three goals in a matter of no time.

"It was a bad fourth goal. We had a turnover, a poor play that made it 4-2. A really poor play at the time on a nothing play. All in all, it's your mindset that ends up letting you down. All the players, all of us."

The coach was already looking ahead to tonight's game in Toronto.

"We have to mature as a hockey team and we have to think about this thing and figure out why you came to the rink with that type of thought process," Noel said. "Because all you've done is let Montreal back in the race and put yourself on the wrong side of the line. If you're going to be a consistent playoff-performing team, is there a killer instinct? I didn't see one.

"Where was our checking game that we had been doing so well? Well, it wasn't there. Is it because you don't know how to check or is it your will to check? Do you play differently on the road? These are the things you want your players to think about."

Noel was also asked if he had any issue --showmanship or over the top, perhaps? -- with Lars Eller's spinarama goal on a penalty shot late in the game with the result decided. It was Eller's fourth goal of the night.

Noel could easily have said no. Here's what he said: "I don't...I've got enough things to think about without having to deal with whether he wants to score that way or not. The players can look after that area."

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 5, 2012 D3