Jets are trying to scrub away fetid smell of their Montreal loss

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/11/2015 (3620 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Just like that foul odour caused by special something in your fridge well past its due date, the Winnipeg Jets’ Sunday performance in Montreal triggered the gag reflex of many observers.

Scowls were likely made by the Jets, too, after the 5-1 drubbing in which they didn’t much look like a team that had been to the playoffs last spring, or one that had won seven games this season.

Stuff happens.

Worth noting, the sun did come up Monday morning when the team opened the drapes in its Toronto hotel.

Next on the agenda is the response, and it’s something the Jets were already talking about 15 minutes after they failed to live up to their half of the hype in a national television broadcast touting, potentially, Canada’s two best NHL teams.

“Thank God it comes early and hopefully we can learn from that,” said veteran winger Chris Thorburn, casting some attention to Wednesday night’s game here against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“We’ll see these guys again in Winnipeg and get another crack at them,” said winger Drew Stafford, taking a longer view. “This game got away from us pretty quick and we weren’t able to have a quick enough answer.”

Failing to answer until it was far too late will cause the Jets some self-examination. Just how extensively will be evident Wednesday.

In the interim, coach Paul Maurice intimated he won’t be letting this one slide, even including himself in his short, harsh, post-game analysis.

“Players weren’t very good,” he said after the loss dropped the Jets to 7-4-1. “My job’s to prepare the team, so I clearly wasn’t very good today either. None of us were any good today.”

Between now and today’s scheduled morning practice, a few hard questions will be asked and some telling video shown. Blame will be far less important than what the Jets are going to do about a game in which they came in second in speed, quickness and determination.

Those things all add up to one of their most cherished qualities — compete — which, if one season is long enough to do it, became established as one of the team’s calling cards.

“I think we’ll label it as one of those games,” Thorburn said, asked if one game soured the team’s first 12. “We were down 2-0 going to the second on the road and that’s not a horrible spot to be in. At times throughout the season we’re going to have to battle back from a two-goal deficit at some point, and if you want to be considered a good team, you have to.

“It’s just one of those games where we couldn’t get much offence. We had a lot of shots blocked. We couldn’t get any flow and a lot of times out there it didn’t look like our team, the one we’re used to seeing on the ice.”

Maurice, who is decidedly one of those “you are what your record says you are” kind of coaches, sometimes tries to distract or divert attention so as to protect his room, but it’ll be a surprise if he opts for much in the way of silver linings from Sunday.

Those straws and threads are there if you want them, that the Jets out-hit the Canadiens 35-15 or they won the faceoff battle for the fifth straight game, 52-48 on the strength of garbage-time improvement, or even irrelevantly won the third period.

A team that has high expectations, one whose players have repeatedly said their accomplishment last spring of earning a playoff spot is not really what they have in mind, would not opt for such things.

“If it’s within our structure, we have to get back to doing that,” Thorburn said. “We’ll start there and hopefully have a rebound game against Toronto.”

All of the conversation the Jets offered after Sunday’s game was consistent with realistic assessment and the ability to move on.

Games Wednesday against the Leafs and even Thursday in Ottawa will be the results that confirm that or not, but even today’s practice will offer major clues about attitude and approach and whether that smelly stuff is gone to the trash with no real harm done.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca