Early deficits continue to plague Jets

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This article was published 18/11/2015 (3642 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You’d think perpetually playing from behind — as the Winnipeg Jets have been doing this season — would be a cause for serious concern for Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice.

To the contrary, Maurice insists the fact his team has given up the first goal in 15 of 19 games doesn’t much concern him at all.

Indeed, Maurice notes his team was winning earlier in the season despite frequently giving up the first goal.

“It shouldn’t matter who scores the first goal because if you’re a real good team that doesn’t phase you,” Maurice said following a 3-2 loss in St. Louis in which, you guessed it, the Jets gave up the first goal.

The problem, of course, is the Jets aren’t a “real good team” right now. The loss in St. Louis was their sixth in a row, and they’ve now collected just three points in their last eight games and their record has fallen below .500 to 8-9-2.

What’s more, the Jets went 0-4 on a Central Division road trip that wrapped up in St. Louis Monday, and gave up the first goal in every game on that trip.

Still, Maurice insists the Jets were also giving up the first goal a lot last month and yet were winning just the same.

“At 8-4-2, we were giving up goals early on and it wasn’t bothering us,” said Maurice, suggesting the team’s ability to play from behind earlier this season showed his club can be resilient. “It’s a good sign — you keep going and you’re winning quite a few more games than you’re losing.”

The Jets are now 5-8-2 when their opponent scores first and 3-1-0 when they score first.

Power play powerless

THE struggles of the Jets power play are now approaching crisis proportions.

With an 0-for-5 performance against the Blues, Winnipeg now has one power-play goal in their last 29 man advantages. And that lone power-play marker came in garbage time last Tuesday in St. Paul when Blake Wheeler notched a power-play goal in the third period with the Jets trailing the Minnesota Wild 5-1.

So what’s wrong? And when will it be fixed? Maurice said his power-play unit simply ran out of gas Monday night in what was Winnipeg’s eighth road game in their last nine games.

“Those are our big-minutes guys out there and they didn’t have a whole lot in the tank for me on the power play tonight,” said Maurice.

So what now? Maurice said his team needs to bury its recent power-play struggles, refocusing on the next man advantage and ignoring all the ones they’ve squandered recently.

“It’s too much weight to carry. You’ve got to shake that off and get back to just being quick and moving people around,” Maurice said.

Hutch happy with his game

JETS goaltender Michael Hutchinson, whose goals-against average has soared and save percentage has dropped as his team’s fortunes have plummeted, was asked Monday night if he personally needs to play better.

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Hutchinson has started the last two games for the Jets. He was yanked in Nashville Saturday after giving up three goals in the first 12 minutes of the first period, but played better against the Blues, yielding three goals in a complete game.

While Hutchinson hasn’t missed any obvious gimme saves through this losing stretch — and neither has Ondrej Pavelec, for that matter — Hutchinson also hasn’t exactly made the big save when his team needed it most.

So, do you need to play better? “I’m pretty happy with my game,” Hutchinson said Monday night. “The goals we’ve given up are good scoring chances. So it’s just one of those things as a goalie — you want to make those extra saves and give your team a chance to win every single night, whether it’s coming up with one more big save or whatever.

“But at the same time, as long as you’re making the other team work for their goals, that’s your main job. When you’re losing, you always want to play better. But at the same time, it hasn’t been that bad.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter:@PaulWiecek