Jets slip-sliding away

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This article was published 26/02/2023 (953 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With their backs against the wall and the pressure mounting, the Winnipeg Jets continue to fall deeper into despair and deeper down the Western Conference standings.

The Jets suffered yet another deflating defeat, this time at the hands of the New York Islanders, who bullied their opponent en route to a 4-0 victory in front of 13,797 at Canada Life Centre Sunday afternoon.

For a second straight game, following a road trip out east where the Jets went 1-3, head coach Rick Bowness challenged his club to be better. As a response, they laid an egg Friday, falling 5-1 to the Colorado Avalanche and were once again flat against an Islanders club that has now beaten Winnipeg twice over the span of five days, including a 2-1 win at home on Wednesday.

The Jets have now lost three straight and five of their last six to drop to 35-24-1. The Islanders improved to 31-25-7.

“Right now, it’s a challenge, there’s no question,” Bowness said. “So, what do you do? You dig down deeper, that’s what you do. And the guys that don’t dig down deeper, then you find out about that, too.”

What’s worse, the Jets have widened the gap between the Dallas Stars, who now have a five-point cushion atop the Central Division. In fact, Winnipeg has dropped from second in the Central to the first wild-card playoff spot, as the Minnesota Wild (33-21-6) and Colorado Avalanche (33-19-5) have both managed to surpass them.

Indeed, it was a rough outing for the local NHL team. Let’s dig a little deeper into what all went wrong.

1) After a miserable start against the Avalanche on Wednesday – a game that Bowness dubbed the most important game of the year – the visibly frustrated coach, in his post-game media availability, once again challenged his team for a response against the Islanders.

He wouldn’t get his wish, as the Jets looked even worse to begin this one.

Winnipeg was dominated through the opening 20 minutes, outshot 12-1 and outscored 1-0. Adding insult to injury, the lone goal by Bo Horvat came while the Islanders were shorthanded.

The Islanders, who had a goal called off earlier in the frame after video review deemed it a high stick, dictated the play so much the Jets were booed off the ice.

When the Jets were rolling earlier in the season, a challenge by Bowness almost certainly resulted in a spirited effort by his group. With two straight duds the last two games, is Bowness concerned his message isn’t getting through?

“I can’t answer that,” Bowness said, before shrugging his shoulders.

2) Hoping for a spark, Bowness decided to juggle all four forward lines to begin the second period. He put Pierre-Luc Dubois between Kyle Connor and Sam Gagner, Mark Scheifele with Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler, Adam Lowry alongside wingers Mason Appleton and Alex Jonsson-Fjallby and Kevin Stenlund with Morgan Barron and Saku Maenalanen.

Needless to say, the shuffle didn’t lead to the desired effect. The Jets left the frame down 3-0, after goals from Alexander Romanov and Brock Nelson.

Winnipeg found its footing in the last half of the frame, at least enough to be on the receiving end of some quality scoring chances. But most of those looks ended with a shot fired wide or one too many passes resulting in a broken play.

“We’re going though it a little bit right now. We can turn this into a positive at this time of the year if we can find a way to get out of this little funk and get to our game,” Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey said. “There’s a lot of optimism in our locker room and it’s easy to be negative. It’s time for us to continue to stay positive here.”

Despite the minor improvement in play, the crowd didn’t let up.

When the Jets registered their first shot of the period around the five-minute mark, snapping a nearly 19-minute drought, they were greeted with a hearty Bronx cheer. A clearly audible chant of “shoot the puck” broke out with two minutes remaining, and when the buzzer finally sounded to end the period, the Jets walked to the dressing room to another parade of boos.

3) In what’s been a theme for nearly a month now, the Jets were unable to find the scoring touch required to mount a comeback.

Winnipeg has been futile around the net for a significant stretch, with just 23 goals scored over its last 12 games and just two over their previous three. Six of those goals have come on the power play, leaving the Jets even-strength game with much to be desired.

The Jets big guns – Scheifele, Dubois, Connor, Ehlers, Wheeler and Morrissey – finished the game a combined minus-16.

“The more adversity you go through, if you can figure it out, the stronger you get. So, for us right now, the answer is in here. We can’t wait for other teams to start losing. Can’t hope for other teams to start losing,” Dubois said. “Every other playoff race you see it. You look at the standings and you don’t want to be the team that’s hoping that the other team loses. You want to be able to build your game and get ready for the postseason. For guys in here, we’ve all been through a lot in our careers. Coaching staff included. So we can figure it out in here.”

Adam Pelech iced the game with an empty-net goal with 2:01 remaining.

4) Eyebrows were raised during warmup as David Rittich led the team onto the ice, signaling he would get the start in net over No. 1 Connor Hellebuyck.

It was a curious move for a couple reasons, notably that the game came with a day’s rest and, while Hellebuyck was shelled for five goals on 26 shots in the loss to Colorado, Bowness defended his goalie’s play as having little to do with the end result.

However, when asked if he pulled Hellebuyck after the second period against the Avs to give him rest to play the Islanders, the Jets coach wouldn’t confirm, instead answering with his trademark “we’ll see.” With the Jets having an important game against the L.A. Kings on Tuesday and back-to-back games over the weekend, as well as Hellebuyck playing in back-to-back games over the recent road trip, Bowness opted to give his No. 1 the night off.

“Can’t keep playing him every game,” he said. “Ritter had to get into a game.”

Rittich didn’t exactly instill confidence in the early going, as Horvat’s first-period goal, though slightly screened, came from the outside. There’s not much he could have done on the Romanov goal, as Matt Martin provided a solid screen in front, but he’ll likely want the one from Nelson back – a goal with 1:19 remaining in the second that beat him clean from the slot.

“We live with the decisions we make,” Bowness said. “Right? Wrong? We have to make some decisions; you make them, you live with them.” The Islanders also countered with their backup, with Semyon Varlamov stopping all 23 shots for his third shutout of the season.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton