Jets take it on the chin

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This article was published 12/10/2015 (3647 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BROOKLYN — Big, tough, skilled and nasty to play against — that’s the identity the Winnipeg Jets have spent eons attempting to create for themselves.

Trouble is, those characteristics aren’t unique to them and that much was oh-so obvious in Monday afternoon’s 4-2 Thanksgiving/Columbus Day loss to the New York Islanders at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Islanders played bigger, flashed much more skill and were considerably nastier than the Jets, jumping out to a 3-0 lead before closing the deal after a late Jets rally.

“They just skated better than we did. Got to pucks faster and hung onto them longer,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice. “It was a tough start but we really didn’t give ourselves (a chance). We were fortunate to get out 1-0 after the first period and needed to crawl out harder and never did that.”

The loss drops Winnipeg to 2-1 on their season-opening four-game road trip while the Isles are now 1-1-1.

NO SLEEP IN BROOKLYN: The Jets were dreadful in the first 20 minutes as the Islanders — seeking their first win of the 2015-16 season — began attacking not long after guitarist Malcolm Brickhouse’s raunchy rendition of the two anthems.

The Isles out-shot the Jets 16-6, as they were set up with four first-period power plays to Winnipeg’s one. A couple of the calls were cheesey, for sure, but New York was also relentless in their pursuit of the puck and their drive to the Jets net. Ondrej Pavelec was superb in the opening period, making a number of critical saves — including highlight-of-the-night candidates on Brock Nelson and John Tavares — before Ryan Strome slammed home a rebound of a shot off the end boards with just 11.8 seconds left.

But aside from their last line of defence, the rest of the Jets looked like they spent the period still wiping sleep from their eyes. On that front: the Jets were 4-1-1 last year in games when puck drop was 3:30 p.m. local, or earlier, but the team is now 10-15-5 in afternoon games since relocating from Atlanta.

“I can’t really explain it,” said Jets centre Bryan Little “That’s been two games out of the three this year where we’ve come out a little flat. It’s tough to put my finger on. I don’t know if we were just a little comfortable at winning the first two games, but we came out flat and they came out hungry and ready to play. It wasn’t an easy night for us.

“Hopefully (the lack of discipline) was just an isolated incident and it was just (today). For the most part we’ve been pretty disciplined for the first two games. A bit of it had to do with how much we were chasing the puck and how much puck possession they had. I mean, they’re going to take a lot of penalties when you have to haul guys down on breakaways and 2-on-1s and stuff like that.

“It was a bit undisciplined and it was a bit chasing the puck all night.”

NO FLOW, NO GO: The Isles went up 2-zip on one of many odd-man rushes — this one a 3-on-1 after a good chance in the New York zone that was buried by Brock Nelson. And with Dustin Byfuglien in the box for his second of back-to-back minors, New York pushed their lead to 3-zip on a John Tavares power-play goal.

The Jets would counter less than five minutes later on Mark Scheifele’s third in as many games as he one-timed a perfect pass from Nikolaj Ehlers and then pulled to within one midway through the third when Byfuglien’s point blast — this also on a power play — was tipped in front of the Islanders goal.

Pavelec would again keep his squad in it with just 2:15 remaining when he stopped Tavares on a penalty shot, but Josh Bailey sealed the deal with 18.1 seconds left. The final 20 was decent for the Jets, but their inability to stay out of the box, especially early, was critical. Maurice had been effectively rolling three lines through the first two games, but with his penalty-kill unit busy — especially early — that gameplan was severely hampered. Case in point: the Jets fourth line of Andrew Copp (4:30), Nic Petan (8:55; 1:13 on the man advantage) and Chris Thorburn (5:04) saw their ice time shrink after averaging close to 10 minutes through the first two games.

“It affects a lot of things,” said Jets captain Andrew Ladd of the penalty procession. “The guys who don’t play special teams don’t get on the ice. Like I said, you’re trying to get the momentum back in any way possible and it’s tough to do when you’re killing penalty after penalty.

“It’s tough to get momentum back when we spend as much time in the penalty box as we did in the first and second. That was an issue. Once we started playing a little simpler game, getting pucks in and on them, trying to use our speed to get on the puck, it started going a little better.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait