Jets hope to sing a winning tune in Nashville

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This article was published 13/11/2015 (3642 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NASHVILLE — Give Paul Maurice credit: His team hasn’t been very sharp lately but his sense of humour still is.

Asked Friday afternoon if he’s decided between Ondrej Pavelec or Michael Hutchinson as his starting goaltender for tonight’s game against the Nashville Predators, the Winnipeg Jets head coach deadpanned: “We’re playing one. Hopefully, just one.”

Like all good gags, it’s funny because it’s true. And it’s true because the Jets are mired in a nasty four-game losing streak right now.

Winnipeg’s shell-shocked goaltenders have faced four breakaways and surrendered nine goals in just the last two games. Toss in a pair of empty-net markers in a 6-3 loss to the Dallas Stars Thursday night and the Jets have given up 11 goals in two games.

Who needs to make the nets bigger? The Jets right now are doing a pretty good job all on their own of increasing goal scoring in the NHL.

So what now? While Maurice wouldn’t tip his hand, it would be shocking if anyone other than Hutchinson started at Bridgestone Arena tonight.

Pavelec started the last three games and while it’s hard to pin the responsibility on him, the fact the Jets lost all three of those games strongly suggests Maurice will be looking to make a change heading into another critical Central Division game against the Predators.

The goaltender isn’t the only expected lineup change. Maurice juggled his defensive pairings — yet again — in the latter half of the loss to Dallas, reuniting Tyler Myers with Toby Enstrom and Ben Chiarot with Dustin Byfuglien. The same pairings were on the ice Friday afternoon as the Jets held an up-tempo, one-hour practice session at a local rink.

The Chiarot-Byfuglien and Enstrom-Myers pairings were combinations Maurice used with success last season and with his team struggling right now, the head coach said he’s looking for something he can count on to get his team back on track.

“The pairings we went back to have got a lot of minutes together. It’s comfort,” said Maurice. “It’s where we started.”

Maurice also once again on Friday had Chris Thorburn playing left wing on the third line with Adam Lowry and Drew Stafford, while Alex Burmistrov continues to play left wing on the fourth line with Andrew Copp and Nic Petan.

Maurice said he liked what Thorburn showed in his debut on the third line Thursday night.

The combination of Thorburn and Lowry set up Winnipeg’s second goal by Jacob Trouba.

“It was the first time I have liked that line in a handful of games,” said Maurice. “Chris plays a readable game — in on the forecheck, on the body, doesn’t cheat the play, reloads real hard to get back up the ice.

“And I thought Adam Lowry was able to really get a read off of him.”

With losses on the current road trip to Dallas and Minnesota, the Jets have fallen to 2-3 against the Central Division this season with two more games coming up in the next three days against divisional foes — tonight in Nashville and Monday in St. Louis.

With his team having lost five of its last six games, Jets centre Bryan Little says no one is pushing the panic button just yet, but there’s also an appreciation in the dressing room things need to get better quickly if this team is going to keep pace in the toughest division in hockey.

“We need to start playing with more urgency and realize how big these games are. We can’t afford to be in a position where we’re chasing and put ourselves in a (bad) spot for the rest of the year,” said Little.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek