Sad, sad song in Music City

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/11/2015 (3641 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NASHVILLE — Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, they got worse. Way worse, in fact.

The Winnipeg Jets turned a nasty slump into a full-blown free fall at Bridgestone Arena Saturday night, losing 7-0 to the Nashville Predators in an embarrassing performance that raises the interesting question: how low can this Jets team go?

It would be one thing if the Jets simply lost to what is a very good Nashville team.

Lots of teams lose to Nashville — the Predators have been beaten at Bridgestone just once in regulation this season.

But the Jets didn’t just lose here Saturday night — they got humiliated.

Nashville took the lead less than five minutes into the game and then simply kept rolling. They led 3-0 — and had already chased Jets goaltender Michael Hutchinson from the net — just past the midway point of the first period. By the end of the period, it was 4-0 Nashville, and less than three minutes into the second period it was 5-0.

By night’s end, the Jets had lost their fifth game in a row — and sixth out of their last seven. And for all their talk over the past week of fixing what’s broken, things are more broken now than ever.

What’s it mean? In a word — trouble.

The Jets are now 0-3 on a road trip that was supposed to serve as a measuring stick for how they stack up against the rest of the Central Division.

So how do they measure up? They don’t.

The Jets have given up a total of 18 goals through three games on this road trip — while scoring just six of their own — and haven’t really even competed in two of those games.

That four-goal outburst by the Predators is the second time on this road trip the Jets have given up four goals in a period — the Minnesota Wild also had a four-goal second period Tuesday against Winnipeg en route to a 5-3 Wild victory.

Yes, the Jets looked better — and at least competed — in a 6-3 loss to the Dallas Stars Thursday night.

But holy smoke — when the best you can say about this critical road trip is at least there was that one time when the Jets didn’t lose too badly, you’ve got serious trouble.

Care to explain that one, coach? “They got on us real quick,” Paul Maurice said after the game. “And as soon as things started to go bad, we had a real difficult time doing some simple things — moving our feet at the right speed and making some simple plays.

Obviously, tension and some confidence issues but we weren’t at the same speed as they were. That’s the bottom line…

“We’re a .500 hockey team right now and played our worst game of the year. And we’ve been on the road a long time — feels like anyway… we were poor tonight and I’m not trying to say we were better. There’s no excuses for the game we played.

“But it’s not going to change the day starting tomorrow and how we’re going about our business. We have to keep searching for answers.”

Now what? That sound you heard Saturday night was the St. Louis Blues rubbing their hands together.

The Jets play the Blues in St. Louis Monday night in the fourth and — mercifully — final stop on this road trip.

The Blues are kind of good, in case you haven’t heard. St. Louis was second in the Central with an 11-4-1 record heading into Saturday night and had been beaten in regulation just once at home this season.

And the Jets? Well, Maurice can talk about the ongoing search for answers all he wants. The bottom line is he has already tried multiple new defensive pairings on this trip. And he’s already juggled his bottom two lines. And he’s already changed his goalies.

And with last night’s debacle, things have only gone from bad to worse to worst.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek