Jets fall flat in 4-2 loss to last-place Senators

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This article was published 12/04/2021 (1608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An uninspiring off-ice performance by day. An uninspiring on-ice performance at night. That, in a nutshell, sums up a pretty forgettable Monday for the Winnipeg Jets.

After failing to significantly address what many view to be their biggest need at the NHL’s trade deadline by way of a top-tier defenceman, the hockey club came out with one of its poorest efforts of the year in a lacklustre 4-2 loss to the last-place Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.

Of course, you could have had Bobby Orr in his prime patrolling the blue-line for the visitors, and it wouldn’t have erased a rough outing from Connor Hellebuyck. Two of the goals were the result of ugly gaffes, the type you don’t often see from the reigning Vezina Trophy winner who was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week earlier in the day.

“I’m a little mad at myself. A couple of bad mistakes. Not good enough,” said Hellebuyck, who was beaten four times on 24 shots as he made a seventh straight start.

It’s a rare night indeed that the Jets get out-goalied, but that was certainly the case in this one. Ottawa’s Anton Forsberg, the former Winnipeg taxi squad member, was strong in victory, stopping 24 of 26 pucks that came his way.

“Tough night, fellas. Get the list of things that happen in a hockey game, we weren’t very good at it. Coach is at the top. That’s all I got for you. We weren’t any good tonight. The Ottawa Senators deserved to win the hockey game,” coach Paul Maurice said following the game.

Winnipeg saw its three-game winning streak snapped, falling to 25-14-3. Ottawa halts a four-game losing skid, improving to 14-25-4. The Jets missed a golden chance to get closer to first-place Toronto, which lost Monday night to fourth-place Montreal. Winnipeg remains in second place in the all-Canadian division, six points behind the Maple Leafs, one ahead of third-place Edmonton, and eight in front of the Canadiens. There are 14 games left on their regular-season schedule.

Prior to puck drop, the club learned general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff added journeyman defenceman Jordie Benn to the mix, acquiring him from Vancouver in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick. But the big splash many predicted never materialized. The message, it would seem, was he believes this group as constructed is good enough to get the job done. In that sense, the timing for such a stinker was sub-optimal, to say the least.

“Turnovers. We had a hard time managing the puck, physically and mentally,” said Maurice of what ailed his group. “We haven’t had one of these in a while, kind of throughout the lineup. A real hard time with the puck. And then did things to make it worse.”

Indeed, the Jets routinely fumbled and bobbled the puck, handing the Senators at least five breakaways. Most puzzling of all is that Winnipeg was coming off one of its better all-around performances of the year, a 5-0 victory in Montreal on Saturday night.

“My job is to keep them sharp, keep them ready, keep them right, and we weren’t there today, so that’s what I’ll think about for two days, and work hard to get them back to where we were a couple days ago,” said Maurice.

“We weren’t really snapping it around at the morning skate but that’s never a tell because we weren’t particularly good in the morning skate before the Montreal game and we played exceptionally well in that Saturday night. Took our eye off the ball, whatever it is, coach didn’t have ‘em ready, that’s it.”

The Jets actually started the game well — at least on the scoreboard — beginning with Kyle Connor’s team-leading 19th goal just five minutes into the first period. His one-timer blast, off a Josh Morrissey feed, came on the power play. Nikolaj Ehlers made it 2-0 at 8:25 on a great solo effort that netted his 18th of the campaign.

Winnipeg, which had won five of the six head-to-head meetings with Ottawa so far this season, looked like they might be able to put it in cruise control. But Senators coach D.J. Smith has his group playing hard.

Brady Tkachuk, who knocked Jets captain Blake Wheeler out of the lineup a week ago with an elbow to to the head that caused a concussion, deflected a Josh Norris shot at 11:03 of the opening frame to cut the deficit in half, with the Senators on the power play. And then the NHL’s hottest scorer, Connor Brown, lit the lamp for an eighth straight game, as Hellebuyck simply whiffed on his snap shot at 18:38.

“Our start wasn’t great despite getting two early goals. I don’t think our 5-on-5 game was right. They were on top of us and made it hard for any of us to get into open ice. Just kind of went from there,” said Jets centre Mark Scheifele.

After a scoreless second period, in which the Jets failed to capitalize on three straight power plays, the wheels really came off for Winnipeg in the final frame.

Hellebuyck couldn’t handle a seemingly innocent Thomas Chabot dump-in, and Evgenii Dadonov pounced on a surprisingly loose puck and buried it for what proved to be the game-winner at 10:10.

“In that case I gotta have that, so that one’s on me,” said Hellebuyck.

Just as Hellebuyck never throws his teammates under the bus after games where he’s had to bail them out, Jets skaters weren’t pointing the finger of blame in his direction.

“He’s been outstanding. I’m sure he wants every single goal back because he’s just that type of player that pushes himself and competes that hard. I don’t think his confidence will waver. He’s that guy who will bounce back and he will be even greater next game,” said Connor.

Tkachuk then sealed the deal on a breakaway at 16:12.

“You never want to give up breakaways. They’ve got guys that make you pay. They’ve got some speed up front. It’s just a matter of making the simple plays over and over and not trying to do too much and go from there,” said Scheifele.

The Jets will now try to re-group before they meet the Senators again on Wednesday night in the nation’s capital. They’ll finish the road trip Thursday in Toronto, then come home to play nine of the final 12 games at Bell MTS Place.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg