Jets served painful reality check with 7-4 loss to Lightning

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This article was published 16/04/2022 (1243 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets are leaving Florida with their tails tucked between their legs and nothing but a tan to show for an extended and ultimately fruitless stay.

After arriving in the Sunshine State last Tuesday to beat the incoming blizzard back home, two games in as many nights against a pair of powerhouses served up a painful reality check of how far the club must go if they want to get back to NHL relevancy. A 6-1 pummelling at the hands of the Panthers on Friday was followed up with a lopsided 7-4 loss to the Lightning on Saturday.

Although the overall performance in the latest outing may have been slightly better — at least in the early going when the Jets had leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 4-2 against the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions – the end result was the same. This group is nowhere near good enough. And now, at 35-30-11, they’re even closer to official playoff elimination, 10 points back of the final Western Conference playoff spot with just six regular-season games remaining.

“I don’t know whether it’s tired, you know, lack of motivation (in) some of the guys in the room or, you know, what it is, we’re definitely a frustrated group here,” winger Kyle Connor said in a post-game Zoom conference from Amalie Arena. “It’s tough. Yeah, there’s a slight chance, but there is a chance to make playoffs here. And, you know, two critical games and, you know, we put up that kind of effort.”

Connor Hellebuyck got the hook in both games. The former Vezina Trophy winner and No. 1 netminder was beaten seven times on 32 shots by Tampa through 51:55 of action, 24 hours after the Panthers chased him from the net after two periods following four goals on 26 shots. Eric Comrie was once again tasked with mop-up duty.

“We left our goalie out to dry. Like we’ve done all year,” said veteran Paul Stastny. “Some games, (Hellebuyck) makes big saves or they don’t score but over the course if you keep giving up Grade A chances like that and keep leaving guys alone in the slot, you’re going to get burned. And when you play a skilled team like that, you give them that extra chance to make a play… like I said we left (Hellebuyck) out to dry and I think that’s the most disappointing part.”

Interim coach Dave Lowry said the same culprit once again reared its ugly head — his troops decided to try and get into a track meet with one of the elite squads in the league.

“Probably the biggest thing we will take away is that if we want to get into a rush game, if we want to trade chances up and down the ice, that’s probably not the strength of our hockey team,” said Lowry. “When we play what we deem the right way, where we play in straight lines, and when I talk about straight lines, it’s attacking. It’s about attacking with speed, it’s about getting pucks inside, getting to the net. When we play that way, we give ourselves a chance. When we start going up and down, giving and taking, it’s not going to play to our advantage.”

The Jets were spitting fire after getting blown out of the building by the Eastern Conference leading Panthers, and they certainly had a better start against a Lightning team that has been rather mediocre over the past few weeks.

Stastny opened the scoring just 56 seconds into the game, his 21st of the year. After Alex Killorn tied it on a deflection a few minutes later, Connor put the visitors back in front with a dazzling burst of speed and deke that ended with a backhanded beauty. His team-leading 43rd of the season was one of his finest. Back came Tampa, as Pierre-Edouard Bellemare evened it up with just over a minute to play in the first period.

Winnipeg looked to take control in the middle frame, after Josh Morrissey poked in a rebound at 7:36 on a play Tampa challenged for being offside. It was close, but replay review upheld the goal — Morrissey’s career-high 12th — and penalized the Lightning for delay of game, which captain Blake Wheeler took full advantage of on a nifty tip of a Neal Pionk shot ay 9:36. A two-goal lead at the midway point of the game seemingly had them in the driver’s seat, having beaten goalie Brian Elliott four times on just 11 shots.

But not for long. In what now appears to be a case of waking the sleeping giant, Tampa roared back with five straight goals, beginning with Nick Paul at 13:56 and Nikita Kucherov at 18:03 to once again send the teams to the dressing room all squared.

“What we take away is it doesn’t matter what the score is, when you stay with your game and you continue to put pressure on and force turnovers, you’re going to create opportunities. They capitalized on a couple of their opportunities just by putting pressure on late in the second,” said Lowry.

It was all Lightning in the final frame. Steven Stamkos put his club ahead for the first time just three minutes into the third, Kucherov added his second of the night at 6:50, and Mikhail Sergachev converted the touchdown at 11:55 to send Hellebuyck to the showers early. Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman had four assists in the game.

Stastny was asked why he thinks his team is still falling into so many bad old habits, now in their 76th game of the year. He gave a lengthy answer, describing the need to build and improve throughout the year and not simply rest on one’s laurels.

“The guys that take care of themselves, the guys that put in the work on the ice, off the ice, over the course of the year. I don’t want to say they raise their game, but they kind of stay consistent. And what happens in the season is if you’re not focused, you’re not dedicated, you’re not ready to go every single night, it gets away from you real quick,” said Stastny.

“That’s what we play this game for, we love the competition, we love the fight. And we love to win. If you’re not all there together, it’s tough to win in this league.”

Winnipeg will now have a few days to lick the wounds before facing old friends Andrew Copp and Jacob Trouba on Tuesday night in New York. Then it’s off to Raleigh for a Thursday night meeting with the Carolina Hurricanes before returning home for the final four games of the year.

Lowry said he’s not worried about his group’s ability to stay motivated down the stretch even if the playoffs are no longer a reality.

“These guys are National Hockey League players. Their level of professionalism, they’ll make sure they’re ready to play,” he said. “You look at teams we’ve played that haven’t been in the playoffs, we’ve talked about what these guys are playing for on a nightly basis, the sense of urgency on these teams. They’re not only playing for this year, they’re playing for next year and they’re playing for the year after that as well.”

Connor echoed his coach, suggesting there is plenty of reflection and soul-searching that needs to happen in the coming days,

“I think we can learn all as a group, you know, take a look in the mirror, every single one of us, top to bottom, and realize that we have a ways to go here,” said Connor. “Whether we’re in or out of the playoffs, six games, whatever it is, we have left, I don’t think it’s too soon to start building culture, having that right attitude in the group, so we’re going to look to build on that in the next couple of games.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg