Make no mistake about it

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This article was published 19/11/2022 (1070 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hockey is usually a game of mistakes, where the team that makes the fewest typically comes out on top.

That was certainly the case Saturday night at Canada Life Centre, where the Winnipeg Jets committed a pair of doozies that quickly ended up in the back of their net. Throw in an empty-net goal, and that’s essentially the story behind a 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in front of a sold-out crowd of 15,325.

Winnipeg falls to 10-5-1 on the year, losing in regulation for just the second time in 11 games. Pittsburgh improves to 8-7-3.

“That’s an experienced team over there. Listen, that was a hard-fought game. We didn’t give up much at all. And they didn’t give us very much at all,” said Jets coach Rick Bowness.

Tristan Jarry had plenty to say in the outcome as well, as the Penguins netminder put a terrible start to his season in the rear-view mirror and stopped all 32 shots he faced to the shutout. Meanwhile, Winnipeg just couldn’t get any offence going, including two power play chances that came up empty.

“You have nights it just doesn’t go in,” said Bowness. “The puck trickles by the post, or hits something and goes wide, or a shot misses the net. Or the goalie makes big saves. He did. Give him credit. He made a lot of big saves. That’s hockey. If we weren’t getting those chances we’d be upset. We had enough chances to score tonight.”

Let’s break down where it all went wrong, shall we:

1) With neither team finding the back of the net through 40 minutes — Jarry and Connor Hellebuyck had stopped all 44 combined shots that had come their way — it was a case of waiting to see which squad would blink first.

And it took only 53 seconds into the final frame to get the answer. A sloppy line change for the Jets opened up all kinds of time and space on the right side, which Evgeni Malkin (playing in his 999th career NHL game) used to find Jason Zucker for a beautiful one-timer that beat Hellebuyck high.

“I would call it a bad decision. It wasn’t slow. It was just coming off at the wrong time,” said Bowness.

2) With the clock ticking down and the Jets pushing for the equalizer, Hellebuyck was on the cusp of coming out of his net for the extra attacker. He got close to his bench, only for the puck to suddenly come his way.

Danger! Danger!

Hellebuyck tried to play it along the boards, but his backhander was picked off by none other than Sidney Crosby, who found linemate Bryan Rust all alone for what was essentially an empty-netter. The goal, at 18:26 of the final frame, was a dagger.

“I wouldn’t over analyze it. Just a tough break. Sid’s the smartest hockey player in the world,” is how Bowness described the blunder.

“It comes down to a mistake and it’s in the net. We had enough scoring chances to make it 1-1, but we didn’t score. Jarry was very good for them. We made a mistake and they scored, and that’s really the hockey game. But that was a hard fought, well-played game for both teams. They didn’t give us much, and didn’t give them…we held them to 10 or so scoring chances five on five. We didn’t give up much. We just didn’t score.”

3) Pittsburgh came into tonight scoring 3.65 goals-per-game — 4th best in the NHL — and having just hung a six-spot on Minnesota Thursday night. But they also were very leaky defensively, with Jarry sporting a bloated 3.60 goals-against-average and shaky .895 save-percentage through 10 games this year.

You’d never know it in this tight defensive battle, where they made the Jets work for every single inch.

“They got the lead early in the third and did a pretty good job of breaking it out and being tough to get through in the neutral zone,” said defenceman Josh Morrissey. “Obviously, that’s a veteran team over there and there are some things we can do better to get some offence in the third when we are pushing. Both goalies played well and it probably could have went either way for a lot of the game.”

4) One of the major concerns about the Jets coming into this year was whether they had enough depth scoring. And that was before Nikolaj Ehlers (groin), Mason Appleton (wrist) and Morgan Barron (wrist) all suffered injuries that require/required surgery, keeping them out long-term.

So in a game where they get blanked, the issue will once again become a talking point.

“It’s tough. You lose Fly (Ehlers), who is an unbelievable talent, Mason who was playing great playing up and down the lineup, and (Barron) was really starting to come into his own, playing with a lot of confidence. You put those guys out for extended periods of time and it’s tough, it affects your depth,” said centre Adam Lowry, who began the year on a third line with Appleton and Barron, who have now been replaced by Saku Maenalanen and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby.

“When you lose guys like that, it’s important to try and integrate the other guys as fast as possible, try and get them up to speed and try and get them comfortable so they can work toward their strengths and chip in defensively, offensively and that’s what we’re going to try and do. No one feels sorry for you when you’re missing players. Everyone goes through injuries and it’s important we continue to find ways to win, even without those guys in the lineup.”

5) Go figure: The Jets have played in front of two packed houses this season. And they’re now 0-2 in those games. A 4-1 loss to Toronto on Oct. 22. And now the 3-0 setback to Sid the Kid and company on Saturday night witnessed by 15,325.

In the six other home games that haven’t been sold out, Winnipeg is a perfect 6-0.

6) Bowness had a final message as he wrapped up his media availability:

“Good luck to Mike O’Shea and the Blue Bombers tomorrow,” he said. “Go Blue.”

UP NEXT: The Jets wrap up the three-game homestand by hosting Carolina on Monday night.

“We’re going to play a lot of hockey here coming up and it’s one of the best teams in hockey coming in here. We’re looking forward to that challenge,” said Lowry. “It’s one of these things, you’re going to look at the tape and try and learn from it and then kind of implement some changes for Carolina. We know they have a lot of speed, they defend really well. They kind of roll all four lines and they come at you. It’s going to be a great test for us and it’s important we use (Sunday’s) practice to get ready for it.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg