Jets singing the Blues

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This article was published 19/03/2023 (905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. LOUIS — At a time of year in the NHL where teams are supposed to be building on their identity and ramping up the intensity level, the Winnipeg Jets are drowning in inconsistency and are lacking the kind of emotion required down the final stretch.

With just 12 games remaining in the regular season and Winnipeg clinging to the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, the Jets are in a fight for their playoff lives and every point matters. But you wouldn’t have known that based on what was seen Sunday, as the visitors put forth a listless effort in 3-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center.

Just 24 hours removed from a come-from-behind road victory over a watered-down Nashville Predators club, the Jets were unable to pull another rabbit from their hats against another team that sold off a ton of talent at the trade deadline and are already looking towards next season. And while it came at the end of a back-to-back, the Jets just have too much at stake to use that as an excuse and play with such a lack of emotion.

“Any time you lose a game at this time of year, I feel like it’s a lost opportunity to get yourself a little further in the standings,” Jets defenceman Nate Schmidt said after the game. “We have one more home game for this month and we’ve got to capitalize on that against Arizona (Tuesday). We have 11 games left to do right.”

The loss dropped the Jets record to 39-29-3. Winnipeg has just five wins in their last 17 games (5-10-2).

As for the Blues, who got goals from Kasperi Kapanen, Nathan Walker and Jakub Vrana, the victory improved their overall mark to 31-33-5. St. Louis has a better record, at 7-8-2, than the Jets over the same stretch of games.

Let’s dig a little deeper into this one.

1) Kapanen put the Blues up 1-0 just 4:04 into the opening frame, finishing off a nice pass from Nick Leddy, who had caught four Jets defenders flat-footed in front of the net. Winnipeg had started strong, even outshooting the Blues 13-7 by the end of the period, but the goal seemed to take the wind from out of its collective sails.

The lead could have grown even bigger had it not been for Connor Hellebuyck, who robbed Robert Thomas and Kapanen, both of whom had glorious opportunities from the slot in the immediate shifts that followed the goal. Hellebuyck had to make another superb save in the dying seconds of the period, poke-checking Brandon Saad on a breakaway to keep it a one-goal game at intermission.

The Jets have allowed the first goal in five straight games and nine of the last 10. To be continually chasing the game early is no recipe for success; it gives the opponent the chance to lower their risk profile in order to keep the lead, especially with the Jets struggling to find the back of the net in recent weeks.

“We couldn’t ask for a better start and then all of a sudden we’re down 1-0 because we make a mistake and it’s in the back of the net,” Jets head coach Rick Bowness said. “We went through this earlier in the year and then we went through a stretch when we were scoring the first goal, so we’ll get that back.”

2) The power play, or lack thereof, has been a storyline for weeks and its lack of punch was once again present on this night. It’s gotten to the point where it’s beyond perplexing how inefficient it’s been, despite seemingly having a ton of offensive talent.

The Jets were gifted a four-minute power play in the first period after Blues defenceman Torey Krug lost his cool on Kevin Stenlund for a check he delivered on Walker, which led to 16 penalty minutes, including a 10-minute game misconduct (Stenlund got a roughing minor). Winnipeg mustered just two shots.

They’d earn just one more power play in the game, which wasn’t much better, even with speedy forward Nikolaj Ehlers moving to the top unit. The Jets have just one goal on 15 power plays over their past five games and only three on 27 power plays over their last eight.

“It doesn’t mean you have to win them with six goals every night, but you want to score enough to win games and we haven’t been doing that,” Ehlers said. “So, we know what we need to do, it’s just a matter of going out there and doing it.”

The Jets have been shut out five times this season and twice over the last three games.

3) Full credit to Blues goaltender – and Winnipeg native, no less – Joel Hofer, who was thrust into action with starter Jordan Binnington serving a two-game suspension for feeding a blocker to the face Ryan Hartman in an 8-5 loss to the Minnesota Wild earlier in the week.

Hofer stopped all 33 shots he faced for what should have been his first NHL shutout, in what was just his fourth start of his career. But since he lost his skate blade during a play and had to leave the game, resulting in Thomas Greiss playing a few minutes, under NHL rules, it doesn’t count.

Hofer was stellar in a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Friday – his first start of the season – ending the night with 32 saves.

“There’s obviously a little more motivation there, but I thought the team played really well in front of me,” Hofer said. “Obviously, limited them to a lot of outside chances and it was nice to get the win, especially against those guys.”

Hellebuyck didn’t get nearly the same support from his team. He only faced 17 shots on the night, but they were far more threatening.

Walker had a tap-in goal in the second, finishing off a cross-crease feed from Justin Faulk, who was allowed to gain the zone with relative ease. Vrana iced at the 12-minute mark of the third, capping off a breakaway with that shot that found its way through Hellebuyck’s five-hole.

4) It’s becoming increasingly clear that Bowness is running out of ways to motivate his club. He’s no longer calling out his players like earlier in the year, notably his stars like Mark Scheifele, who continues to be a liability in the defensive zone.

Instead, he’s trying to get them to embrace where they are, live in the moment and forget about the past. Not that you can blame him, as the challenges he used to deliver that would yield results aren’t working anymore, the lack of emotion is so clear not even Ehlers getting pummeled in a fight against a much bigger opponent in Brayden Schenn was enough to light a fire.

“Have a short memory. We got to get ready for Tuesday,” Bowness said. “We’re in eighth spot. You’d rather be in eighth spot than ninth. This is where we are, now it’s up to us to stay there and hopefully push up a little higher.”

The Jets head home four points up on the Calgary Flames, who have a game in hand, for the final playoff spot and five points up on the Predators, who have played three fewer. To call Tuesday’s game against the lowly Coyotes a must-win would be an understatement; the Jets hope they can make statement by earning those crucial two points and get back to a game they can be proud of.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton