Flyers flatten slumping Jets

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This article was published 08/02/2024 (606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PHILADELPHIA — As their play has started to slip in recent weeks, Winnipeg Jets players and coaches have made a concerted effort to distance themselves from recent second-half collapses.

Not this time. Not with this group. And there was still enough about their effort, even when things didn’t go their way, to make you believe that will be the case.

But Thursday’s putrid showing in Philadelphia — a 4-1 loss to the Flyers that now extends a season-worst winless streak to five games — is the kind that will likely bring a disturbing sense of deja vu to supporters of the NHL club.

“Our standard is that we’re ready to go from puck drop, we’re ready to go on faceoffs, we’re ready with our details, we’re ready for anything,” a clearly frustrated Dylan DeMelo told the Free Press outside the team’s locker room at Wells Fargo Center.

“That’s why that first period was unacceptable for our group.”

Indeed, you could make an argument the final score flattered the Jets, who gave up a trio of goals in an ugly opening 20 minutes to make this a pretty easy night for the Flyers, who added a shorthanded tally in the middle frame and then took the foot off the gas and cruised the rest of the way.

“Throughout the season, there’s an expectation. There’s a structure that we’ve been dominant (with) when we’re doing it and we’ve kind of gotten away from it the last couple of weeks,” said captain Adam Lowry.

“It starts with all of us. There’s things individually we can all clean up and then there’s things structurally that we can all clean up. I think some of it’s just being ready to go right off the hop.”

Fortunately for the Jets, they built up plenty of breathing room in the standings thanks to a franchise-best start. But a few more performances like this one and all those good feelings will be replaced by the ever-present ghosts of the past.

Winnipeg is now 30-14-5, but just 2-5-1 in the last eight games. A squad that sat on top of the entire NHL in mid-January in terms of win percentage has now dropped to third place in its own division.

“Hopefully, get it out of our system now,” said DeMelo.

“This group, we can handle adversity. We feel confident with that. We’re learning every day here. We’re going to continue to get better. And we’ll get out of this little rut together.”

Philadelphia, which just snapped a five-game losing streak on Tuesday night in Florida, improves to 27-19-6.

Let’s go to the tape on this one and break it down further:

1) TORCHED OFF THE HOP: Winnipeg’s pre-scout told them one major thing about Philadelphia — they are a dynamic team off the rush. Be careful not to get burned.

No doubt it drove coach Rick Bowness up the wall to see his team surrender the opening goal just 3:37 into the game on the very play they were warned about, with Ryan Poehling feeding Tyson Foerster for a net-front tap-in.

Jets forward Gabe Vilardi, covering for a pinching Dylan Samberg, couldn’t tie up Foerster. It was not his best moment.

“That was a gift. We were there. We just let him (Foerster) go,” a clearly frustrated Bowness said.

Notably, Vilardi was shuffled off the top line with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor down to the fourth line beside Morgan Barron and Vlad Namestnikov for a spell in what was a not-so-subtle message being sent. Alex Iafallo moved up.

Unfortunately for the Jets, things only got worse as Travis Konecny took advantage of some terrible defensive zone coverage by Winnipeg to score at 14:03, and then Morgan Frost pounced on a loose puck that had deflected off Jets defenceman Nate Schmidt’s face seconds earlier to make it 3-0 at 18:06.

“That (first goal) put us on our heels a little bit. Then they got a couple of scrambly goals, with bouncing pucks that went their way,” said Bowness.

2) POWER PLAY HITS A NEW LOW? It’s bad enough the Jets began the night in a 2-for-34 slide over the last 10 games when “enjoying” a man advantage.

But it really took a turn in the second period when Kyle Connor and Josh Morrissey ran into each other at the Winnipeg blue-line on their first crack on the power play, and Poehling took full advantage and went down to score a shorthanded tally.

Winnipeg ended up going 0-for-3 on the night, so they are now 2-for-37 over the last 11 games.

Nikolaj Ehlers did hit a crossbar, and there was some decent puck movement and chances, but in a results-oriented business that’s just white noise at this point.

3) TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE: There was a sequence early in the third period that perfectly sums up the state of Winnipeg’s offence these days.

Connor pounced on a puck in his own end and looked to have a breakaway. Perhaps tired because it was the end of a shift, he decided to go wide as Ehlers joined him, bringing along a Flyers defender. It was now a 2-on-1.

The Jets didn’t even manage a shot out of it, as Connor’s pass to Ehlers was behind him.

Connor did manage to score later in the period, a nifty play in which he tucked in his team-leading 19th of the season. The most noteworthy thing here is that Bowness had moved Ehlers up to play with Scheifele and Connor, while Vilardi took Ehlers’ original spot on the second line with Sean Monahan and Cole Perfetti.

Although the Flyers had no reason to be pushing the play with a comfortable lead, the Jets did show some signs of life. Bowness said it’s something to build off.

“The most important thing from that is how you respond and I thought we responded very well in the second and third periods, we dominated,” said Bowness.

The Jets have scored just 10 goals in the last eight games.

It starts with me. We’ll pull through this,” Bowness insisted.

“Listen, at five-on-five, we’re still the best team in this league. Right now, we’re not scoring goals. So, we’re going to stay with what the Winnipeg Jets are and we’re going to keep working and we’ll pull through this.”

4) PENNSYLVANIA PAIN: Bad news. The Jets have now played nine periods of hockey this year against Pennsylvania-based teams. They’ve been outscored 9-1.

Worse news: Their next three periods are against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who shut them out 3-0 on Tuesday night and visit Canada Life Centre on Saturday night.

The Flyers took both games in the home-and-home season series, with rookie goaltender Samuel Ersson nearly pitching a pair of shutouts. He stopped all 35 shots he faced in the 2-0 triumph on Jan. 13 in Winnipeg, and turned aside all 28 of 29 pucks that came his way on Thursday.

At the other end of the rink, Laurent Brossoit got the start for Winnipeg and stopped 17 of 21 shots he faced. It’s hard to put any blame on his shoulders given the play in front of him.

“You don’t want to hang your goalie out to dry,” said Lowry.

“Our goaltending has been phenomenal. It’s been the best in the league all year so you know they’re the backbone of this team and you want to compete, you want to battle for him. You want to give him the best chance, the best opportunity to come up with a win and unfortunately we didn’t do that off the start.”

5) EXTRA, EXTRA: With Brenden Dillon serving the first of a three-game suspension, Logan Stanley played for the first time in 22 games. He finished with three shots on goal in 14:51 of ice time and was a minus-two.

Forwards Rasmus Kupari and Dominic Toninato were the two healthy scratches.

Konecny had a Gordie Howe hat trick in the first period, with an assist on Frost’s goal and a fight with Neal Pionk.

If there’s a bright spot for the Jets, it’s that the penalty kill went 4-for-4, including a 58 second five-on-three advantage in the third period which included a diving Brossoit stop.

“These aren’t moral victories but these are little things we can take and kind of push into the game against Pittsburgh,” said Lowry.

“That’s our expectation over the next 48 hours. How do we get out of this funk? How can we get back to being that elite team, 5-on-5, and that elite team in the standings and get what we expect out of everyone. We’re looking forward to that challenge.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg