Stars bring Jets down to earth

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This article was published 29/02/2024 (579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DALLAS – It was as though Rick Bowness had already seen the future.

In the build up to this showdown game against the Dallas Stars, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets correctly identified the issues that would need to be cleaned up. Things his club had gotten away with in a series of games against non-playoff teams during this four-game winning streak and stretch of seven victories over the past eight outings.

“We’re spending too much unnecessary time in our zone because we’re not getting pucks out on the boards and we’re turning pucks over at their blue line,” Bowness said after the morning skate.

Before the first period was complete, those not-yet-cleaned-up issues were a factor as the Jets fell behind 3-0 and never fully recovered in what turned into a 4-1 loss on Thursday night at American Airlines Centre.

“We’ve been talking about this for two weeks,” an obviously frustrated Bowness told the Free Press following the game.

“There was some good things in the first period, but then you just beat yourself and you give them three goals like we did. Having the puck twice and you turn it over. And then a terrible line change. That’s just beating yourself and giving a very good hockey team three goals. It wasn’t as bad as the score, but it was self-inflicted problems.”

Perhaps this will be the type of loss that snaps the Jets back to attention when it comes to drilling down on those details.

“Yeah we maybe got away with some things in our game that was uncharacteristic,” said defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “I don’t want to say lesser opponents but you know, we just got away with some things maybe, in the previous games. Where tonight, we’re down three nothing in a heartbeat when we’re not making the right plays and not making the right reads and it kind of hit us in the butt when we weren’t doing those things.

“So yeah, a bit of a wakeup call but I think at the same time, we understand what we did wrong and this group is pretty good at rectifying it so hopefully we can, short term memory here and in regards to a big game on Saturday.”

The Jets, who dropped to 37-16-5 on the season, are now 0-3 this season against the Stars, with one meeting remaining in April. Dallas improved to 36-17-9 and into sole possession of top spot in the Central Division, two points up on Winnipeg, who hold four games in hand.

“We haven’t brought our A game against them,” said Bowness. “There’s just not enough guys, tonight and the (other) games that brought their A game. A B game is not going to beat them. They’ve played better than we have.”

Let’s take a closer look at what transpired:

1 The early hole – Some poor puck management from Jets forward Cole Perfetti was a factor as the Jets fell behind 1-0. Perfetti had the puck behind the net in the defensive zone and his errant pass up the left-wing boards was kept in at the right point. Since Jets defenceman Neal Pionk thought the puck would be sent into the neutral zone, he jumped into the rush, leaving just one man back before Jason Robertson fired a puck through the pads of Connor Hellebuyck, who made his 43rd start of the season.

With Perfetti already bumped down to the fourth line and on his off-wing as he battles through an extended scoring slump that has now reached 18 games, this is the type of play that the young forward needs to avoid. But it’s another learning moment he needs to battle through.

A perfect redirection by Joe Pavelski extended the lead and the D-zone coverage wasn’t ideal, though it was more a matter of the veteran forward doing a great job of getting his stick loose to tip home the point shot from Jani Hakanpaa.

The third goal from Logan Stankoven came after a neutral zone turnover that could have been avoided. Stankoven earned high praise from Bowness prior to the game and his compete level to find a rebound was a great example of why the comparison to Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Point makes sense.

“We can’t be spotting teams three goal leads, especially in the first period. It was just some mental lapses, and they capitalized,” said DeMelo.

“We felt internally here we gave them those three goals. Down 3-0 to any team in this league is tough. When you’re down 3-0 against these guys in their home building, when we know they haven’t won many games here in the last five, they were 1-2-2, we knew it was going to be a tough task.”

2 The juggle – In an effort to try and spark the offence, Bowness promoted Vlad Namestnikov to the top line during the second period with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, shuffling Gabriel Vilardi to the fourth line in the process. Namestnikov ended up scoring a power-play marker for the second unit to get the Jets on the board.

“We still did a lot of good things,” said Namestnikov. “After 3-0 I thought we kind of turned it around and climbed back into a little bit, but we couldn’t get the second one there.”

The third period saw Bowness turn the blender to full strength as a number of different combinations were tested out. One player who saw his ice time limited was Vilardi, who didn’t take a single shift in the third period and finished with 10:31 of ice time.

“Gabe is hurt. He’s not benched. He’s dealing with an upper-body injury, so we had to cut back because he was struggling out there. You could tell,” said Bowness, noting Vilardi might not be an option to play on Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Roope Hintz ultimately iced any chance of a comeback with an empty-netter in the final minute.

3 The goalie battle – It’s not like Hellebuyck had a rough outing, but he didn’t get a whole lot of help either. Hellebuyck finished with 32 saves, including 25 in the final 40 minutes as he did his best to keep his team within striking distance. The Vezina Trophy favourite is expected to get the call on Saturday against the Carolina Hurricaness.

“He was great. He wasn’t the issue at all,” said Bowness. “It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get a five-on-five goal and get us going.”

In the other crease, Jake Oettinger looked nothing like a guy with a goals-against average just a shade under three and a save percentage of .901 heading into the contest. Oettinger went into the contest with a 4-0-1 record, a .919 save percentage and 2.18 goals-against average in his career against the Jets and found a way to improve those numbers, stopping 25 of 26 shots.

4 Admiration shown – Stars head coach Peter DeBoer is familiar with Brenden Dillon from his time with the San Jose Sharks and he’s proud of the player the Jets defenceman has grown into.

“One of my favourites that I’ve coached,” said DeBoer. “He’s turned himself into a great defenceman. He’s a lot like the guy we just traded for (Chris Tanev). Physical, hard to play against, can skate and move the puck out of trouble. He’ll stand up for teammates.

“I loved all of those qualities about Dilly. The thing I liked even more was in the dressing room. He’s just a good man. He’s got great energy every day. A great teammate. I’m not surprised seeing what he’s done.”

Dillon set a career-high with his seventh goal on Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues and has grown into an important member of the leadership group – one of those guys that doesn’t need a letter to lead, even though he wore an A as an alternate captain when Scheifele missed time due to injury earlier this season.

Dillon had a big hit on Stars forward Ty Dellandrea in the opening minute of the contest, then made a brilliant defensive play to prevent Stars forward Matt Duchene from scoring a backdoor tap-in during a third period minor to Alex Iafallo.

5 The trade (for the opponent) – Stars general manager Jim Nill executed a nifty piece of business on Wednesday night, acquiring Tanev from the Calgary Flames in a three-way deal for defence prospect Artem Grushnikov, a 2024 second-rounder and a conditional 2026 third-rounder. The Flames retained 50% of the salary, then the Stars sent a fourth-round pick to the New Jersey Devils so that they would retain another 50% of the salary. That meant that the cap-strapped Stars shaved the salary cap hit down to $1.125 million for Tanev.

“It’s a treasure hunt,” said Nill, asked about the process of trying to find a dance partner to help retain salary.

As for where the Stars stand after the trade, Nill said it’s too early to tell if further additions could be forthcoming before next Friday’s deadline.

“It’s no secret. We’ve got a good team. We’ve got to go out and do it now,” said Nill. “We’ve got as good a chance as anybody, but I’ve been around a long time. It’s hard to win the Stanley Cup. Let’s give ourselves the best opportunity and let’s make our roster as good as we can get it and let’s start playing the right way now.”

DeBoer wasn’t quite sure who he was going to have Tanev partner with, but he appreciates having the option to either put him on a pairing with one of Miro Heiskanen or Thomas Harley or to use him on more of a shutdown grouping.

“He was right at the top of everyone’s list and probably everybody’s list in the league and for Jim (Nill) to be proactive and go out and get him, I thought it was fantastic,” said DeBoer. “From a coaching perspective and for our room and for our group and for playoff hockey, he’s got all of those attributes.

“He’s got better puck skills and skating than people give him credit for. He can skate and move the puck under pressure. He’s also a big, physical, hard guy to play against. That gives you lots of options.”

“A really exciting move for us,” added Duchene. “He’s a guy we’ve been talking about for a long time because we thought he might be available. Especially doing it now, too, and not waiting until the deadline. We know that what the belief is from top to bottom in here, that we can win a Stanley Cup this year. There’s a lot of games left and we’re probably in the most competitive division in the league. It’s so tight (in the Central Division) and if you can get a guy like that, it can help put things over the top.”

Tanev didn’t suit up against the Jets on Thursday and isn’t expected to make his Stars debut until at least Saturday because of standard immigration paperwork required when a player joins an American team.

Tanev, a pending unrestricted free agent who made his pro debut with the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League back in the 2010-11 season, has a goal and 14 points in 56 games this season, but his value is measured well beyond his stat line.

He’s a guy who was believed to be coveted by the Jets, so it will be interesting to see who might be on the radar if the team is going to add a blue-liner prior to next Friday.

6 Extra, extra – The Jets didn’t make any changes to the forwards or defenceman, which left D-man Logan Stanley and forwards Rasmus Kupari and David Gustafsson as the healthy scratches. The Stars were without forward Tyler Seguin, who remains week-to-week with a lower-body issue. Seguin has 29 goals and 54 points in 48 career games against the Jets.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

X: @WiebesWorld