Predators prey on lacklustre Jets

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This article was published 13/03/2024 (572 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Win one, lose one. Good game, bad game. Rinse, repeat.

Such is life lately for the consistently inconsistent Winnipeg Jets, who find themselves riding a roller-coaster through a busy portion of the regular-season schedule. They took a downward plunge on Wednesday night at Canada Life Centre, falling 4-2 to a Nashville Predators club that only knows one direction — up – these days.

The final score flattered the home team. After a neat and tidy 3-0 triumph on Monday night against the Washington Capitals, this one was the polar opposite.

“The execution was way off from the start,” said a clearly frustrated coach Rick Bowness, who made a point of noting he didn’t even go in the room post-game to address his troops.

“Nope. I’ll deal with it (Thursday). Sometimes the players can speak up. It doesn’t have to come from the coach. I’ll deal with that (Thursday),” he said.

“Listen, this group cares. It’s a good team. They do care an awful lot. We were way off. There’s only so much I can go in there and say.”

Asked if had any ideas on what’s led to the recent erratic play, Bowness offered this curious response: “Yeah. A little bit. Not going to share it with you. Good try.”

Winnipeg falls to 41-19-5, but just 2-3-0 in the last five. Nashville improves to 38-25-4, including 11-0-2 in the last 13.

Let’s go to the tape on this one:

1) Sick bay – Mark Scheifele is the latest member of the Jets to be felled by a flu bug that just doesn’t want to go away. Although he participated in the optional morning skate, the team’s leading scorer wasn’t feeling well enough to play. That left a big hole, especially with top winger Gabe Vilardi missing a seventh straight game due to an undisclosed medical issue.

Scheifele’s absence prompted some roster shuffling. Vlad Namestnikov moved up from the fourth line to start the game between Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor, although there was plenty of in-game shuffling. Rasmus Kupari came into the lineup to take Namestnikov’s spot between Morgan Barron and Cole Perfetti.

Give what would transpire on the ice, you wonder how many other Jets players might be feeling under the weather but quietly trying to play through it.

2) Slow start – Gustav Nyquist is just 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, which would be on the smallish size for an NHL player. Still, that’s no excuse for the Jets to somehow not see him at all standing on their blue-line, where a beautiful stretch pass from Roman Josi sprung him on a breakaway. Brenden Dillon was the main culprit here, unable to catch the Nashville forward who ripped a wrist shot past Connor Hellebuyck just 6:38 into the game to put the Jets in an early deficit.

Josi was at it again later in the frame, once again taking advantage of some porous defensive work by Winnipeg. He made a terrific feed to Kiefer Sherwood, who ripped a shot just under the crossbar to make it 2-0 for the visitors at 14:32.

The Jets, meanwhile, were unable to do any damage at the other end, with the most dangerous chance being a three-on-one rush late in the period which was thwarted by a hustle back-check from Filip Forsberg.

Although the shots were even 10-10 through 20 minutes, it was Nashville which largely carried the play and had a well-deserved lead.

3) Poor pushback — You assumed the Jets would come out flying in the second period, no doubt wanting to quickly get back in the game. But the opposite happened, with a truly ugly middle frame in which the only positive thing you can say is they somehow didn’t allow the deficit to get any bigger.

Hellebuyck was a big reason for that, stopping all 19 shots he faced. Meanwhile, Winnipeg managed only seven on Juuse Saros.

The Jets also took a pair of minor penalties, which is what you’d expect from a team that didn’t have the puck very often and was constantly chasing the opponent around the ice.

“A lack of execution, for sure, from our group,” said defenceman Dylan DeMelo.

“There was room for plays and when they were, we weren’t making them and when there wasn’t room for plays, we weren’t getting the puck in deep and playing the game the way was being played. We tried to force things when it wasn’t there. Not a lot of net-front action there, (though) we had a couple of tips. It just wasn’t very clean. Our breakouts could have been cleaner. We iced a lot of pucks. Some uncharacteristic things for us, so when we’re not executing and they’re playing their game to a tee, that’s what you’re going to get.”

4) Terrible third — It couldn’t get any worse, right? Wrong.

Forsberg (1:29) and Jason Zucker (1:51) snuffed out any hopes of a comeback by scoring 22 seconds apart before many of the 13,331 in attendance could even find their seats following the intermission

Once again, some ugly neutral and defensive zone play was the main culprit.

“That was tough,” said forward Alex Iafallo. “Sometimes it happens. Maybe we weren’t prepared, or whatever it may be. You know, bouncing pucks, small passes, they just weren’t going our way. We’ve got to stick together in those times and keep working at it and keep moving forward.”

Just when it looked like the Jets were headed to a second shutout loss in the past three games, Iafallo tipped home a Dillon point shot with 6:48 left in regulation to prevent Saros from a clean sheet. The goal was initially waved off due to a high-stick, overturned following a referee consultation and then upheld on video review.

Iafallo’s 10th of the year now gives the Jets 12 players — all forwards — to hit double-digits.

Winnipeg added one more with 11 seconds left in the game as Mason Appleton buried a rebound while on the power play. Colin Miller, acquired in a trade with the New Jersey Devils last week, registered his first point with the Jets.

Don’t let the pair of late tallies fool you — this was nothing but window dressing.

5) Extra, extra – Winnipeg finished 1-for-3 on the power play, while Nashville went 0-for-3.

Hellebuyck stopped 34 of 38 shots, while Saros turned aside 27 of 29,

Predators forward Cody Glass, a Winnipeg product who scored his first NHL hat trick less than two weeks ago, was a healthy scratch for a third straight game.

Forward David Gustafsson and defencemen Nate Schmidt and Logan Stanley were Winnipeg’s extras.

The Jets are scheduled to practice Thursday, then close out the homestand on Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks.

“We’ve got to understand what went wrong and move on,” said DeMelo.

“At the same time, there are so many games we’ve got going on this month that at this point of the season, we know what our game looks like. We’re confident we can get back to it. Tonight, we didn’t have it. Hats off to Nashville, they did and they played really well.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg