Desperate Devils dominate Jets

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This article was published 21/03/2024 (564 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEWARK, N.J — Brenden Dillon is a hard-hitter on the ice. And a straight-shooter off it. The veteran Winnipeg Jets defenceman took a healthy run at his own team after a frustrating 4-1 loss here on Thursday night.

It wasn’t difficult to see what the difference was. The New Jersey Devils went 3-for-4 on the power play, then added a 5-on-6 empty-netter to seal the deal. The visitors went 0-for-4 with the man advantage.

“Just unacceptable really. We lost the game on special teams,” Dillon told the Free Press.

“We know how important it is on both sides of it, giving your team momentum, a big goal, a big kill at the right time. Our power play, they had a couple of good looks. Their goalie made some good saves. But to give up (expletive) three PK goals is just absolutely unacceptable for us.”

Yeah, Dillon was pretty hot. Which speaks to the high standard the Jets have set, one which clearly wasn’t met on this night as they were soundly outplayed and outshot by a whopping 41-20 margin.

“Just overall not good enough. Obviously special teams wasn’t there, both of them,” said forward Nikolaj Ehlers, who scored the lone goal for Winnipeg and the only tally on the night that came at even strength.

“We’re not happy with this one.”

Winnipeg entered play on a three-game winning streak which included a stellar 4-2 victory on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden over the New York Rangers. New Jersey didn’t pose nearly the same danger, at least on paper, but they were a more desperate group given they are currently outside the playoff picture.

“We talked about it,” said associate coach Scott Arniel.

“We knew it was a big game against the Rangers. It was a letdown (Thursday night), but we’ve got some hungry animals that we’re facing here. If you don’t bring your best, those are the type of results that happen.”

Winnipeg falls to 44-20-5 and remains in a three-way tie for first place in the Central Division with Colorado and Dallas. The Jets and Avalanche have 13 games remaining, the Stars 12. New Jersey improves to 34-32-4.

Here’s a further breakdown:

1) Freaky first — Perhaps the fact there were three whistles in the first 30 seconds should have been a sign that the opening period was going to be a bit of a strange one.

Neither team could really find any kind of early flow, and it didn’t help that the puck may as well have been a tennis ball given how many times it bounced out of play. Maybe it was the ice, which clearly had some issues and even led to a brief delay while crews tried to patch an apparent pothole that popped up.

No doubt that made Winnipeggers in the crowd — and there were plenty of them based on the jerseys and the enthusiastic “True North” shout during O Canada — feel right home.

Once the action did get going, it was a case of quality over quantity.

New Jersey’s first shot of the night came just past the five minute mark and was a Nico Hischier breakaway, which Laurent Brossoit calmly gloved down.

Devils goaltender Jake Allen was pressed into duty for the first time just seconds later, thwarting Ehlers on a solo chance after Tyler Toffoli fed him a great pass on a two-on-one-rush.

Both teams would continue to get quality looks, with Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg and forward David Gustafsson both making timely stick checks to take away what might have been tap-ins for the Devils.

“They weren’t giving us much in the way of rush (chances). They were sitting back with five guys in the neutral zone, they were kind of waiting for us to make mistakes,” said Arniel.

“We were just kind of hanging in there. I didn’t think our execution was great in the first, but at the end of the day, it was one of those games where we had to stay patient.”

2) Not-so-sleepy second — Business picked up in the middle frame.

That was especially the case for Brossoit, who faced a whopping 22 shots, many of the extremely difficult variety.

Only one managed to beat him, off the stick of Jack Hughes during a New Jersey power play. It came after Dillon got stung blocking a shot and Winnipeg got called for too many men when they tried to replace the hobbled Dillon too early.

It was the first goal Brossoit has surrendered in 179 minutes and 40 seconds of play dating back to the second period on March 3 against the Buffalo Sabres.

Facing a deficit, Ehlers took matters into his own hands during a dazzling rush from his own blue-line in which he evaded a couple New Jersey checkers and beat Allen for his 21st of the season.

“They got a little tired and just wanted to turn it right away and get it into their zone. But I think I kind of saw a lane open up for me to take it through,” Ehlers said of the play.

It’s the type of goal we’ve seen before from Ehlers, one that reminds us how the special skillset he possesses.

“Unbelievable. Really, what can you say more about him?” said Dillon.

“We see those all of the time for us during the year. He’s elite-level skill with elite-level speed. It’s amazing what those guys can do. All they need is one opportunity like that to make you pay. It was a big goal at a crucial time of the game for us. Unfortunately, we couldn’t keep it going.”

3) Third period thud — A Dylan DeMelo hooking penalty ended up in the go-ahead goal from Hischier at 5:59. That was followed by a Morgan Barron interference minor that ended in the insurance marker for Hughes.

On both plays, the Jets had chances to clear their own zone and get much-needed line changes, only to whiff, get pinned in and ultimately get scored upon.

“You can’t give up three goals,” said Arniel.

“We had some chances to clear pucks and we didn’t. We had some situations, even right near the end when (the penalty) was almost over and we just kind of fell asleep on those situations. At the end of the day, their power play was certainly a lot more dangerous than ours was.”

Indeed, the Jets generated very little during their own man advantages, including the extended six-on-five near the end of the game which ended with Timo Meier scoring into an empty net.

“Sometimes it goes that way,” said Ehlers.

“And, you know, you can’t score a power play goal every night. You know, we obviously tried to and our PK’s trying to shut their PP down every single night but obviously we need to do a lot better.”

4) Looking forward — There’s not a lot of time to sulk over this one. The Jets will finish out this road trip with back-to-back weekend matinees against the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals, who are in the mix with the Devils to try and grab a wildcard spot.

“We gotta stay positive,” said Dillon.

“We’re still on top of our division. But we’re in a heavy race here right to the end. Specials teams, especially come playoff time, teams are going to play physical, come hard, and take an extra run at somebody, we’ve got to be able to make them pay on the power play and the same thing on the PK. We’ve gotta have crucial kills and certain times for us. Every one of these games is a tune-up for that. We want to stay positive. We’re a confident group for sure. Just not a great night for us.”

The Jets made one lineup change, with defenceman Colin Miller (acquired from the Devils at the trade deadline) replacing Nate Schmidt. Miller had been a healthy scratch for the past three games. Schmidt joined defenceman Logan Stanley and forwards Cole Perfetti and Rasmus Kupari in the press box.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg