Strong bounce-back by Jets still not enough Ovechkin scores twice as Capitals post shutout By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 4:09 PM CDT Sunday, Mar. 24, 2024

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Josh Morrissey sat silently at his locker-room stall inside Capital One Arena — long after the rest of his teammates had cleared out.

Although the Winnipeg Jets defenceman wasn’t requested by reporters for his post-game assessment, the dejected look on his face was telling.

This one stung. A lot.

A 3-0 loss to the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon wrapped up a season-long road trip that began with so much promise — victories over the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers last Sunday and Tuesday — only to take a concerning U-turn.

A Thursday night stinker against the New Jersey Devils. A complete no-show on Saturday afternoon against the New York Islanders. And then, maybe the most painful one of all, when a much-improved effort led to the same frustrating result.

“I thought we competed hard. I thought we deserved better,” defenceman Dylan DeMelo told the Free Press.

“I thought we competed hard. I thought we deserved better”–Dylan DeMelo

That was certainly the case through the first 40 minutes, when Winnipeg carried the play by a significant margin, outshot Washington 21-11 and probably should have been up by a goal or two if not for some poor puck luck and stellar netminding from Charlie Lindgren.

Then it all fell apart in the final frame, with a suddenly fragile bunch unable to prevent or counter an offensive onslaught.

“Sometimes, when you lose a game 3-0 you know you didn’t have it. But I thought, you know, we worked our butts off and it didn’t kind of fall for us,” said forward Mason Appleton.

“So, it sucks. Obviously, this time of year, it’s all about wins.”

Indeed, there’s no such thing as moral victories in the NHL, especially with Winnipeg now in danger of falling out of the race for home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs. The Jets (44-22-5) are third in the Central Division, trailing the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars, and just 11 games remaining.

A desperate Capitals team that needs to string multiple wins together improved to 35-26-9.

Here’s a deeper look at this one:

1) The challenge — The Jets were coming off their worst game of the season, a 6-3 loss to the Islanders that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score suggests.

Associate coach Scott Arniel, who is running the show with Rick Bowness sidelined by a medical issue, took an interesting approach 24 hours later: He went with the exact same lineup.

“They talked about it after the game and we talked about it again (Sunday) morning,” Arniel said of the message.

“We knew we did not show up (Saturday) and everybody was responsible. It was an opportunity to come back and play a lot better and I thought we did. I thought we responded in the right way.”

Connor Hellebuyck made a second start in the Winnipeg net in as many days, which was not the original plan. But after getting pulled midway through the second period against New York after giving up five goals on 26 shots, Arniel wanted to give everyone a chance at redemption.

“The power play had some good looks, five-on-five, we had some good looks. We just couldn’t score. We couldn’t put that one in to get us going.”–Dylan DeMelo

The Jets responded early and often, with a much better forecheck, far more pace and a cleaner, crisper game. But there was just one problem: Lindgren was doing his best impersonation of a brick wall.

“We had a lot of good looks, for sure in those first two periods,” said DeMelo. “The power play had some good looks, five-on-five, we had some good looks. We just couldn’t score. We couldn’t put that one in to get us going.”

2) The chances — It’s a rather long list, to the point several Jets players would likely hit the hay on Sunday night thinking about what might have been.

Appleton off an early 2-on-1 rush with Nikolaj Ehlers. Vlad Namestnikov with a dangerous one-timer. Kyle Connor in tight. Sean Monahan off the crossbar. Two consecutive chances from Ehlers — the first which was stopped, the second that sailed high. Connor, again, absolutely robbed. A nifty Monahan deflection.

All of these came in two scoreless periods.

“Tip your cap,” Appleton said of Lindgren, who would finish with 27 saves overall. “He made some sliding-across, 10-bell saves that you know you think are gonna go in and then all of a sudden he gets a blocker on it out of nowhere. He played a really good game. I think we could have had two, three, four goals (Sunday) for sure.

“It wasn’t like we didn’t create anything, but the other goalie played a heck of a game.”

“It wasn’t like we didn’t create anything, but the other goalie played a heck of a game”–Mason Appleton

Arniel said getting one past Lindgren prior to the second intermission could have made a major difference.

“It certainly would have helped the confidence, the feeling along the bench there,” he said.

“We had a couple of really good looks early in the first. And in the second period, we pretty much spent the whole period down there. Their goaltender played well. But at the end of the day, you gotta find a way to score goals. Greasy one, however you find it, on the power play, rush, whatever it might be. We couldn’t find it and they hung around long enough to get their points.”

3) The collapse — Mark Scheifele took a slashing penalty with 36 seconds left in the second period, and that would be a turning point.

With a fresh sheet of ice to start the third, Washington struck for the opening tally, a John Carlson blast at 1:21 of the third. The Jets were three seconds away from killing off the minor.

Winnipeg had whiffed on two power plays earlier in the game as special teams once again came back to bite the visitors.

The real dagger came at 3:36 off a faceoff in the Jets zone. Adam Lowry fell, leaving the puck sitting on the dot. Alex Ovechkin and Connor McMichael both shot it at essentially the same time, and it seeped through the legs of Hellebuyck after deflecting off Nate Schmidt’s stick.

Ovechkin was given credit.

“Real fluky. Like I don’t even know how it ended up going in,” said Appleton.

Arniel said he noticed a sag from his group after that.

“Everyone is doing the right things and we just happen to get a piece of it with our stick and it goes through Helle’s legs. That’s what happens when things aren’t going your way right now, you get those crazy bounces that go the wrong way,” he said.

Ovechkin then finished off another productive day against the Jets when he scored his second of the period with eight minutes remaining.

Winnipeg has now suffered defeats in its last 11 consecutive visits to Washington.

“Obviously, you get zero points out of it, but you know, coach said after the game, he emphasized that we worked hard, you know we deserved better,” said Appleton.

“You kind of leave with a bitter taste in your mouth but knowing that we’ll get back home and we’ll stack some wins here.

4) Coming up — The Jets chartered home after the game and now begin five in a row at Canada Life Centre. First up are the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, followed by the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.

“It doesn’t get any easier,” said Arniel.

DeMelo said the key is to bring the kind of compete they did for much of Sunday’s game, which he believes will lead to better results more times than not.

“We competed our butts off and that game could have gone either way,” said DeMelo. “It was 3-0, but I don’t think the play of the game was indicative of the final result. I thought there were a lot of good things that we did there, a lot of good things we can carry on into our next game.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg