Jets fall flat in Florida with 5-0 loss to Panthers

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This article was published 16/11/2024 (329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SUNRISE, Fla. – As much as he chose to downplay it, you can be sure that Paul Maurice was tired of answering questions about how he hadn’t beaten the Winnipeg Jets since stepping away in December of 2022.

No, it isn’t personal either, since Maurice reiterated after the morning skate that he harbours no ill will toward the Jets and still roots for them when they’re not playing the Florida Panthers.

But as the Jets arrived for their annual visit to south Florida on Saturday, the defending Stanley Cup champions had dropped consecutive games to the tune of 10-3 to the New Jersey Devils and they were in no mood to drop a third.

The Jets were also expected to be hungry after a rare off night against the Tampa Bay Lightning two nights earlier, but their response was nowhere close to where it needed to be.

The Panthers won nearly every race to loose pucks, displaying second effort all over the ice and the Jets simply had no answer, falling 5-0 on Saturday night at Amerant Arena.

“We got beat on a coverage goal. We got beat on a four-on-four goal. We got beat on a shorthanded goal. We got beat on a rush goal,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “So what we did was make mistakes against Stanley Cup champions.

“We knew they weren’t going to be giving us any freebies. We made mistakes and they put them in the back of the net.”

With the loss, the Jets have dropped consecutive games for the first time this season and they’ll face the Panthers again on Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre in the return match.

“They outnumbered us all over the ice and whenever there was a battle, they had another guy in there. They came up with a lot more than we did all over the ice,” said Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “That was evident. They were for sure the better team tonight. There was no doubt about it.

“A good blueprint for us to get another crack at them on Tuesday. That’s the exciting thing about it, is that we get these guys again, and hopefully we can put in a better effort, (with) better execution, and a better game overall.”

This game was lopsided as the score suggested.

“I think we (beat) ourselves. We kept making the same mistakes,” said Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers. “Too many turnovers and not being ready on their odd-man breaks and so-on. We (fought) and all of that, but with no disrespect to Florida, they have a great team. But we need to be a lot better to beat teams like that.”

Let’s look a bit closer at this one:

TOP LINE WOES: It was a tough outing for the Jets top line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi, as they were held off the scoreboard for the second time in as many games after their offensive explosion against the New York Rangers.

The trio managed to combine for five shots on goal (two each for Connor and Scheifele one for Vilardi), with zero high-danger chances at five-on-five while allowing two of them, according to Natural Stat Trick.

By being on the ice for one goal against at even strength, the top line has now scored 11 goals at five-on-five and given up 12.

After doing such an impressive job to erase the early 9-2 deficit, Scheifele’s line needs to stay on the plus side of the ledger and that’s what they’ll try to get back to during the coming games.

Scheifele showed his frustration in the third period, dropping the gloves with former Barrie Colts teammate Aaron Ekblad.

THE SHORTIE: After falling behind 3-0, the Jets had a glorious powerplay opportunity to get themselves back in the game, but things went from bad to worse when the Panthers forced a turnover and created an odd-man rush.

After Sam Reinhart rattled his shot off the post, Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov got to the loose puck and scored his third goal of the campaign.

It was the first shorthanded marker allowed by the Jets this season, but it was just another example of what went wrong in this one for the visitors.

THE HIT: Jets defenceman Neal Pionk caught Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist with one of his patented hip checks late in the third period.

Boqvist was shaken up but eventually made his way back to the Panthers bench under his own power and returned to finish the game.

“The guy didn’t miss a shift,” said Arniel, when asked for his thoughts on the Pionk hit.

A few shifts later, Panthers centre Sam Bennett got into a discussion with Pionk and eventually both players were given 10-minute misconducts.

On the ensuing shift, Jets defenceman Colin Miller and Panthers forward AJ Greer were given 10-minute misconducts after a brief tussle after the whistle.

Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov rounded out those getting an early ejection as he was given a roughing minor and 10-minute misconduct after taking exception to a reverse hit from Boqvist.

Although it wasn’t even close to a dirty game, the final penalty minute total of 74 minutes seemed a bit ridiculous, though that had more to do with the five 10-minute misconducts that were handed out.

SCHMIDT SCORES: Former Jets defenceman Nate Schmidt is settling in with his new team and was eager to face some of his old pals for the first time since joining the Panthers this summer in free agency.

It was much more enjoyable for Schmidt than it was for the Jets, especially when the veteran defenceman deposited home a rebound at 2:07 of the second period after a shot by Bennett, who made an impressive rush through the neutral zone to get the play started.

“I was watching Bennett as a fan. I stopped skating for a second, thought ‘Wow! Nice play! Oh, I should probably be on there,’” said Schmidt. “But it felt good, especially at that time of the game. It was still a tight game at that point.”

Schmidt is skating on the third pairing and is up to three goals and six points in 17 games this season, while averaging more than 14 minutes of ice time per game.

AFTERBURNER

The key play: Evan Rodgrigues won a battle for a loose puck with Mark Scheifele and scored on the doorstep to make it 3-0 for the Panthers at 12:21 of the second period.

The three stars

Panthers C Aleksander Barkov, 1G, 3P

Panthers RW Sam Reinhart, 0G, 3P

Panthers G Sergei Bobrovsky, 27 SV, SO

EXTRA, EXTRA – Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made his 14th start of the campaign and finished with 26 saves as he lost for just the second time this season. Bobrovsky recorded the 44th shutout of his NHL career in this one, though the Jets didn’t make it very difficult on him. “I still think that we had some good chances, but also think that he was able to see a lot of the pucks,” said Ehlers. “On a goalie like Bobrovsky, you give him a clean view of the puck, they’re going to stop it.” Jets forward Cole Perfetti left the game in the final minute of the second period after blocking a shot with his left hand, but he came out to play the third period and finished the game. The Jets scratches were defenceman Dylan Coghlan and forward David Gustafsson.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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