Jets look to regroup in rematch with Panthers after pair of losses

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This article was published 17/11/2024 (328 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SUNRISE, Fla. — Tension was going to be arriving at the doorstep for the Winnipeg Jets sooner than later.

It was merely a matter of when, not if.

By rattling off 15 wins in 16 games to start the NHL season, in some ways the Jets had set the bar so high that some fans actually believed they might be capable of winning every single game among the 82 scheduled for the regular season.

Earlier in the road trip, Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper had cautioned that keeping up the ridiculous pace was going to be nearly impossible.

After praising the Jets for their ability to not beat themselves following the morning skate, Cooper put a game plan in place that forced the opponent to make some uncharacteristic mistakes in what turned out to be a 4-1 loss.

Two days later, it was Paul Maurice’s turn to try and devise a plan that would keep the Jets off-balance.

Thanks to a furious forecheck, a commitment to clogging up the neutral zone and getting into shot lanes during the rare times the Jets were able to generate zone time in the offensive zone, the Panthers dominated in nearly every facet of the game in a 5-0 thumping.

Sure, there were some self-inflicted wounds that were inflicted by the Jets.

But some of the damage was also due to the Panthers finding a level of play that was impossible for the Jets to match — at least on Saturday night.

Losses are going to happen in the marathon that is an NHL season, but getting outscored 9-1 in a two-game swing through Florida after the Jets opened the road trip with a decisive 6-3 win over the New York Rangers certainly raised a few eyebrows around the NHL.

The Jets didn’t suddenly forget how to play, nor is this necessarily a harbinger of things to come.

The early-season success wasn’t built on a house of cards and the Jets aren’t heading for a freefall.

Two losses doesn’t mean the roof is about to cave in.

The Jets stubbed their collective toe in consecutive games and now it’s time to get back to the level of commitment they had shown for the better part of the 16 games that led to putting 30 points in the bank.

This wasn’t the Jets cheating for offence and springing a leak on the defensive side of things.

This wasn’t a matter of suspect goaltending either, as both backup Eric Comrie and Connor Hellebuyck were probably the least of the Jets’ concerns in those losses to the Lightning and Panthers.

This had way more to do with poor puck management and not winning enough races to pucks or battles for those that fall into the 50-50 range.

Before training camp had even began, Jets head coach Scott Arniel was talking about the importance of raising the compete level this season as his team looked to take the next step in their evolution.

This wasn’t a matter of the Jets mailing it in either.

They knew they would be facing a pair of hungry teams, especially since the Lightning had dropped four consecutive games (0-3-1) and the Panthers were smoked in consecutive games by the New Jersey Devils to the tune of 10-3.

What the Jets didn’t do is reach the level of urgency that either the Lightning or Panthers brought to the table.

Getting outplayed and even outworked is going to happen on occasion.

But now that the Jets have dropped consecutive games for the first time this season as they slipped to 15-3 overall, it’s their turn to show that they can quickly regroup and turn the tables as they welcome the Panthers to Winnipeg for a rematch on Tuesday.

“A good blueprint for us to get another crack at them,” said defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “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.”

In order for the Jets to prevent being in the midst of a season-high three-game losing skid before heading out on a six-game road trip, the Jets are going to need to be better in all three of those areas.

One of the other things the Jets have done is recognizing that given the historic nature of their start that the entire league has noticed what they’ve been doing.

That means they simply won’t be sneaking up on anyone and other teams are going to be bringing their best each and every game — knowing that’s probably what is going to be required to beat the Jets.

“I can’t tell you if that’s them or if it’s us,” Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers said on Saturday when the theory was broached. “We’ve played two really good teams but we’ve also not played our game and the way that we want to play, so that’s something that we will need to get better at.”

As the Jets got off to their ridiculous start, another thing they’d done a fantastic job of was ensuring they were ready for the next opponent.

It meant sorting through the positives from the previous outing and identifying areas that needed to be cleaned up.

“We get to go home and put a little bit better product out on the ice here and be better about what we do,” said Arniel. “We will digest this. We will do some video. We will work at it and hopefully make ourselves better.”

Although much of the Jets’ early-season success was built on the foundation of playing sound defensively in all three zones, being limited to just one goal over two games and recording six or more in seven of the first 16 was an unexpected development.

Of course goaltending was a factor, as the Jets didn’t make life hard enough on either Andrei Vasilevskiy or Sergei Bobrovsky.

There wasn’t enough traffic around them, nor did the Jets spend enough time creating havoc around the blue paint.

The greater concern was that the Jets only managed three high-danger chances at five-on-five in Saturday’s game — and that was compounded by the fact the power play created zero high-danger opportunities.

The Jets have been money with the man-advantage this season and a lull was going to hit at some point after getting off to a start that included a lengthy run at north of 40 per cent efficiency (and is now at 36.5 per cent).

But after going zero-for-seven (one of which lasted only 1.7 seconds and another was abbreviated) during the past two games, getting back to having an attack mentality on the power play is another area the Jets can take a step forward.

Panthers’ fans were as ruthless as some of the Jets’ faithful have been this season when they dropped an “over-rated” chant during the third period.

The quickest way to snuff out that narrative before it has an opportunity to gain any traction whatsoever would be to earn a split in this two-game series with the Panthers and get back to playing the type of hockey that led to the Jets’ getting off to an exceptional start in the first place.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

X: @WiebesWorld