Jets knocked off by Preds, lose Samberg to broken foot

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This article was published 23/11/2024 (304 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NASHVILLE — The sight of Dylan Samberg making his way down the Bridgestone Arena hallway on crutches Saturday night, his left leg in a walking boot, told the whole story outside a subdued Winnipeg Jets locker room.

This loss was going to leave a mark.

A 4-1 defeat to the Nashville Predators came with a bigger price than just two lost points to a Central Division rival, as one of the team’s top defencemen suffered a broken foot stepping in front of a Steven Stamkos slapshot and is out indefinitely.

“It’s not good,” head coach Scott Arniel told the Free Press. “He got up and tried to finish the (penalty) kill and got himself off. But I’ve seen him go down before. He blocks a lot of shots. Actually, he’s got the shot blockers on the side, but this one got him on the top of the laces. He’s a warrior. That’s a big hole for us.”

The Jets were already running low on fuel after playing 24 hours earlier in Pittsburgh, where they opened up a season-long six-game road trip by beating the Penguins 4-1. Losing Samberg early in the second period really stung, forcing them to go with five tired defencemen the rest of the night.

“He does so much for us in that regard, with not just shot blocking, but having a good stick and breaking up a lot of plays. So we missed him out there tonight,” said defenceman Dylan DeMelo.

Not surprisingly, the Predators stepped on the gas in the final frame, breaking a 1-1 tie with three tallies including an empty-netter.

“I don’t think it was energy that was the issue. I think it was just the execution for the most part,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry, who scored the lone goal in the second period during a goal-mouth scramble.

Winnipeg falls to 17-4-0, which remains the best record in the NHL. Nashville, which hadn’t played since Wednesday, improves to 7-11-3.

TIP YOUR CAP TO COMRIE: It’s not easy being a backup goaltender, where you often get thrown to the proverbial wolves as a result of scheduling.

Granted, the Predators are off to a putrid start, but they still have plenty of talent and were a desperate bunch. Eric Comrie, making just his fifth start of the year, did everything he could to keep his team in the game with spectacular save after spectacular save until the dam eventually broke in the final frame.

He was, in a sense, hung out to dry.

“There was a lot of shooting ourselves in the foot, turning pucks over in the neutral zone, turn the pucks over the high zone in our end. And if it weren’t for Coms, it wouldn’t have been very close after the second,” said Lowry.

Comrie, who is now 3-2-0, finished the night with 32 saves on 35 shots. You can’t ask for much more from Connor Hellebuyck’s understudy.

“He was fantastic. He made some huge stops,” said Arniel. “We know that they have some high-end talent, some high-end offence. They were throwing a lot of pucks at the net-front with bodies there. Coms was outstanding.”

ANOTHER BLOCKED SHOT HAD A PAINFUL RESULT: Yes, the Jets were clearly the second best team on the ice in this one.

But they still had a chance to salvage something as they entered the third period deadlocked.

It quickly fall apart. Josh Morrissey was called for hooking just 86 seconds into the final frame, the result of his team’s inability to cleanly get the puck of out their zone.

On the ensuing power play, Filip Forsberg took a wrist shot that was blocked by Jets defenceman Haydn Fleury — and the puck went directly to a waiting Stamkos, who one-timed it past a surprised Comrie for the go-ahead goal which turned out to be the game-winner.

“You just line up at centre and move on. Not much you can do on that one,” DeMelo said of the bad puck luck.

Any hopes of a comeback were dashed less than two minutes later when Jonathan Marchessault buried a rebound off an odd-man rush against a weary looking Jets group that repeatedly — and uncharacteristically — were getting burned through the neutral zone.

Defenceman Roman Josi, who had opened the scoring near the midway mark of the first period, then sealed it from long distance with Comrie pulled for an extra attacker late in the game.

“You hope that kind of turn the page and come out with better third. And we didn’t do that,” said Lowry.

“Just disappointed with kind of how the game unfolded. I think even if you don’t have energy, it’s the reads, it’s kind of the battle level. So yeah, I think there’s just another level that we got to get to, and we expect to get to.”

SURLY SCHEIFELE: Winnipeg’s top centre was in a growly mood, as Mark Scheifele took three different minor penalties during the game and tried to get Gustav Nyquist to fight after the Nashville forward appeared to catch Morrissey with a head shot during a puck race.

No infraction was called on the play, including Scheifele who delivered three hard chops to Nyquist.

He also seemed out of sorts, registering just one shot on net, going minus three and only taking two faceoffs for the second straight night. Linemate Gabe Vilardi once again handled primary dot duties. Arniel won’t say if Scheifele is battling some type of hand or wrist injury, but it’s clear he’s not in peak form right now.

Scheifele had plenty of company in this game. Everyone in the top six was eerily quiet, and you have to wonder when Cole Perfetti might snap out of a prolonged funk? (No goals in the last nine games, just three assists).

“The biggest thing is that the forwards needed to do some heavy lifting and we kind of put more pressure on (ourselves) by not gaining zones and not moving the puck to the next spot,” said Arniel.

“We lost some battles, turned some pucks over, had a few extended, long shifts in our end of the rink. You could tell that they got a little wind behind their sails and they came after us.”

Juuse Saros was solid for Nashville, especially early in the game, but the Jets only threw 24 pucks his way. That’s not nearly enough.

EXTRA, EXTRA: The Jets went 0-for-3 on the power play, while Nashville went 1-for-3.

After Josi opened the scoring in the first period, Alex Carrier appeared to give the home team a 2-0 lead just seconds later when he converted on a rebound. However, the Jets successfully challenged that the zone entry was offside and it came off the board.

Winnipeg began the night a perfect 6-0-0 against the Central Division, having beaten Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis, Utah, Colorado and Dallas. The only rival they had yet to face was Nashville, who now have handed them their only blemish so far.

Winnipeg flew to St. Paul following the game and will take Sunday off. They’ll return to action on Monday when they face the Wild, which currently owns the second-best record in the NHL.

Ville Heinola is expected to join the club after playing two games with the Manitoba Moose on a conditioning assignment following ankle surgery in September. After being held off the scoresheet in Thursday’s season debut, he had the primary assist on Saturday’s game-winning goal against the Rockford IceHogs at Canada Life Centre.

Logan Stanley (abdominal) is not ready to return, so Heinola would be the likely candidate to step right in for Samberg. The Jets also have defenceman Dylan Coghlan, who has been a healthy scratch for the first 21 games of the year.

KEY PLAY: The Stamkos power-play goal early in the third period was the break Nashville had been looking for and propelled them to victory.

THREE STARS: 1. Nashville right-winger Jonathan Marchessault: one goal,one assist; 2. Winnipeg goaltender Eric Comrie: 32 saves; 3. Nashville defenceman Roman Josi: two goals

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg