Offence missing in action

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This article was published 03/12/2024 (307 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The offensive well has gone more than a bit dry for the Winnipeg Jets.

After a 4-1 defeat to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday at Canada Life Centre, the Jets have been held to just one goal in four of their past six outings.

On Tuesday, the Jets managed just four high-danger scoring chances at five-on-five compared to 10 generated by the Blues.

It was a season-high fourth-consecutive loss for the Jets, who slipped to 18-8 on the season and have gone 3-7 during the past 10 contests.

“I don’t know if I can pinpoint it right now,” said Jets alternate captain Mark Scheifele, who scored the lone goal for the home side, when asked about the recent offensive struggles. “It comes down to a little bit of execution. That’s always a starting point.

“It’s a matter of looking at the blueprint of what we were doing earlier.”

After spending the bulk of the campaign in first place in the Central Division, the Jets find themselves looking up at the Minnesota Wild, who defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 on Tuesday.

That gives the Wild a two-point lead on the Jets, while holding a game in hand.

“We made the game harder on ourselves than we needed it to be and we paid for it,” said Jets defenceman Haydn Fleury. “This is kind of the first little bit of adversity that we’ve had this year. Nobody likes to deal with it, but the only way to get through it is as a team.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to look at ourselves in the mirror and just really dig deep because this isn’t going to get any easier.”

The Jets open a two-game road trip on Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres.

“We know the right way to play, and we just got away from it,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “We’ve just got to simplify how we play. Obviously, we had a lot of good fortune here long before these four games. Now it’s swung the other way. As a group, it’s sticking together and going out as a group and doing what we do best, which is defend first.”

Let’s take a closer at what happened:

THE SLEEPY SECOND – Things were relatively even after one period of play, with the Jets holding an 8-6 edge in shots on goal, but things took a sharp turn in the middle frame as the Blues took control by scoring twice at four-on-four in a span of 39 seconds.

Oddly enough, the Jets had a chance to open the scoring on a power play late in the second, but Gabe Vilardi was given a minor for interfering with Blues centre Radek Faksa after a faceoff in the offensive zone.

The Jets are normally a dangerous team with the additional space available at four-on-four, but rather than get on the board first, they gave up an odd-man rush that ended with Jordan Kyrou scoring after his initial shot was stopped before going in off the skate of Scheifele.

On the ensuing shift, Dylan Holloway buried his own rebound and the Jets were quickly staring at a two-goal deficit.

“The second period we got cute. Missed assignments on the four-on-four twice,” said Arniel. “But in the second period we were trying to play cute hockey. We were trying to make highlight reel plays. Just play north-south. Force them to defend like we did in the first. Obviously, they scored those two goals but they spent pretty much the whole period in our end.”

The Blues finished the second outshooting the Jets 19-3 and nearly made it 3-0 in the waning moments, as Phillip Broberg had a shot graze off the crossbar.

THE SAVE – The score could have been more lopsided in the second had it not been for a goal-saving play by Fleury.

Kyrou took a shot from the middle of the faceoff circle on the left-wing side of the ice and the puck squeezed behind Connor Hellebuyck and was about to cross the goal line before Fleury swept the puck away.

Hellebuyck then made a sensational paddle save on the second-chance opportunity.

“I was in the wrong spot, so I needed to pull that one out,” said Fleury. “I needed to bail my goalie out there because he bailed me out by getting a piece of that (Kyrou shot). Not good enough by me.”

THIRD PAIRING TEST DRIVE – For the third time in as many games, the Jets rolled out a different third pairing.

Logan Stanley has been the constant on the pairing, but he was skating alongside Ville Heinola after having Colin Miller and Dylan Coghlan as a partner during the previous two outings.

For Heinola, it was his third game of the NHL season as he continues to work his way back from an ankle issue.

Stanley had 17 minutes of ice time after being whistled for three minors in Sunday’s loss to the Dallas Stars.

It will be interesting to monitor what the Jets do on defence during the coming weeks, since Miller is off to a steady start to the campaign and Coghlan showed well in his Jets’ debut.

STEADY SHOWING FOR HOFER – Winnipegger Joel Hofer made his third career start against his hometown team on Tuesday, giving Jordan Binnington a night off.

Hofer wasn’t overworked by any stretch of the imagination, but he made a highlight-reel save with his left pad after a Kyle Connor one-timer during the first period and then closed the five-hole on a shorthanded breakaway for Jets captain Adam Lowry during the third period.

“What I love about (Hofer) is his mentality,” said Blues head coach Jim Montgomery. “He wants the net and he works hard -arduously, every day to get prepared for his next start.”

AFTERBURNER

The key play: Kyrou scored the first of two goals on a four-on-four late in the second period and the Blues never looked back.

The three stars:

Blues F Jordan Kyrou, two goals, seven shots on goal, nine shot-attempts.

Blues F Dylan Holloway, one goal, one assist, four shots on goal.

Blues G Joel Hofer, 22 saves, fourth win of season.

EXTRA, EXTRA – Hellebuyck made his 20th start of the season and finished with 28 saves.

By going zero-for-two on the power play, the man-advantage has now gone two-for-16 during the past six games. After spending a good chunk of the season with the top-ranked power play, the Jets have been passed by the New Jersey Devils in that department.

Jets forward prospect Brad Lambert made his season debut on Tuesday and skated in his second NHL game. Lambert was used at centre and saw time on the Jets’ second power play unit on the half wall. He finished with 19 shifts for 15:07 of ice time and had one shot-attempt.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @WiebesWorld