Lack of depth sinks Jets

WASHINGTON — What does a one-line hockey team look like?

We present to you the Winnipeg Jets in their current form: deadly when the trio of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi are on the ice; doormats when the other nine forwards are doing cardio up and down the ice with nothing but burned calories to show for it.

It’s not a winning formula, as Wednesday’s game in Washington once again proved. A 4-3 loss to the Capitals to start a five-game road trip included a handful of familiar play-drivers — Vilardi scored twice, Scheifele had the other and Connor set up all three — and plenty of passengers.

That had coach Scott Arniel shaking his head in frustration as he spoke to the Free Press outside the team’s locker room at Capital One Arena.

“We need other people to step up,” Arniel fumed.

“It’s not about being pretty now. It’s about… I don’t care how it goes in. Off your head, off your leg, however it might be. Rebounds, whatever. Deflections, we’ve got to find a way. The guys that aren’t scoring, find a way to get some offence.”

Winnipeg has now lost three consecutive games, and seven of its last 10, to fall to 12-10-0. Washington improves to 13-9-2.

“It’s not great,” Vilardi said when asked to describe the mood of a team that only lost 22 times in regulation a year ago en route to the Presidents’ Trophy, yet now finds itself outside of even a wild-card playoff spot.

“Sucks to lose. We know it, but there’s no quit in here. We’re just gonna keep showing up, keep playing. We’ve talked about it, and I’m not sure Arnie’s talked about it to you guys, but I feel like we’ve made progressions in different areas of our game, but at the end of the day, it is a results-driven business, and we need to start winning.”

He wouldn’t throw any of his teammates under the bus, of course, but no doubt a little help right now could go a long way for these fragile Jets — especially considering they are without MVP goaltender Connor Hellebuyck until at least Christmas and can no longer rely on the reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner to steal them some games.

Might it be time to consider breaking up Scheifele, Connor and Vilardi in an attempt to spread the wealth?

“It’s something we’ve thought about, but you have to challenge the other group here, to have other players step up and do (their) part of it,” said Arniel, who shook up his second, third and fourth lines for a second game in a row.

You have to go back to Nov. 18 — now four games ago — to find the last time the Jets scored a goal that didn’t involve Scheifele, Connor or Vilardi. Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s the last time the Jets tasted victory.

“Like I’ve said in the past there, if you want to score goals, don’t get farther away from the net, get close to the net,” Arniel continued.

“This is the time now, for us. We’ve got to go find some greasy goals, rebounds, deflections, those types of goals. If they get one, hopefully it spreads throughout our team.”

Let’s break this one down further:

EMOTIONAL DEBUT: Talk about a wave of emotions for Elias Salomonsson.

The 21-year-old defenceman made his NHL debut on Wednesday, a huge smile on his face as he took the traditional pre-game “hot lap” — which was actually three twirls around the rink while the rest of his teammates looked on from the bench.

“The first thing I thought of (was) don’t fall,” Salomonsson joked afterwards. “It was amazing. There was a lot of emotions. You just do that once. It was a lot of fun.”

Once the game started, Salomonsson looked poised as he efficiently moved the puck, with several smart, crisp passes that helped his team exit the zone. He also had some nifty offensive zone plays, including one where he found Scheifele all alone in the slot and would have registered his first point if not for a great defensive play which stole a goal from Connor.

The dream scenario turned into a nightmare in the third period when Cole Perfetti fed him a pass at the Washington blue line. Unfortunately he overskated the puck, which led to Connor McMichael getting a clear-cut breakaway and beating Eric Comrie with a deke.

It made the score 4-2 at the time — there was just under 15 minutes left in regulation — and ultimately stood up to the game-winner

“It was unfortunate. The puck bounced a little bit or something,” said Salomonsson. “But take that as experience, try to put it behind you.”

Plenty of teammates offered encouraging words of support at the time, as did Arniel on the bench.

“I just went down and told him to suck it up and move on,” said Arniel.

“That’s the one thing about good players. You can’t do anything about the past play. I thought he showed a lot of maturity at times. There were some real nice plays, he had some real nice breakouts and nice plays offensively. This is a tough building, that’s a tough team, that’s a tough game to come into and I thought he held his own.”

Salomonsson finished with 16:18 of ice time, registering two hits, one block and going minus-two while paired with Dylan Samberg.

GREAT EIGHT: Alex Ovechkin loves scoring goals. And his heart likely grows three sizes every time he sees the Jets lining up against him.

He entered play Wednesday having scored 57 times against the franchise, dating back to their days as the Atlanta Thrashers. That’s the most among any opponent, with the Carolina Hurricanes in second at 53

Well, you can make it 58.

On a night the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer was honoured with a lavish pre-game ceremony which included his two sons joining him on the ice for warmup, every fan in attendance being given a cardboard cutout of his giant head on a stick and a celebration of surpassing 900 goals and 1,500 games played, the Great Eight rose to the occasion.

With the score tied 2-2 early in the second, Ovechkin spun around and fired a wrist shot towards the Winnipeg net. Comrie, who was being screened by teammate Logan Stanley, ducked down to try and get a view only to see it go right over his shoulder. It’s his 11th of the year and 908th of his incredible career.

It’s an example of good things happening when you put pucks on net — something the Capitals did in spades and the Jets, to Arniel’s chagrin, did not.

KEY PLAY: McMichael’s breakaway goal was the dagger.

THREE STARS:

1. Jets, Gabe Vilardi: 2G

2. Caps, Connor McMichael: Game-winning goal

3. Jets, Kyle Connor: 3A

EXTRA EXTRA: Comrie stopped 30 of 34 shots he faced, while Charlie Lindgren (18 of 21) wasn’t nearly as busy at the other end of the rink.

The Jets went one-for-two on the power play and killed off both minors they took.

Defenceman Luke Schenn and forward Cole Koepke were the two healthy scratches for the Jets, while Hellebuyck (knee surgery) Neal Pionk (lower-body) and Haydn Fleury (concussion protocol) remain sidelined with injuries.

Winnipegger Dylan Mcllrath drew into the lineup for the Caps and played just his third game of the season. He took the spot of former Jets defenceman Declan Chisholm, who was a healthy scratch.

Speaking of former Jets, old friend Pierre-Luc Dubois is sidelined for three to four months after recently undergoing surgery for an abdominal injury which occurred on a routine faceoff play. He was off to a tough start with no points through six games.

The Jets flew to Raleigh after the game and will practise there on Thursday afternoon. They’ll face the Carolina Hurricanes in a Black Friday matinee.

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