Comrie can’t do it all

MONTREAL — Scott Arniel didn’t have to stand in front of the dressing room and publicly shred his squad. Nor did captain Adam Lowry have to peel paint off the walls during a closed door meeting with his teammates.

Although the post-game reaction may have been different from recent outings, the end result of Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens was painfully familiar for a struggling Winnipeg Jets team: Another defeat.

This one, at least, was in a shootout so the Jets come away with their first “loser point” of the season, falling to 13-12-1 overall, 1-3-1 on this five-game road trip and just 4-9-1 in the past 14 games overall.

“The compete was there. Obviously it sucks we got beat and didn’t get the win. But that was a better blueprint for how our team has got to play,” said Jets centre Mark Scheifele. “If we play like that, we’ll get some wins.”

This was a battle between the oldest team in the league — that would be the Jets — and the youngest, which might explain why the Canadiens still have plenty of jump despite playing a night earlier. They lost that game on home ice to the Ottawa Senators, which was their second consecutive defeat, and came out of the gates strong.

Winnipeg held tough all night long and never trailed until Cole Caufield scored the only goal in the breakaway contest. It came after a heart-thumping three-on-three overtime session which included end-to-end chances and each team having a golden scoring chance interrupted by an exploding stick.

“That was night-and-day different from the other night. Our compete level, our execution, just the way I don’t think we gave up any odd-man situations,” said Arniel.

“If we did, they were very limited compared to last game. We did a great job of not only our forwards getting over top of people, tracking back, our D did a great job with their gaps. That was a battle of two good goaltenders. There was a lot of different looks for each team. At the end of the day, I would like the two points but I’m happy with our effort.”

Montreal, which would be one of only two Canadian teams in the playoffs if they started today (Ottawa would be the other team), improves to 14-9-3.

HUMAN HIGHLIGHT REEL: The final numbers may not jump off the page — 31 shots, 29 saves — but make no mistake: Eric Comrie was sensational in this game.

The 30-year-old netminder repeatedly had Montreal shooters shaking their heads in disbelief, with stone-cold robberies of Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Jake Evans all standing out.

He can’t be blamed on the second-period snipes by Canadiens forwards Juraj Slafkovsky and Oliver Kapanen, which wiped out 1-0 and 2-1 leads by the visitors.

“He played absolutely fantastic,” said Scheifele. “We haven’t done a good enough job in front of him. Even in that first (period), he made a lot of 10-bell saves to keep us in it, like he’s been doing.

Comrie, who’s been pressed into No. 1 duties with Connor Hellebuyck sidelined, was coming off a rough outing in Buffalo in which he got pulled after 20 minutes, giving up three goals on 14 shots. Unlike being backup where he might have to sit on that for a week or so, he was able to get right back in the crease.

“I’m a competitive guy. I’m never going to sulk on a loss. I’m going to get back up and work as hard as I can the next day,” said Comrie.

“It’s not going our way right now, but we’re gonna find it. I think there’s enough positivity, there’s enough good game in our game right now that we can start getting some points here.”

A LITTLE HELP HERE? The Jets scored a grand total of 12 goals on this road trip, which isn’t nearly good enough to win in a league where three or four a night are typically required — especially when you don’t have the reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy occupying your net.

The challenge becomes even greater when so much is concentrated to one line. Here are Winnipeg’s recent scorers, in order:

Gabe Vilardi. Vilardi again. Scheifele. Scheifele again. Vilardi. Nino Niederreiter. Cole Perfetti. Kyle Connor. Niederreiter (into an empty net). Connor. Scheifele. Connor.

See a pattern? Of the 11 pucks that beat a goaltender, nine were off the sticks of Winnipeg’s top trio including both that went in Wednesday. We should also note that Vilardi had Winnipeg’s last two goals at home prior to the charter, so that’s actually 11 of the last 13.

This wouldn’t be a problem if Scheifele, Connor and Vilardi could play more than 20ish minutes a night. But they can’t, which means for the Jets are posing absolutely zero threat the other 40 or so minutes every game.

Arniel thought the bottom-nine had some extended zone time and better looks in this one, even though the end result was the same.

“It isn’t always necessarily the goals or getting shots. Sometimes it’s just wearing the opposition down and it’s building it up for the next line,” said Arniel, who signalled out the line of Jonathan Toews, Vlad Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti for praise

“I thought that line had some really good looks and then (Lowry’s) line and (Morgan Barron’s) line heavy. They played that heavy game that kind of wears them down. Hopefully we continue with that recipe, that it builds, and we get some of these pucks to go into the net and score some goals and build some confidence off of that.”

If not, Arniel may have no choice but to break up his top trio in the hopes they can spread the wealth and maybe rub off on some of their ice-cold teammates.

FOLLOW THE LEADER: Lowry let his play do the talking in this one, throwing a thunderous hit in the first period which led to Montreal tough guy Arber Xhekaj challenging him to a fight.

Lowry accepted.

“That’s what he does. He’s got the utmost of respect, not only with his teammates and coaching staff, but around the league too,” said Arniel.

“He’s a leader and he does it, whether he’s doing it with his hockey skillset or sometimes, with his heaviness or his toughness. That’s just part of what you love about Adam.”

KEY PLAY: Caufield’s shootout snipe was the difference

THREE STARS:

1. Habs G Jakub Dobes, 29 saves (32 if you count the shootout stops)

2. Jets G Eric Comrie, 29 saves (31 if you count the shootout stops)

3. Jets LW Kyle Connor: 1G, 1A

EXTRA, EXTRA: The Jets made three lineup changes, with defenceman Neal Pionk returning after a four-game injury absence and defenceman Elias Salomonsson and forward Cole Koepke re-entering after being healthy scratches in recent games. Blue-liners Luke Schenn and Colin Miller and forward Gustav Nyquist were relegated to press-box duty.

The Jets went zero-for-one on the power play, generating little zone time and no chances. They went one-for-11 on the road trip and are stuck in a two-for-18 rut — which includes surrendering a pair of shorthanded goals in that span. The penalty kill has also gotten a bit leaky lately, with Montreal scoring on their only opportunity.

Winnipeg would normally fly home at the end of a road trip in the eastern time zone, but opted to spend an extra night in Montreal. That’s because they play Friday night at home against Buffalo, then jump right back on a plane to fly to Edmonton and face the Oilers Saturday night.

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