Embarrassing: ‘Fighting for our lives… and lay that egg’

There was a moment late in the third period of Saturday’s Winnipeg Jets game when an obviously frustrated fan of the home team shouted what was likely on the minds of many inside a sold-out Canada Life Centre.

“Do something!” he pleaded from the upper deck.

Two more goals from the Detroit Red Wings quickly followed — along with plenty of “Go Wings Go” chants from their many red-clad faithful in the crowd — as they put the finishing touches on a 5-1 victory that never really seemed in doubt.

Yeah, it was that type of night. And, quite frankly, it’s been that type of season for the Jets.

Expect to hear plenty more calls for the struggling hockey club — specifically ownership and/or management — to do something in the coming days and weeks, now that playoff hopes around here are all but extinguished.

Winnipeg came up painfully short in a game it couldn’t afford to waste, especially after taking a 1-0 lead midway through the second period. It was all downhill from there, with the hosts largely standing around and puck-watching as the Motor City visitors stepped on the gas and left them in their dust.

“That was one of the most embarrassing games for me in the last month. All of us,” a furious head coach Scott Arniel said in a post-game media session that lasted approximately 68 seconds.

“We were looking for pond hockey — don’t get hit, don’t hit anybody. Just play an easy, soft game. That’s pretty much what we did for two periods.”

The Jets are now 20-24-7, which leaves them eight points out of the final Western Conference wildcard spot and just 31 games remaining. Winnipeg showed some life when they strung together four straight wins, including a dominant effort on Jan. 15 in Minnesota, but they followed that up with just one win in the last five (1-2-2).

“We’re fighting for our lives and we go out and lay that egg,” said Arniel.

“It is not good enough. It was the last game in the homestand and, you know what, we are heading out on the road for some real tough buildings, and that was two points we needed badly and it wasn’t good enough.”

Detroit, one of the surprising stories of the NHL season, improves to 32-16-5. That has them on top of the Atlantic Division, tied for top spot in the Eastern Conference with the Carolina Hurricanes, and trailing only the Colorado Avalanche for the No. 1 spot in the league.

Was the offence just a mirage?

Scoring has been an issue for much of this campaign, but it looked like Winnipeg might have turned the corner earlier this month when they lit the lamp 20 times during that four-game winning streak.

Players were going to the hard areas of the ice and getting rewards with tips, deflections and rebounds. Slumping skaters were starting to heat up. Puck luck suddenly seemed to be on their side.

It must have just been a mirage.

The Jets are quickly back to their old ways. They were blanked 2-0 on Monday night in Chicago, scored two power play goals and an empty-netter in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over St. Louis, mustered one tally (at four-on-four) in Thursday’s 2-1 shootout loss to Florida and only beat Red Wings goaltender John Gibson once on Saturday.

Four games. Five goals. And the only one that came at five-on-five was off the stick off fourth-line energy forward Cole Koepke, who swept in a rebound off a Logan Stanley slapshot at 10:08 of the second period.

“We just kind of stopped playing with speed and were a little too cute with the puck,” Koepke said of why a promising first 30 minutes in this one ultimately went down the drain.

“At first, when we had success, we were advancing zones, making sure we got it in, putting pressure on their D and getting it back. And we definitely got away from that in the third.”

The line of Koepke, Morgan Barron (won the offensive zone faceoff and drew the secondary assist on the goal) and Tanner Pearson can’t be faulted, but too many of Winnipeg’s so-called offensive players were far too quiet on this night. And for much of the past week, in fact.

Not the way he imagined it

No question Connor Hellebuyck initially had a big smile on his face when he realized his 600th career game would come against his hometown Red Wings.

Safe to say it didn’t exactly go according to plan: The reigning Vezina and Hart Trophy winner was beaten four times on 30 shots.

J.T. Compher tied it up at 15:50 of the middle frame when he knocked in a loose puck during a scramble around Hellebuyck. Compher, the former college linemate of Jets sniper Kyle Connor, then gave his team the lead at 1:43 of the third period off a beautiful tic-tac-toe rush goal.

The floodgates really opened as the period progressed, with Lucas Raymond making it 3-1 at 8:11, Alex DeBrincat scoring into an empty-net at 18:11 and Marco Kasper putting an exclamation point on the win with Hellebuyck back in his crease at 18:43.

“Three goals kind of in our paint,” defenceman Dylan DeMelo said of what went wrong.

“We weren’t hard enough in that area or didn’t execute correctly in that area. And that’s what was the difference in the end.”

At the other end of the rink, John Gibson continued his terrific campaign and stopped 26 of the 27 shots that came his way. He’s now won eight straight starts.

Key play

Raymond’s third period goal wasn’t without some controversy. Kasper tried to bat it out of the air, and his stick was clearly above the crossbar at the time. But replays showed he actually missed — it wouldn’t have otherwise counted — and so it stood.

Three stars

1. DET LW J.T. Compher: 2 goals

2. DET G John Gibson: 26 saves

3. DET C Andrew Copp: 2 assists

Extra! Extra!

Winnipeg went 0-for-1 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

Patrick Kane recorded an assist on DeBrincat’s empty-netter, giving him 1,373 career points in the regular season. That leaves him one point behind Mike Modano for most all-time by an American-born player. His next chance to tie or claim the record as his own comes Tuesday night when Detroit hosts Los Angeles.

Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey went without a point for the second straight game, leaving him one behind Dustin Byfuglien for most all-time by a defenceman in 2.0 franchise history.

Winnipeg now hits the road for four straight games — in New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Florida and Dallas — then return home to face Montreal on Feb. 4 before entering the lengthy Winter Olympic break.

“You’ve got to control what you can control. We can’t control other outcomes or anything like that. We’ve just got to try to get points and get wins,” said DeMelo.

“Obviously, time is of the essence. And we don’t have any leeway at all. We’ve got to win some games and string them together. We’ve got to focus on one game at a time and try to get the ball rolling.”

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