Jets overpowered by surging Lightning

TAMPA, Fla. — Scott Arniel isn’t one to toss around compliments just for the sake of stroking the ego of the opponent.

But when the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets was asked about the remarkable run the Tampa Bay Lightning were on following the morning skate, Arniel wasn’t shy about sharing his admiration.

“Obviously, we know Colorado real well, but I’ve got these guys as the second best team in the league,” said Arniel. “I’ve been watching them the last month and a half. They’re really good. They’re showing it with their play, with how aggressive they are. They come at you hard, both with and without the puck.”

Those words proved to be prescient, as the Lightning showed off those aggressive qualities in earning a 4-1 victory over the Jets on Thursday night at Benchmark International Arena.

Following a strong first period where the Jets gave up a solitary goal to Dominic James, they gave up another just 1:37 into the second period and that left them chasing the game for the duration.

Even after pulling within one at 12:25 of the middle stanza, the Lightning restored the two-goal cushion just under three minutes later and didn’t give up much after that.

“Puck management and puck decisions,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry. “Early on, we were able to advance the puck and create some chances that way. In the second period, we started feeding into that transition game.

“It’s frustrating, because I thought we had been playing a decent hockey game, we were right in it, and then they make it 2-0, we fight to get back and then kind of feed right back into their offence.”

The Jets are now 1-18-2 this season when trailing after two periods of play, which means the rallies have been few and far between.

“You can’t play on the outside against a team like that, you can’t turn pucks over,” said Arniel. “For me, those are the areas that you have to do on a consistent basis.”

The Lightning are now 16-1-1 during their past 18 games as they’ve rocketed to the top of the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division standings, despite dealing with some key injuries.

“That’s the biggest thing. They’re missing some incredible players,” said Lowry. “Obviously they still have some incredible players in the lineup. The young guys that they’ve introduced, the guys with not a lot of experience, have really come in with a lot of speed. They play hard, they really transition the puck well and they’re a really well-built team.”

With the loss, the Jets slip to 1-1 on the road trip and drop to 21-25-7 for the season.

They’ll continue this four-game swing on Saturday afternoon against the Florida Panthers.

Here’s a closer look at what unfolded:

The goal

The Jets lone goal came on a nifty redirection from Kyle Connor.

The initial shot from the left point was provided by Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg and Connor did a great job of tipping the puck past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Although five-on-five goals have often been tough to come by, the Jets have generated several of them by getting to the net and getting the puck from down low to high in the offensive zone.

“Our D have done a great job lately of getting off the walls, getting pucks through and forwards getting to the net,” said Lowry. “You can’t just be one dimensional when it comes to creating offence. We’ve got to look for the slot, you’ve got to attack the net, too. You can’t just settle for low to high constantly. You have to have some different looks to maybe create some space, force their forwards to sag a bit more in the zone.”

The other side of the coin is that the Jets need to do a better job of getting to the blue paint to create traffic to find more goals on rebounds, tips and screens.

“Especially in the third period, we didn’t do enough, we didn’t do enough to get pucks off the wall, get inside and attack the net the inside out,” said Arniel. “That is a will, that is a compete thing. You have to decide, are you going to go inside where the heavy hitting is happening? That is something you have got to do. If you don’t want to do it, then you end having numbers (of goals) like us (on Thursday).”

The quality chances

Jets forward Morgan Barron had two of the best scoring chances of the game for the visitors.

In the first period, he was sent in on a partial breakaway and made a power move to his backhand, but Vasilevskiy stretched out his left leg and denied Barron his eighth goal of the campaign.

“He’s one of the best goalies in the world. I just feel like I had some speed and tried to pull it around him,” said Barron. “But, he obviously spreads out and takes up a lot of space, so I thought I made a good move. But at the end of the day, he’s a good goalie, so he just made a good save.”

In the third period, Barron elected to shoot on a two-on-one rush and his shot was labelled, but it clanged off the iron instead.

Barron was impressed by the way the Lightning played.

“I would say they’re really disciplined in terms of giving up their chances and sticking to their systems,” said Barron. “Sometimes that requires us to be patient and keep putting pucks behind them. We probably didn’t do a good enough job of that at the time. I felt like it kind of required us to play a simple game. And we had success when we did that, but probably didn’t do it consistently enough.”

The key play

While enjoying a six-on-five advantage with a delayed penalty call on the horizon, Nikita Kucherov found Yanni Gourde with a slap pass for a redirection in the slot that restored a two-goal cushion at 15:17 of the second period.

The three stars

1. Darren Raddysh, Lightning, One goal, two assists.
2. Yanni Gourde, Lightning, One goal, two assists.
3. Nikita Kucherov, Lightning, Empty-net goal, plus an assist.

The scare

Kucherov left the game late in the first period after an awkward collision with Jets defenceman Logan Stanley.

Kucherov was trying to find space in front of the net, while Stanley was trying to get back into position in coverage when the two players came together somewhat unexpectedly.

Kucherov was down on the ice in discomfort and needed some attention, eventually leaving the ice for the room.

Fortunately for the Lightning, Kucherov came out to start the second period and chipped in an assist with a beautiful feed to Gourde and added an empty-net goal with 68 seconds to go in regulation for good measure.

Kucherov is having a Hart Trophy type of season, with 27 goals and 82 points in 48 games this season.

Extra! Extra!

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made his 34th start of the season and finished with 33 saves, giving him a save percentage of .917 or higher for the fourth time in his past seven starts.

Vasilevskiy, who is the front-runner for the Vezina Trophy along with New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin, made 22 saves. Vasilevskiy shaved his goals-against average to 2.04 while raising his save percentage to .921.

The Jets scratches were defenceman Isaak Phillips and forward Gustav Nyquist. Defenceman Neal Pionk has been on the ice during the road trip as he works his way back from a lower-body issue, but he’s still working through some pain and isn’t expected to return until after the Olympic break.

Strathclair product Conor Geekie remains one of the top prospects in the Lightning system and he’s having an excellent season with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League, recording 11 goals and 35 points through 35 AHL games. Geekie, the 11th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, had one assist in six games with the Lightning this season while chipping in eight goals and 14 points in 52 NHL games as a rookie in 2024-25.

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