‘We weren’t very good’

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This article was published 13/04/2021 (1608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Paul Maurice made it clear Tuesday afternoon the old adage ‘There’s nothing a good night’s sleep can’t fix’ isn’t exactly a hard and fast rule to live by.

The Winnipeg Jets head coach was displeased with his team’s poor performance Monday night in a 4-2 loss at the hands of the scrappy Ottawa Senators.

A day later, he made no attempt to soften his stance.

“It wouldn’t be a whole lot different than you felt walking off the bench,” said Maurice, after Jets practice in the nation’s capital.

From rare but costly blunders by goalie Connor Hellebuyck to a lack of defensive awareness to a ponderous effort from the forward crew, Winnipeg resembled nothing of its usually dialed-in self.

Maurice said as defeats go, this one had all the traits of abject failure, best disposed of without an indepth post-mortem.

“You walk off the bench and there’s a piece to your game you don’t like, and there’s lots that you like. And you just handle that piece,” he said. “And then some nights, you go through the game and there would be something that you don’t like that went straight through your lineup… you didn’t have them ready to play the game that they needed to play.

“Been fortunate this year and I don’t feel that’s happened very often. We’ve been pretty good most nights and came off a couple of good solid games. But geez, we get a handful of shots through two periods — that’s a tell we’re not driving — and give up three or four breakaways, you’re not defending. We weren’t very good and there wouldn’t be an aspect of our game that necessarily stood out more as off. We were off in just about everything we did.”

That’s the bad and the ugly. As far good, the Jets were afforded an opportunity to work on some things at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday and will test their mettle in the rematch Wednesday at 6 p.m.

The Jets dropped to 25-14-3 — good for second spot in the North Division, a point up on the Edmonton Oilers — and are now 2-1-0 on a current five-game road trip. The squad has 14 road victories, tied for most with the all-Canadian division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals.

The Senators are 14-25-4 and remain in the division basement.

Crafty winger Nikolaj Ehlers was a beacon on a dark night for the Jets and tried to stir the pot in the offensive zone, firing his 18th goal of the season and unleashing five shots on Ottawa netminder Anton Forsberg.

The 25-year-old Dane acknowledged the group needs a rapid rebound to a thorough style of play that produced back-to-back triumphs in Montreal to begin the road swing.

“You’re going to have nights that you’re not playing the way you want to. Obviously, (Monday) wasn’t good. It’s just a matter of forgetting that game and getting back to the way we played against Montreal. We have to get back to playing simple, play hard, get on their (defence), and get shots to the net,” said Ehlers.

“You can’t play 56 perfect games, but you want to get pretty close to that. So we just have to bounce back (Wednesday), we’ve been able to do that a lot this year. We’re looking forward to that.”

Maurice is expected to go with the same lineup, although he’ll divulge more details — including the identity of his starting goalie — after the morning skate.

Hellebuyck has started seven straight contests but will get rare night off against either the Sens or the Maple Leafs just 24 hours later. Backup goalie Laurent Brossoit hasn’t had an assignment since he suffered a 4-2 loss to the host Calgary Flames on March 27.

The Jets have defencemen Sami Niku and Ville Heinola and forwards such as Kristian Vesalainen, Joona Luoto and Dominic Toninato waiting in the wings. Veteran blue-liner Jordie Benn, acquired from the Vancouver Canucks on Monday at the trade deadline, will also be available this weekend.

Some of Winnipeg’s regulars could get a short respite in the press box as the post-season draws closer, however, Maurice said he isn’t ready to go that route just yet.

Winnipeg has 14 games left in the regular season, including a pair of make-up home games against the Vancouver Canucks that will be squeezed in May 10 and 11, just before the start of the playoffs.

“We don’t pull anybody out of the lineup when we have an opportunity to move up in the standings. I’m certainly not even contemplating that right now. We are working on a game that we’ve been getting better at. Last night tells us we’ve got lots of work to do on it. But we’ll just stay on that,” he said.

“Those decisions will be made once we know exactly what the potential first day off is. Because if you end up having this thing get pushed back for six or seven days between your last game and your first playoff game, you don’t want to be sitting guys out. They’re going to want those games to stay as sharp as they possibly can. So, there’s a lot of unknowns before we get to thinking like that.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPJasonBell