Jets don’t thrive 5-on-5

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This article was published 02/01/2015 (4224 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For only the second time since mid-October, the Winnipeg Jets have suffered two regulation losses in a row.

The first time, when they dropped back-to-back games to the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues in November, the healthy team claimed there wasn’t a lot wrong with its game.

That claim was validated, since an eight-game points streak followed.

This time, after home defeats this week against Minnesota, 3-2 on Monday, and the New York Islanders, 5-2 on New Year’s Eve, things appear to be different.

The 19-12-7 Jets are not icing their best lineup due to a rash of injuries and a couple of elements of their game have wobbled.

The first is that the Jets’ normal standard of defence has not been as good, giving up 10 goals in three games since Christmas.

The second is a power outage in 5-on-5 play.

For practical purposes, Winnipeg has no 5-on-5 goals in the last two games.

This happened once before during the current injury crisis, but in earlier games against Buffalo and Boston, strong defence helped the Jets win one and gain an overtime point in the other.

“Our 5-on-5 is the area we have to get better at,” Jets coach Paul Maurice.

“We (need to) give up less around our net and (be) a little tougher around our net, go to simpler outs and we’ve got to find a way to hang on and make more of the time we spend in the offensive zone.

“Basically our last four goals are power-play goals. That’s a power-play goal tonight, when the guys steps out of the box. So that part’s right and thankfully, when you’re dealing with some adversity.”

The adversity is the injuries to four top blue-liners and sniper Evander Kane.

“Our special teams these last two games are as good as they’re going to be,” Maurice said, for the plus side. “Usually you see your special teams go down first and you can just hold 5-on-5. And that’s where we have to get better and stronger.”

Some of Tuesday’s setback against the Islanders saw the Jets play for long stretches in the offensive zone, especially in the second period and early in the third.

“I thought our compete in that game changed, got stronger as the game went on,” Maurice said. “Then, honestly, that’s all we value here now. So the results we can spend a whole lot of time worrying about. There are areas we’ve got to get better at.”

One of those areas is moving the puck out of the defensive zone.

As the injured list grew to eventually include all of Toby Enstrom, Zach Bogosian, Jacob Trouba and Mark Stuart, Maurice promised things were going to get difficult in that puck-moving department, at least some of the time.

And the last two or three games have proven the prediction correct.

“It’s not coming out of our end as easy as you’d like it to,” the coach said again Wednesday.

“It’s not going to. So we have to find a way to be big and strong in front of the net when it gets there.”

This roughness of breakouts hasn’t been a symptom of the entire injury crisis period that began in late November.

In fact, through this period, Winnipeg has a record of 9-3-4 and has kept up its 5-on-5 play. In the last 16 games, it holds a 30-25 edge in those goals, of course with the asterisks of having two at the expiration of opponents’ penalties and also one six-goal outing against Colorado.

But still, even with the last two games, the overall average in this injury stretch about matches the season’s averages.

The team’s next chance to improve in this area comes Saturday night at the MTS Centre when the Toronto Maple Leafs visit.

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Left-winger Kane is out until February, the team has said.

The Jets, however, have not yet placed him on the injured reserve list, a move they could and might want to make should they need to recall a healthy body from the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps.

That need may become more acute soon.

The Jets are about to head into another stretch of schedule hell.

Once they complete home games Saturday against Toronto and Monday against San Jose, Winnipeg then faces seven games in 11 days and will have to travel ahead of each game.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca