Poor power play sets tone

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This article was published 02/11/2015 (3686 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — Some nights, the early warning signs are dire, but they are not back-breakers.

Take, for instance, the Minnesota Wild scoring a goal 10 seconds into the game versus the Jets a week ago at the MTS Centre, a blip from which the Jets recovered from in a 5-4 victory.

Sunday at Bell Centre, there were early alerts again, but this time, the Jets were buried in them, falling 5-1 to the Montreal Canadiens.

Winnipeg had three power plays in the game’s first 11 minutes, generated little and wound up trailing 1-0, courtesy of Paul Byron’s short-handed breakaway goal.

And it only got worse, as Montreal powered to a 4-0 lead before 24 minutes had been played.

“Yeah, that was a sign the game didn’t start off the way we wanted it to,” Jets centre Bryan Little said about those ineffective power plays. “After having a pretty good power play the night before, it’s frustrating to go out there and be fighting it and not even be able to set it up.

“Then, to give up that short-handed goal. So you could sense a bit of frustration from all the guys after a couple of those power plays.”

Montreal led 4-0 on just nine shots on goal.

“They obviously took advantage of their chances and they ended up in the back of our net,” said Jets winger Drew Stafford. “We just didn’t have an answer quick enough and before you knew it, it was 4-0.”

Stafford said playing on the second straight night had no bearing on what happened.

‘Most nights we’re able to get our stick on it and clean up in our own zone a little better. Tonight we just kind of let them skate all over’

— Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson

“No. No. Fatigue and conditioning wasn’t a factor tonight,” he said. “It’s as simple as us not burying our chances and not taking advantage of some early power-play time. With them getting a short-handed goal, they had a little momentum and it wasn’t just scoring chances.

“For this one, we move on and go to Toronto, clear our heads a little bit and get ready for a response.”

Once it was 4-0, Jets coach Paul Maurice went to his bullpen for Ondrej Pavelec, who relieved starter Michael Hutchinson.

“We just weren’t completely ready early tonight,” said Hutchinson, who fell to 4-1-0. “They have a lot of offensive talent and quick forwards. We kind of struggled with that a bit. They leaked and they were able to make plays and passes.

“Most nights we’re able to get our stick on it and clean up in our own zone a little better. Tonight we just kind of let them skate all over.”

Maurice was clearly fuming after the game, having witnessed a poor start and then, to add insult to the injury, to stand and watch about 35 minutes of garbage time.

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What does a coach say or think while that’s going on?

‘No. No. Fatigue and conditioning wasn’t a factor tonight’

— Jets forward Drew Stafford

“You can’t print any of it,” Maurice said. “Nobody likes being there, but we’re all in it together. Players weren’t very good. My job’s to prepare the team, so I clearly wasn’t very good today either. None of us were any good today.

“It’s probably going to be better tomorrow, maybe until a little while after I watch the game (again). Then we’ll be a hell of a lot better in Toronto.”

NOTES: Maurice said Andrew Copp, who sat out Sunday, is out day-to-day with an unspecified injury… The Jets continue their four-game road trip Wednesday in Toronto and Thursday in Ottawa.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca