Jets drop season-opener to Rangers 6-4

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This article was published 03/10/2019 (2167 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK — Sure, we’re just one game into the regular season, but it’s a question already begging to be asked: Do the Winnipeg Jets have a goalie controversy brewing?

It’s starting to look that way after No. 1 netminder Connor Hellebuyck sprung a leak all over Madison Square Garden Thursday night in a 6-4 loss to the New York Rangers.

Hellebuyck, who is coming off a disappointing season and appeared shaky in three pre-season appearances, didn’t exactly turn a new page once the puck dropped for real. He surrendered five goals on 31 shots — including the game-winning goal by Oakbank’s Brett Howden with 4:09 left in the third period. The Rangers sealed it with a short-handed empty-netter in the final seconds. 

Hellebuyck was defiant after the game, suggesting he was better than the final result indicated.

“I liked a lot of my game. I felt that I earned better. I felt like I played a lot better than five goals against. I don’t know, it just seems like the puck was always in the wrong spot for me. And if I look back at my tape I probably wouldn’t do a whole lot different. But I gotta do something because five is unacceptable,” said Hellebuyck.

There’s no question Hellebuyck is as confident as they come, but that faith in himself becomes borderline delusional at times when he has a particularly bad outing such as this. He even doubled down when it was suggested he might be feeling more pressure this season with so much turnover on Winnipeg’s blue line.

“No, I’m not feeling any more pressure. What I’m feeling is I want to feel right in my game and (Thursday night) I did. This whole pre-season I felt myself building forward and I really like where I’m at. Like I said, five goals against is not the result I expect. But this is going to make me better in the end,” said Hellebuyck.

“I’m not happy with losing at all. Don’t mistake me saying I like my game thinking I’m happy with what the result was. I’m going to go back, am going to watch film and get better. It’s Game 1. There’s a long season ahead.”

The Jets were the better team in pretty much every other department. Veteran Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist came up huge on multiple occassions and finished with 43 saves. That included a couple big stops with the Jets on the power play in the final minute and Hellebuyck pulled for an extra attacker.

Indeed, final shot attempts were 81-51 in favour of the Jets. That’s usually a recipe for success — but not when you get sub-par goaltending. However, head coach Paul Maurice wasn’t ready to throw his starter under the bus.

“It’s not like we gave up 10 chances or eight chances and they scored on five of them. He made some really good saves in that game. So did their guy, plus one. He’ll get better,” said Maurice, who liked much of what he saw from his group.

“There was lots of real good stuff. The style of offensive game, I didn’t feel like we cheated for it. We actually generated a lot of our offence by reloading and getting back above pucks and turning pucks back in on them. That part was really good. But you gave up five, so you can’t be bragging about that game either,” he said.

The Jets controlled the game early and were pressing when Rangers defenceman Marc Staal took some wind out of the sails by scoring on a wraparound. Hellebuyck got caught hugging the right post and was too slow to push off and prevent Staal from sliding it across the goal-line.

Mark Scheifele tied it less than six minutes later following a superb feed from Nikolaj Ehlers, who was a one-man cycle behind the New York net.

Artemi Panarin gave the home team a 2-1 lead just 27 seconds into the middle frame. He buried a rebound after Mika Zibanejad’s initial shot drilled Hellebuyck in the mask. Hellebuyck ended up leaning the wrong way and giving New York’s big summer free agent addition a wide-open net to shoot at.

Blake Wheeler responded exactly 30 seconds later, converting on a two-on-one rush with Ehlers. Eighteen-year-old rookie defencemen Ville Heinola got the play started up the ice and drew his first NHL point in his first NHL game.

Ex-Jet Jacob Trouba gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead at 6:03 of the second period, as his blast of a bouncing puck beat Hellebuyck over the right shoulder and just under the crossbar. Trouba, traded by the Jets in the summer in exchange for Neal Pionk and the draft pick that turned into Heinola, gave it an extra-big fist pump on the celebration.

That lead was even shorter-lived, as Wheeler scored his second of the period nine seconds later. Once again, it was Ehlers playing the setup man with his third primary assist of the night. Kulikov also had a helper.

“We played a really good game, to be honest. Obviously there’s some things that we need to tighten up on. We’ve got a lot of new players — that’s not an excuse — but we played a good game and if we can continue this, and keep improving, we’ve got a hell of a team,” said Ehlers.

The Jets got their first lead of the night 2:41 into the third period, as all three players who signed new contract extensions during training camp teamed up for a power-play marker. Kyle Connor got a stick on a Josh Morrissey point shot, with Patrik Laine drawing the other helper.

This time it was the Rangers who responded quickly, as Trouba sprung Zibanejad on a breakaway. The speedy forward beat Hellebuyck with a backhander to tie the game, less than three minutes after Winnipeg had pulled in front.

With overtime looming, Howden notched the game winner as he gobbled up a loose puck that was put on net following an offensive-zone faceoff win.

“A shot from the point. Hit a shin pad or a leg. There was like three or four guys in front of me and I couldn’t find it. And then all of a sudden he’s pulling it back door and I had no way of getting over there,” said Hellebuyck.

Brendan Smith added the empty-netter.

“You go into a building and put up (close to) 50 shots, you did a pretty good job. There’s some bounces that went against us, certainly some things we can tighten up. But the majority of that game is pretty good,” said Wheeler.

“Like I said 50 shots, spent a lot of time in their own zone. Some of the chances we gave up were just too good. They got a couple bounces to go their way (Thursday night) and cashed in on them.”

There were already increasingly loud calls among the fan base for backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit to take on a bigger role, especially after a strong first year with the Jets and several solid pre-season outings. He’ll get his first start of the new season when the Jets take on the New Jersey Devils tonight as this season-opening four-game road trip continues.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg