The Afterburners: Winnipeg Jets Fall To New York Islanders 3-1

Well that was most unfortunate. It's like the feeling you get when a vending machine eats your change. You're left there expecting results, but ultimately leave empty handed. That's how this one feels to me.

The Winnipeg Jets lost by a margin of 3 to 1 to the New York Islanders in front of 7, 502 couples at the MTS Centre on this Valentines Day night. The Jets were able to play with a good intensity and generated a bevy of chances, but were unable to capitalize on most of them and ultimately saw what I will call a "winnable" game slip away from them.

The Jets found the scoreboard first as a good shift by the GST line late in the first period saw Glass dump it in where Slater was able to get it out front and Chris Thorburn scored. That should have sealed it, as the Jets had not lost a game in which Thor had scored. But that streak would end on this night.

Some nifty passing on the powerplay would result in John Tavares finding Matt Moulson who who put home the equalizer with his 25th of the season.

The third period would once again be the undoing for the local club, as just 1:36 into the frame a seeing eye pass would find its way to P.A. Parenteau who got it by Ondrej Pavelec to take the 2-1 lead. Parenteau would notch his 39th assist of the year setting up Matt martin for a one-timer into an empty net late in regulation to officially put this one to bed. The Jets managed 38 shots on Evgeni Nabokov, but he proved to be quite up to it. With his play of late he'd fetch a pretty return at the deadline, as there seems to be a market for veteran Russian goalies right now.

Boxscore and Thoughts from the Tarmac for your viewing pleasure after THE JUMP

1st Period: 17:50 WPG Chris Thorburn (3) (Jim Slater, Tanner Glass)

2nd Period: 03:55 NYI PPG Matt Moulson (25) (John Tavares)

3rd Period: 01:36 NYI P.A. Parenteau (12) (Milan Jurcina, Brian Rolston); 19:07 NYI ENG Matt Martin (7) (P.A. Parenteau, Jay Pandolfo)

Shots: WPG 38 NYI 25

3 Star Selections: 1) P.A. Parenteau 2) Evgeni Nabokov 3) Chris Thorburn

Thoughts from the Tarmac

• As I harped on him last game against Pittsburgh, I will say that Ondrej Pavelec can not be held responsible for this loss. He made some stellar saves, and the two goals were just unsavable. The first was redirected off the skates of Ron Hainsey, and the second was a great one-timer.
• At the other end, Nabokov did pretty much everything right tonight as the Jets threw puck after puck on net to no avail. Traffic in front needs to step up, as he was able to come out and shut down angles of shots that he saw all the way.
• As much energy and electricity that they played with, the line of Evander Kane, Alexander Burmistrov and Kyle Wellwood was unable to get on the scoresheet tonight. They managed 7 shots between them but were just unable to convert. I'd like to see this line again, though.
• Speaking of unable to convert: what happened to the powerplay on this team? Somehow the team has managed to completely forget how to score with the extra man. They manage to rank 20th in the league, but look about as dangerous as toilet paper.
• The Isles really don't have great depth, but their top 3 players managed to be in on all 3 goals. That's a little disappointing, as one would want the Jets to be matching lines to see their best defenders against those 3.
• Lots of minor injuries in this one. Pandolfo skating mouth first into the crossbar was a real "WTF?" moment. Don't expect any of this dings to keep anybody out of the lineup though.
• Next up is Minnesota on Thursday. You remember Minnesota? They were top of the league at one point and seemed to think they would stay there. Maybe they would have, if their PP wasn't worse than that of the Jets and they scored more than 2.16 goals per game. they have faced a similar problem to the Jets: if you can't score, you can't win. It's just that simple.
• Dennis Beyak thinks it'd be neat if somebody kept track of posts hit. I think, if that topic interests you, you should tune into AIH on Thursday to see what one Gabe Desjardins has to say on the topic. If you see Stu Hackell, be sure to invite him along. He should really learn read about it.
• I know that it sounds silly, but this was a must win game that we lost. Calgary did us a favor by beating Toronto, but the Jets are just as likley to be overtaken as they are to overtake at this point, as the Isles could very well overtake us. Luckily most of the other basement teams are losing as well, so we still sit only 4 points out of 8th.
• John Tavares would look really good in Polar Night Blue...

GO JETS GO!