Despite 2 recent wins, one would hardly be inclined to say the Winnipeg Jets are doing well right now. The team is barely holding on by a thread, with the season and fanbase on life support. With 8 or 9 games left in the season, every single point is going to be critical. A road match-up against the LA Kings looked like a loss from the beginning. If you had the same thought, it’s hard to say you were disappointed. Winnipeg didn’t play poorly, but a drought of goal-scoring ability and a few mediocre goals against from Hellebuyck did the Jets in.
Winnipeg started off inauspiciously, conceding a goal to Viktor Arvidsson off of a faceoff less than 2 minutes in. It’s wonderful that the Jets are mired in this habit of conceding first. Chasing the game is always an effective strategy for winning, that’s what I say! LA owned the first of the period, but slowly allowed Winnipeg to find its skating legs. The Jets had a couple of shot attempts towards Korpisalo, but enough to cause the Kings much stress.
The Jets pushed a bit more in the second period, trying to deflect as many point shots on target as humanly possible. The plan was a bit of a failure, and Winnipeg watched LA score instead. Phil Danault found Alex Iafallo on a backdoor chance for an easy power play goal. It’s so cool that other teams know how to run an NHL-calibre power play and the Jets don’t! Winnipeg managed to get a bit of a break towards the end of the second, with Blake Lizotte getting ejected after crosschecking Morrissey in the face. Josh dropped his gloves to fight and Blake skipped Go and did not collect $200. Pierre-Luc Dubois, who’s been looking a bit better recently, pounded a puck home to end Winnipeg’s power play scoreless streak.
Sadly, good things don’t last, and a bad Doughty goal from the right wall beat Hellebuyck near the start of the third. It’s a goal that just can’t go in, especially when the team around you has the finishing ability of a wet sock. To be clear, this loss is not on Hellebuyck. He just has to be dang near perfect because Winnipeg will be screwed if he isn’t. The results of even 1 or 2 mistakes were present for all to see, and the Jets conceded an empty netter to finalize the sadness.
Five Takeaways
- The Jets are in one of the worst goal-scoring droughts we’ve seen with this team. It was a problem last year, but it’s almost comically bad right now.
- Winnipeg is fortunate Nashville got obliterated by Seattle. The Flames, however, won their game, and are only 4 points behind the Jets. Sheesh.
- Dubois’ interview sounded like a guy who had no answers for what’s wrong with the team. I hear you, man.
- Bones threw his arms up at the end of the game, seemingly befuddled beyond his wildest dreams. He’s contributing to some of the problems, but many of the team’s stars just aren’t showing up.
- The season is mercifully ending soon. I’m not sure anyone wants it to end more than Winnipeg’s players.
