For the second straight game, the Winnipeg Jets came up short in a 2-1 loss, ending Saturday night in a shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers. There was plenty of good and bad from the Jets in this one, and therefore, plenty to take away.
The Jets’ power play continues to struggle:
From my view, the Jets played more than well enough to win this one. They were gifted two glorious power play opportunities late, failed to convert, a Flyers forward made a glove save off of Kyle Connor in OT, and they lost the skills competition in the shootout.
Heading into the third period, it was a 1-1 game. From that point forward, the Jets dominated the shot attempts (32-13), scoring chances (14-5), and shots on goal (12-4), per Natural Stat Trick. The main reason for these numbers being in the Jets’ favour was two late power plays, where the Jets failed to convert on both, furthering their goalless drought to 16 straight opportunities.
All three of Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Scott Arniel didn’t seem too concerned with the lack of scoring, citing the chances they continue to generate on the power play.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“I thought we had some great looks again. Just like two nights ago,” Arniel said. “(Ehlers) had the glorious one right there and a few that were real tight, real close. Whatever. I’m not criticizing our power play. Our play has been exceptional. Right now, the last two games — In Ottawa, it wasn’t what it needed to be. I thought the last two games, we were dangerous. Spent the whole time in their end of the rink.”
Nikolaj Ehlers noted the importance of those late power plays and offered up an area the Jets can improve heading forward.
“I mean those are the ones, you’ve gotta put a game away at that point,” Ehlers said. “You’ve gotta take advantage and we haven’t been able to do that. I think our power play has gotten better over the last few games, at least in the right direction. But still too many mistakes and too many bad passes.”
These past two games where the Jets went 0-for-4 against Nashville and 0-for-2 in key spots against Philadelphia, are both games they needed their power play to convert, and they failed to do so, and it resulted in back-to-back 2-1 losses.
I wrote after Thursday’s game against Nashville that I was not yet panicking about the power play, and I’m holding that standpoint. They generated quality chances during both opportunities in this game, and of course, they could generate even more. The pucks will start going in sooner rather than later.
Morgan Barron returns and makes an impact:
Morgan Barron made his return to the lineup and immediately had a strong impact on this one. Barron drew both power plays late in the game, both on hustle plays down low, where the fourth line was outworking their opponent. In this game, the fourth line of Iafallo-Kupari-Barron had 6:03 of five-on-five minutes and was effective in them.
They controlled the scoring chances 5-0, High-danger chances 3-0, and out-shot-attempted their opponents 6-3, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
“(He) hadn’t played in a while, getting in a game like that that’s quick, I thought he was real good,” Arniel said. “He drew those penalties, it would have been nice if we scored for him and got him one. At the end of the day, they did a lot of what we needed. I think that once he continues to get up to game speed — you can’t emulate it in practice or extra skating — him just getting those reps is important. It’s also some fresh legs for us tonight. Which certainly helped.”
With Barron returning, David Gustafsson moved to the press box as the extra forward for the Jets after showing well in his limited action. It will be interesting to monitor how the depth is managed ahead, especially after, the looming trade deadline.
Up next:
The Jets will get two days without a game before heading on a four-game road trip, starting on Tuesday night against the New York Islanders.
Stay tuned to Illegalcurve.com for all the Jets and Moose news you’ll need through the week of the Trade Deadline.
