The “O-VER-ATE-D” chants in the third period were fitting.
You’d think a marquee matchup between the Winnipeg Jets and Florida Panthers — the NHL’s hottest team versus the reigning Stanley Cup champions — would make for a high-pace, back-and-forth duel. You’d think the Jets would’ve brought their best coming off Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. But for the second straight game, Winnipeg didn’t resemble the version of itself that got off to an NHL-best start.
“I think we (beat) ourselves,” Nikolaj Ehlers told reporters after Winnipeg fell 5-0 to Florida.
Besides a deflected shot that banked off Mackie Samoskevich’s body and in, each of the Jets’ goals against was caused by a self-inflicted wound.
A defensive zone breakdown left Nate Schmidt wide-open to capitalize on a rebound. 2-0.
Mark Scheifele failed to seal off Evan Rodrigues in front of the net. 3-0.
Poor puck management on the power play led to Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart generating a shorthanded rush chance. 4-0.
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Adam Lowry, uncharacteristically, made a poor defensive read and let Dmitry Kulikov sneak into the low slot. 5-0.
“These are the Stanley Cup champions. No matter what, if you’re going to come into this building (and) you’re going to make mistakes, they’re going to capitalize,” Scott Arniel told reporters post-game.
The results were one thing. But the process was arguably more concerning. It wasn’t like the Jets built any momentum before mistakes did them in.
They were suffocated by the Panthers — who Dylan DeMelo referred to post-game as “the best forechecking team in the league” — in all three zones. The Jets were smothered in their defensive end, struggling to generate quick and efficient exits. Time and time again, they were forced to chip the puck off the wall on breakouts, only for the Panthers to intercept it in the neutral zone and transition into their attack. Florida outwilled them.
“Whenever there was a battle, they had another guy in there. They came up with a lot more than we did all over the ice. That was evident,” DeMelo said.
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Florida generated 13 high-danger shot attempts during even-strength play. Winnipeg had just three. One team crashed the net hard. The other didn’t.
“On a goalie like Bobrovsky, (if) you give him a clean view of the puck, they’re going to stop it,” Ehlers said.
While it’s premature to push any panic button, the Jets can’t rest on their laurels after this not-so-sunny two-game stretch. We’re starting to see a theme develop. Winnipeg struggles to generate and maintain possession against hard-forechecking teams that can also generate off the rush. That was their downfall in all three of their losses. It’s not a structural issue as it is an execution one.
In those types of games, plays need to be made quicker under pressure. They can’t give opponents so much real estate to gain speed against them in the neutral zone. And, on the other side of the coin, they need to be more assertive when operating with the puck in the middle zone. When there’s not room to skate it through, you’ve got to transition to a chip-and-chase style.
“We turn it over. We don’t change our game. We keep turning it over. We keep trying to get through,” Ehlers said of the team’s neutral zone play. “It’s our mistakes.”
So, now what? It’s easy to suggest a knee-jerk “bring out the line blender” reaction. However, shaking up the lines isn’t going to make those troubling trends disappear. Their response on Tuesday, when they host the Panthers at Canada Life Centre, will be telling.
Other Takeaways
• One positive from this game: Nikolaj Ehlers. He generated four scoring chances — three of which came in the first period — and had a magnificent play in the second period where he stripped the puck from Barkov and set up Scheifele for a Grade-A rush chance. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen the pending UFA play with the level of confidence and poise he’s displayed this year.
• Things got feisty in the third period — Scheifele dropped the mitts with Aaron Ekblad, while Vladislav Namestnikov, Neal Pionk and Colin Miller were given game misconducts — but it was too little too late. Now, the game misconducts were done out of precaution, as the referees were trying to bring the temperature down, but the overall chippiness we saw came after the game was long-gone. It would’ve been more meaningful to see that kind of push-back when the game wasn’t out of reach.
• Neal Pionk delivered another one of his signature hip-checks and sent Jesper Boqvist flying. While Pionk seemed to connect with Boqvist’s knee, it was still a clean hit.
“(Boqvist) didn’t miss a shift,” Arniel shrugged when asked about the hit.
• Vladislav Namestnikov won nine of 12 faceoffs. The 31-year-old has a 50 per cent faceoff win percentage — a huge uptick from his last two seasons with the Jets, where he won just 36 per cent of his draws.
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