WINNIPEG — The sky isn’t falling, but the concern-o-meter is activated.
It was a game they should’ve won, with most of the first 40 minutes being spent in Columbus’ zone. But two defensive-zone breakdowns midway through the final frame led to Kent Johnson scoring twice (on consecutive shifts) before the game was ultimately put out of reach by Sean Kuraly’s empty-net goal.
A defensive-zone giveaway by Kyle Connor led to Columbus gaining possession seconds before Johnson scored his first goal. And a neutral-zone turnover from Mark Scheifele is what ignited the two-on-one chance that led to Johnson’s second goal.
“It felt like we gave them those two (goals) tonight,” Dylan DeMelo said. “Sure, they went and got it but, we equally, gave it to them. We weren’t in our structure and we didn’t do what we needed to do in certain roles.”
Structure. It’s a broad term in the hockey landscape, often used as a buzzword to depict “gameplan” or “identity.” We know the Jets pride themselves on being a hard-nosed, straight-lined forechecking team that defends well during five-on-five play. So, what’s led to them struggling to execute that, consistently, throughout their 3-6-0 stretch over the last 15 days?
“Not sure,” DeMelo said before pursing his lips.
Jets personnel have (publicly) resisted any link between fatigue from their gruelling schedule and their output. As they should. Every team goes through exhausting stretches in the schedule.
“You have to grind your way through it,” Scott Arniel said.
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But the gaffes we saw leading to Johnson’s two goals are a byproduct of a troubling pattern. Players are blowing assignments, mistakes are compounding and they’re looking out of sync as a five-man unit without the puck.
It’s not any better with the puck, either.
The power play has veered away from the newfound ‘attack mindset’ that made them so dominant at the start of the year (more on that, in a bit). Plays are dying off in the neutral zone at even strength. And even when they’re able to get into the offensive zone — they aren’t generating quality chances. They’re straying to the perimeter far too often.
“They’re collapsing, they’re taking away the good ice, we’re just around the outside,” Connor said. “That’s what we want to do in our D zone, keep it to the outside. It’s just a mind-set shift for us that we need to get back to.”
Just 27.4 per cent of Winnipeg’s 51 five-on-five shot attempts against Columbus hit the net (14). For reference, the league wide average is 47.2 per cent. Columbus blocked 21 of those attempts, too.
“As forwards, maybe (we’re) holding onto the puck too long,” Connor said. “I think we had some offensive-zone shifts where you’re almost looking for the perfect play.”
You can’t blame that on fatigue.
“It’s three (games) in four nights, that’s all the more reason to simplify what you’re doing,” Arniel said.
And with the Jets playing at such an elite level for most of the season, they deserve the benefit of the doubt that this is just a bump in the road, not the start of a steep decline.
That said, their next three games — against the Boston Bruins, Vegas Golden Knights and Montreal Canadiens at home — will be telling.
Arniel said there’s a good chance Nikolaj Ehlers will return to practice this week.
The Jets power play hasn’t looked the same since Ehlers suffered a lower-body injury on Nov. 29 against the Golden Knights. Over the last five games, Winnipeg’s converted on just two of its 15 power plays and its shot generation has declined. With Ehlers in the lineup, the Jets averaged 51.77 shots per 60 minutes on the power play — which ranked 16th in the league. Without Ehlers, the Jets are generating 36.81 power play shots per 60 minutes (28th).
More alarmingly, they’ve looked more passive — reverting to their old ways of just passing it around the perimeter — with little movement off the puck. Cole Perfetti has filled in for Ehlers in the bumper (or as assistant coach Davis Payne calls it, the “pop shot”), and while he had a few good looks inside Sunday, not having Ehlers’ explosiveness in the slot gives opposing penalty kills one less thing to worry about.
Poor Eric Comrie. The Jets have scored just one goal in three of his last four starts. He’s given them a chance to win every night and it was no different Sunday, where yet again his efforts — including his ‘superman’ cross-crease glove save in the third period — were put to waste.
• Somehow, James Van Riemsdyk and Neal Pionk were given roughing minors in the first period for what was, clearly, a fight.
“We were giving it to (Pionk) for sure. It looked like a fight to me,” Connor said.
• It was Canadian Armed Forces night at Canada Life Centre. Jets players met with several people who have served — past and present — at ice level after the game. DeMelo took some time out of his post-game media availability to provide some gratitude and perspective.
“I spoke with someone who was just in Iraq for six months,” DeMelo said. “We’ve got a pretty good gig with what we’re doing here. Even in a tough night where we maybe didn’t have our best, there’s no bad days in this league. You’ve got to cherish every moment.
“The men and women that fight for our country and let us play a game for a living … we’re not able to without their sacrifice and the people that sacrificed before and the people who will sacrifice in the future for us. When you put that thing into perspective, tonight doesn’t mean that much in regards to what those people have to go through. It was great to put some smiles on some faces out there. Even for us, maybe for a couple minutes or so forget about the loss and thank them for everything they have done for us.”
