Coming into their game at Wells Fargo Center, the Winnipeg Jets did not look like a team on a four-game losing streak. As a result, they suffered another defeat, extending their losing streak.
“Our standard is that we’re ready to go from puck drop,” defenceman Dylan DeMelo told reporters after the game. “We’re ready for faceoffs. We’re prepared with our information. “We are ready for anything.”
The Jets were unprepared for the Flyers, who dominated the first 20 minutes as they were in transition.
Winnipeg appeared stunned, outshot 13-4 and outscored 3-0, effectively ending the game.“There’s a structure that we’ve been dominant (with) when we’re going and we’ve kind of gotten away from it the last couple of weeks,” captain Adam Lowry said.
DeMelo went on to talk about how the Jets rallied in the second and third periods.
There’s truth there, as they held the Flyers to just seven shots over the remaining 40 minutes.
They also gifted them a shorthanded goal after a cluster-you-know-what off a won faceoff on the power play, where Kyle Connor and Josh Morrissey ran into each other before the Flyers etched their fourth goal on the scoresheet.
“You give our guys the credit for battling,” head coach Rick Bowness said.
Battling only goes so far in a town that watched its team implode spectacularly last season beginning around this time.
I’d still submit to you that this is not that.
The Jets of yore would have bowed out down 3-0. Thursday’s final two periods wouldn’t have seen that shut-down effort by the Jets.
The Jets did, as DeMelo and Bowness alluded to in their post-loss comments, dominate the second and third periods.
They just can’t score, with just four goals during their losing streak to their name.
Winnipeg came within 5:12 of being shut out for a third time in their past four games and a fourth time in their past eight.
Finally, Bowness got the industrial-sized blender out in the third and moved Nikolaj Ehlers to the top line.
If history shows us something else, it’s that Ehlers, along with Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi — who was demoted to the fourth line in the game — produce and produce a lot.
Why Bowness hasn’t returned to that well is a bit perplexing, especially in a time of famine.
Speaking of dominant …
Bowness tried Ehlers with Connor and Scheifele to end Thursday’s game, but wouldn’t commit to that for Saturday’s game back at Canada Life Centre against Pittsburgh.
At this point, anything’s worth a shot.
And that leads to another idea … #FreeVille.
The Jets struggled with breakouts in Thursday’s game, and it hasn’t been smooth sailing in that department for several now.
So while he’s looking to boost his offence from his forwards, Bowness could do a lot worse than giving young Ville Heinola, a puck-moving blue-liner with plenty of offensive instinct, a shot with Brenden Dillon set to miss two more games due to suspension.
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