Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele (55) celebrates with goaltender Connor Hellebuyck after the third period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers on Monday, Feb. 20, 2023, in New York. The Jets won 4-1. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
The majority of the 2023–24 NHL season has seen the Winnipeg Jets go through ups and downs.
The afternoon game against the Calgary Flames on Monday was just another outstanding illustration of it.
After former Flame Sean Monahan scored a natural hat trick to give the Jets a 3-1 lead in the first period, the team steadied itself and watched as Calgary scored five goals in a row to overturn the deficit and defeat Winnipeg 6-3.
“The power play put us ahead 3-1, so when you take that out of the equation, yeah. The Jets’ head coach, Rick Bowness, stated it as the sole explanation. “We haven’t played a 5-on-5 game that soft all year. That didn’t even look like the Winnipeg Jet out there; that’s not us at all. However, what’s the deal? After you flush it, we’ll prepare for tomorrow.”
Granted, Winnipeg’s power play scored twice in the second straight game, but that was practically the highlight of the first period, if not the whole game.
“We don’t play like that,” Bowness added. That’s just not our hockey club.
“That’s as soft as we’ve played, as loose as we’ve played, so yeah. I mean, to shift up the pairings, shift up the lines, it wouldn’t have mattered one little bit. We just had nobody going, other than Sean and our goalie.”
