After getting off to one of the hottest starts in NHL history, the Winnipeg Jets are coming back down to earth.
Returning from a six-game road trip, Winnipeg looked lifeless in a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night, its fourth straight loss and seventh in its last ten games.
The Jets managed just 23 shots on goal, including just three in the middle of the third, where the Blues struck twice at four-on-four to take the lead for good.
“In the second period, we got away from our game a little bit,” said forward Mark Scheifele, who scored his only goal in the final five minutes. “And scoring two goals four against four was difficult. They blocked everything, played their “D” well and made it difficult for us to get to the net. Yeah, we just didn’t play our game.
Jordan Kyrou scored twice for the Blues in the victory.
It was only the Jets’ second loss at home this season and was the first time the Blues had won in Winnipeg in over three full years. The Jets were outshot 19-3 in the second period.
“In the second half we got cute,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said. “We missed four-on-four assignments twice, but in the second period we were just trying to play some pretty hockey. We were trying to create highlight plays.
“We’re just going to continue to impress upon the guys that there are certain ways we have to do things to be successful. We’ll talk about it but we can’t dwell on it, but at the end of the day we have to be better as a group.
Winnipeg won just 38 percent of faceoffs, while its power play was 0 for 2 with the extra attacker.
The Jets have scored just 11 times in their last six games and Kyle Connor is in the middle of a six-game scoreless stretch. After leading the NHL in goals not too long ago, the offense suddenly dried up for the Jets.
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“We have opportunities to attack the net and we’re looking to make one more play,” Arniel said. “The attacking mindset is kind of something we’ve had for most of the year and right now we’re different a little bit. Maybe we’re trying to make one more play, our ‘D’s aren’t getting pucks down from the top to the front of the net. But we don’t get that second chance either.
The Jets made two roster changes after placing Nikolaj Ehlers on injured reserve earlier in the day with a lower body injury. Brad Lambert skated on their second line after being recalled from the AHL’s Manitoba Moose earlier Tuesday. Ville Heinola replaced Colin Miller on the blue line.
Not much happened in the first 20 minutes, with neither team scoring or taking a penalty. Winnipeg outshot the Blues 8-6 in the first period.
A little more than two and a half minutes into the second half, St. Louis came within inches of opening the scoring when Kyrou’s shot sailed past Connor Hellebuyck’s pads and headed home the net, but Haydn Fleury cleared it before it crossed the goal line. .
St. Louis got the game’s first power play just under seven minutes into the second when Dylan DeMelo was called for holding the stick, but the Blues and their 27th-ranked power play couldn’t get away with it. convert.
With 8:30 left in the second period, Winnipeg had the man advantage when Nathan Walker went to the box for cutting, but the Jets’ second-ranked power play also struggled. difficulties, having failed to register a shot on goal.
The Jets very briefly had a second power play of the night when Jake Neighbors tripped Adam Lowry, but on the ensuing faceoff, Gabriel Vilardi was called for interference, setting up 1:56 of hockey to 4 against 4 which the Blues took full advantage of. .
As the player fought for the puck at the Blues blue line, the puck flew into the neutral zone where it was recovered by Brayden Schenn. He carried it all the way to Winnipeg before passing to Jordan Kyrou in the slot. Kyrou tried to get around Hellebuyck who collected a piece, but the loose puck bounced off the skate of a backchecking Mark Scheifele and into the open net at 18:04.
39 seconds later, it was 2-0 for St. Louis. Dylan Holloway and Robert Thomas went back and forth inside the Winnipeg blue line, leaving Holloway with the puck in the slot. His initial shot was denied by Hellebuyck, but he scored the rebound to double the Blues’ lead.
St. Louis outscored the Jets by a huge 19-3 margin midway through the 20 minutes, giving them a 25-11 advantage through two periods.
Things didn’t get much better for Winnipeg in the third.
Kyrou made it 3-0 at 6:38 when he collected a loose puck in the Winnipeg zone, turned and fired a shot from the slot that beat Hellebuyck through a maze of body.
With Winnipeg shorthanded later in the period, Lowry had a great chance to get the Jets on the board, but he was denied by Winnipeg’s Joel Hofer on a partial breakaway. It was Winnipeg’s 14th shot of the night, just before the halfway point of the third.
Facing a three-goal deficit with 5:01 remaining, Arniel decided to pull Hellebuyck for an extra attacker, hoping to restart a miracle rally and with 4:15 remaining, Scheifele buried a juicy rebound past Hofer to make the score 3. -1 with his first goal in seven games.
With a faceoff in the offensive zone with 3:46 remaining, Hellebuyck returned to the bench, but Thomas found the empty net seven seconds later to put the game on ice and send fans flocking to the exits.
Hellebuyck stopped 28 shots in the loss, while Hofer stopped 22 shots for St. Louis.
The Jets return to the road for a meeting with the Buffalo Sabers on Thursday. Pre-game coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 4 p.m. and puck drops just after 6 p.m.
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