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Jets struggle to find flow in loss to Oilers |
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The way the Jets came out in the first three minutes of the first period Wednesday night was the type of energy any head coach wants to see from his team.
But when you’re skating against two of the league’s best goal scorers in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, momentum quickly can be pulled from you and sent in the other direction.
The Jets saw that firsthand as McDavid set up Jesse Puljujarvi—McDavid’s 500th career point—for the game’s first goal 3:45 into the frame. 21 seconds later, Draisaitl doubled the Oilers lead and just like that, the Jets start was all for naught.
“We came out right on,” said head coach Paul Maurice.
“That’s the dangerous part of the Edmonton Oilers. They can get at some breaks and beat you like that. You’re down 2-0, you can’t sit here and say you liked your start, those are two pretty big gaffes, but I did like the way we came out to play.”
As the Jets looked to claw their way back into the game, and find that same energy they briefly started the game with, finding the right flow was nearly impossible.
11 combined power plays and some untimely TV timeouts prevented the Jets for stringing a handful of solid shifts together, allowing them to even themselves with the Oilers.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of rhythm to the game, felt like whether it was a TV timeout coming up after a few good shifts or a little bit of flow, it just got totally killed by penalties,” said center Mark Scheifele who extended his point streak to eight games. “It sucks, you gotta deal with adversity and be better for it, but it was tough to get into the flow of things.”
Paul Stastny had a similar sentiment.
“It was just a weird game. For me, the flow wasn’t there. It seemed like a power play one way, power play the other way, one five-on-five shift, TV timeout, lots of whistles. It goes both ways, right?” said Stastny.
“At times we had the momentum then all of a sudden TV timeout. They had the momentum then TV timeout. It was like that all night, lots of whistles, lots of faceoffs.”
The Jets did more than enough five-on-five to win the game Wednesday, but it was the Jets special teams units that let them down in this one.
Although Scheifele’s tally came on the man advantage, the Jets scored just once in five tries while allowing a second period power play goal, Draisaitl’s second goal of the game.
“We battled back there and I just think tonight it’s more on us on the power play,” said Stastny. “We converted once, but we’ve got to have more possession, more chances.”
Five-on-five the Jets held the Oilers to just 14 shots, with five of those coming between the second and third periods combined.
“We went 60 minutes and gave up 14 even strength shots. Much happier with what we gave up tonight. You walk off the bench in a bad mood every time you lose a game. It wasn’t a missed opportunity,” said Maurice.” The flow of the game was tough to get a handle on, but I thought we were trying to grind through it. We won’t spend too much emotional energy on that one.”
Outside of the 21 second stretch in the first period, it was a solid performance from the Jets. But given the urgency of each game and each point available, moral victories are less exciting this season.
“I think our defensive zone was better,” Scheifele said. “Past those two goals I think our defensive zone was a little more intact. We were playing together a little more, more support. Still a lot of things we’ve got to do a little better. We’ve got to start making some passes and start with some of those little fine details of the game. That’s got to be our starting point.”
Winnipeg Jets Blogger • 
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