Sluggish Jets can’t seem to overcome snail’s race to get ahead of Sabres
The Zamboni driver in Buffalo could have won this game, too.
Trailing the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 in the third period at Keybank Center on Sunday, the Winnipeg Jets managed just two shots on goal in the 12:13 remaining after Kyle Okposo’s second goal of the game produced the final result.
Yes. That’s a whopping two shots on goal.
If the Sabres would have been whittled down to having to use their emergency backup for the last 9:24 of the third period, he wouldn’t have had to make a save at all. At least David Ayres, Toronto’s Zamboni driverturned-emergency goaltender (and now NHL record-setting game winner with the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday), was tested (if only barely).
In reality, the two shots on goal were against an inexperienced NHL netminder named Jonas Johansson, who entered the game with three league starts to his name and no wins. He made 25 saves for the victory.
All any goalie had to do in that final stretch of the game was simply stand there. Or sit. Or pretend to be a pylon. Choose your own adventure, all of which lead to the same ending: a victory.
“It doesn’t matter who you play now,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said. “These guys think they’ve got a chance to get back into it. They’re playing hard and their record is better than ours the last seven or eight, so they’re going to be just as hard to beat as Washington the next night. The opponent isn’t nearly as critical as the desperation we’ll need from 18 skaters, all of them.”
The Jets, who lost 4-2 in Philadelphia on Saturday against the Flyers, had little left in the tank late in the game.
Winnipeg’s final shot, by Mark Scheifele with just under 9:30 remaining, was an unacceptable result at a time of the year when dropping points is simply not affordable if they want to claim a wild-card spot in the Western Conference. When it mattered the most after Okposo’s second goal of the game put his team in the driver’s set, the Jets threw up a goose egg when they needed a full-frontal assault.
And thus, the sluggish and sloppy game ended in Buffalo’s favour. Winnipeg’s second straight loss after winning three in a row. Winnipeg owns a 1-2-0 record on their current fourgame road trip, which wraps up against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.
“We just got to get over it,” captain Blake Wheeler said. “We got a lot of hockey to play still. We’re still in the race. A lot to play for. It’s going to happen again. If we want to reach our goals, it’s not going to be smooth sailing. There’s going to be adversity. We’ve got a young hockey team learning how to deal with that. We just got to fight through it.”
The Sunday showdown of two teams each playing the second half of their respective back-tobacks was a last-to-make-a-mistake type of affair.
Buffalo battled to a 7-4 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins and it showed at times, but they managed to strike first.
After Saturday’s 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, a game in which the Jets allowed the first goal of the contest for the seventh consecutive time, Patrik Laine said this: “It would be fun not to be down right away every game.”
Sunday would not be a fun day. For the eighth straight game, the Jets allowed the first goal of the contest when Okposo struck at 9:58. The goal woke up everyone in the building from their respective comas. “At this point of the season, every team is fighting and playing hard, so you want to get off to a good start,” centre Jansen Harkins said. “Our start was better, but we just couldn’t find a way to get it done.”