JETS SHUT OUT IN SIXTH STRAIGHT HOME LOSS
Struggling Winnipeg gives the puck away 11 times in one period
If home is where the heart is, the Winnipeg Jets haven’t had much of a pulse recently.
Wins haven’t come easy from inside the confines of Bell MTS Place this season, evidenced once again by a 1-0 loss to the Nashville Predators in Sunday’s matinee in downtown Winnipeg.
The Jets are now 0-5-1 in their past six games in their home barn and have just nine wins on home ice in 22 games (10 when you include the Heritage Classic.)
The Jets have been outscored 28-13 during that span.
“That’s not good enough,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. “We’ve got to be better at home, no question about that.”
Kyle Turris gave Nashville a 1-0 lead with his first goal since Dec. 3. Juuse Saros got the shutout.
Adam Lowry attempted a blind backhand pass cross-ice to Dmitry Kulikov. That puck was intercepted by Yakov Trenin, giving both him and Turris a clean 2-on-0 break. Trenin fed Turris with a cross-ice pass at 11:53.
Connor Hellebuyck started his 36th game of the season and kept the Jets in the game early as Nashville poured it on, registering 10 shots in the first 6:54 of the opening frame.
Hellebuyck finished with 31 saves in the loss.
“You’re always concerned your first game back, first period back after a road trip, probably more so in the hockey that’s played on that trip, the style of game,” head coach Paul Maurice said.
“It looked nothing like the game tonight except the first period. We turned it over an awful lot, the other team didn’t, so we found ourselves chasing the game for the first 20 minutes.”
The Jets were an enemy to themselves early on, giving away the puck 11 times in the period.
Andrew Copp, seemingly disgusted with how his team played to start the game, didn’t hold back as he spoke with TSN’s Sara Orlesky in a walk-off interview.
“Don’t turn the puck over,” Copp told the broadcast. “Eleven giveaways in the first 11 minutes of the game is horrendous. We just need to play a completely different game than we were playing. We weren’t even playing hockey out there. It was shinny.”
Asked about it after the game, Copp gave the period an unflattering rating.
“Zero out of 10,” he said.
It was Copp who had the game’s first real chance when he was sent in all alone on a short-handed breakaway.
“I really don’t think (Saros) saw it, to be honest,” Copp said. “I think it just kind of hit him. Smaller goalie, I think he was challenging, had a lot of time. I just tried to put it over his shoulder. It just looked like it kind of hit him and he reacted after it hit him.”
The Jets tightened things up in the second and that seemed to grind the game to a halt.
Winnipeg’s power play, the best in the NHL operating just over 37 per cent since the middle of December, went 0-for-2 on the day.
The Jets were reduced to five defencemen just after the midway point of the first period.
Tucker Poolman landed awkwardly after a collision between himself and Preds forward Yakov Trenin.
“I haven’t even seen the play, but obviously, hopefully, he’s doing all right and hopefully can be back soon,” said Josh Morrissey, who led the team with 25:15 played. “Especially early in the game. I think he’s been playing awesome for us and tough to see him go down. Obviously having five (defencemen) the rest of the game, a little bit of an adjustment, but I don’t think the five (defencemen) hurt us. I thought we were able to manage that pretty fine.”
He left the game, then returned to the bench to close out the period but didn’t play a shift. Poolman wouldn’t emerge for the second frame, however, and was ruled out for the rest of the afternoon with a lower body ailment.
Maurice said Poolman will be re-evaluated on Monday.
“It was enough (the trainers) didn’t want him to test it,” Maurice said.