Bittersweet performance against Blues

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This article was published 15/12/2017 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. LOUIS — The Winnipeg Jets were reminded of a hard lesson that in hockey nothing is guaranteed, no matter how much you might feel deserving of a better fate.

That, in short, was the take-home message in the visitor locker-room following a long night at the Scottrade Center, where the Jets put forth a performance seemingly worthy of two points, outplaying the St. Louis Blues in every way, except where it truly counted.

By the time the dust settled, it was the Blues who would leave victorious, edging the Jets 2-0 in the Central Division matchup Saturday night.

“What more can you do?” asked a visibly frustrated Blake Wheeler, the Jets captain, then following up with another question: “That was a hell of a road game tonight, wouldn’t you say?”

Though a strong case, it will do little ease to fans’ frustrations as the Jets continue their free-fall. Winnipeg put up 77 shot attempts on the night, with 48 of those hitting the net. But Blues backup goaltender Carter Hutton, who was called on to give starter Jake Allen the night off and was playing his first game in a week since being activated from injured reserve, was up to the challenge.

He stopped everything that came at him to earn his first shutout of the season and prevent the Jets from rising out of their funk.

“Certainly you’d think that you throw that again and you’d be on the right side of it,” Wheeler added. “But nothing is guaranteed.”

The Jets (18-10-5) have now dropped five of their last six games and six straight on the road. It wasn’t long ago Winnipeg was enjoying unprecedented success, leading the Western Conference — and tied for most points in the NHL.

Now, the Jets are third in the Central Division and are losing valuable ground on the teams below them in the standings. Chicago and Minnesota are just four points shy of the Jets’ 34, with Dallas, who has played one more game, only three points back.

The pressure of dropping even further, though, didn’t seem to faze a sombre group. The Jets felt they left everything on the ice, dictating much of the play through three periods. Even after Vladimir Tarasenko gave the home side a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal midway through the first, the fight in Winnipeg hardly extinguished.

It just wasn’t enough to finish the job, with the Blues eventually adding another goal on the man advantage in the dying minutes of the game — from a shot by defenceman Vince Dunn that found the top right corner — which ultimately sealed the win.

With the victory, the Blues (22-10-2) snapped a two-game losing streak, wrapping up their four-game home stand at 2-2. 

“There’s a change in gears here that happens in December. Pressure starts to weigh pretty heavy on some teams,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said. “That’s all part of that learning process with the grind. This is the real NHL now.

“You got through the easy part and you’re into that heavier area where teams are fighting and you’ve got to learn how to do it.”

What was most disappointing on the night was that the Jets’ top players continue to struggle.

Wheeler has just one assist in his last game; Mark Scheifele has just one assist in his last six. Patrik Laine, the Jets’ most skilled shooter, is goalless in his last four games, while his centreman Bryan Little hasn’t found the back of the net since Nov. 29 — a stretch of eight games.

As for the Jets’ power play, a unit heading into the game was third best in the NHL, went 0-for-4 on the night. The Blues, who entered the game with the 25th ranked PP, suddenly came to life on the man advantage, scoring two goals on five opportunities. It was the first two power-play goals for St. Louis in the last five games.

“In the short term, sure. But not on the long term,” Maurice said when asked about the struggles of his top goal-scorers. “They’re good players and they’re going to score. When you’ve got a guy who has gone five or six games that hasn’t found the net and who was on a good rhythm before, you know they’re pressing and feeling it a little bit.”

Maurice added: “But great players, all of them go through it. They all go through stretches of five or six and struggle to find the back of the net and they find a way to fight through it. As they get further on in their career, they get smaller and smaller gaps (between goals).”

What was perhaps lost in the frustration of another loss was the stellar play of Steve Mason. Mason made 28 saves in his first game back from a concussion, which he suffered in the first period of a 4-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 25. He kept the Jets in the game with a number of key saves, including a highlight reel stop on the goal line against Alexander Steen in the third period to keep it a 1-0 game.

Mason would make the original save on Steen’s one-time shot in the first period, but the puck bounced free and eventually onto the stick of Tarasenko, who buried his 15th of the year. He admitted he was tricked by the second goal and could have played it better.

“I lost it on the one side. I looked to my right and probably should have looked to my left and lost it through a couple bodies there,” he said. “I’m not sure if it was deflected or not, but it found its way through.”

Mason will return to the bench tonight when the Jets seek revenge in the back half of a home-and-home series with the Blues. He’ll have a front row view of what he said should be a good challenge for the Jets. Even if the bad taste of defeat still lingers by puck drop.

“Sometimes the way hockey works is you can put as good an effort as possible and still come up on the short end of the stick,” he said. “That’s the frustrating part about the game, but the nice thing is you can get right back up on the horse and we have a great opportunity to continue the strong effort and get two points (Sunday).”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.catwitter: @jeffkhamilton