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The Colorado Avalanche coached the Winnipeg Jets to the cleanup club on Wednesday night, taking a 2-0 lead after two periods, and then lost in the third for a 7-1 win. The loss marks the third consecutive loss to the Jets, who are now 2-4-2 in their last eight games.
Everyone in Winnipeg seems to be comfortable with this development. Adam Lowry and Mark Scheifele were eliminated by Avalanche defender Nikita Zadorov in the third match. And after the match, Captain Blake Wheeler improved his team's performance:
"It seemed we had a little abandoned, so it's disappointing," he said. "Throughout the period here, even in the years when we did not play in the playoffs, we had teams that competed, who never gave up … even with nothing for which to play. We had a group that played hard. We did not do that tonight.
Lowry was more direct in the post-match:
We were fucking awful. We were terrible. This is unacceptable. It is all I have.
We knew they would be hungry, they are fighting for a playoff spot. I guess we're fat and we're comfortable with who we are, because the effort was not total.
We just have to look at ourselves and know that nothing is given in this league. We are not that good.
For a team that seemed to be the favorite to win the Western Conference just a few weeks ago, it's a scary fall. This is not at all fatal, but some statistics from Winnipeg are a bit worrisome. Last season, when the Jets made the league's second best performance, they were mediocre in creating their own opportunities, and they did not improve much in this area. In 5-on-5, the team averaged 25.89 scoring opportunities per game last season, ranking 19th in the NHL. This year, they are 18th with 25.18 points per game. The Jets have no particular difficulty scoring goals on a few occasions, but as Patrik Laine has scored just one goal since the start of 2019, you need an attack beyond Wheeler's front row , Scheifele and Kyle Connor. The Jets should consider replacing all Ottawa strikers who are currently in play before the trading deadline on Monday.
But defense, too, is a problem that needs to be addressed. The Jets allow the fourth highest number of throws among league players at 33.7 per game. That's because ice time leader Dustin Byfuglien has dealt with injuries, while the youngest defensemen have not been able to take over 100%. Behind the defensemen, 25-year-old goalkeeper Connor Hellebuyck is witnessing a perhaps surprising decline after a breakthrough in 2017-18. He faced an absurd number of shots in some of his starts – 53 in a 5-2 loss to Montreal two weeks ago, and 46 on Wednesday night. But after finishing fourth in scoring better than last season, Hellebuyck reached 30th place this year, with a percentage of breakpoints lost from 0.924 to 0.909.
These are small problems for now, and the Jets are still very good. They still keep first place in the Central, despite their recent problems. But if their goal is to oust their Western peers and qualify for the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in their history, they should address these issues as soon as possible. They have 22 games to do it.
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