In Winnipeg Friday night, the Jets had some problems putting distance between themselves and the visiting Buffalo Sabres.
Blake Wheeler continued with his hot hand in a 4-3 win for the Jets; Wheeler had a goal and two points on the night.
“I’ve told you all along, it’s not about points for me,” Wheeler said. “It’s finding a way to help our team win. Obviously, when [forward Mark] Scheifele went down I wanted to step up and make an impact, but I’m not alone in that. I think everyone did that.”
The Jets are 24-11-7 on the season and got goals from Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba and Bryan Little in addition to Wheeler’s.
“Give the credit to our [defense],” Little said. “They were moving their feet and getting things through. That makes a huge difference when those are getting blocked. They did a good job tonight of not standing still and trying to get it through, but moving their feet and finding the lanes.”
The Sabres’ goals were scored by Marco Scandella, Johan Larsson and Scott Wilson.
Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves in the win.
“Special teams was the difference for sure in the game tonight. I think we got right out of any kind of 5-on-5 rhythm in the game and it never came back, I’m not sure it did for either team. You run as many power plays as they did without a result, they’ll have a certain amount of offensive frustration too,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said after the game.
The death knell for the Sabres was their power play unit that went scoreless in five attempts.
“It’s disappointing,” Ryan O’Reilly said. “I’ve got to find a way to put it past them. I had some great opportunities and it’s just not good enough. I’ve got to contribute more, it’s part of my job.”
[WATCH: All Sabres vs. Jets highlights]
Chad Johnson took the loss on 25 saves.
“It seems like it’s a lot of the same questions with a lot of the same answers,” Sabres head coach Phil Housley said. “It starts out we take a penalty 200 feet from our net. You can’t afford to do those kinds of things against a good team like this. Especially a power play that’s top four in the League.”
Questions that have never really been answered in Buffalo. The res have no answers really, they dropped to 10-22-9 and are 1-3-2 in their last six games with the lone highlight being a loss in overtime to the New York Rangers in the Winter Classic.
“It’s frustrating. They have a good power play and I thought we were prepared for them. We’ve got to stay out of the box. When someone’s that good, you can’t give their best players the opportunities because they’ll make us pay, and they did,” O’Reilly said after another loss.
It is difficult to imagine major changes being avoided in the trading season this year.
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