WINNIPEG – With a long homestand, the Winnipeg Jets were looking to get things rolling and start to make a move in the Western Conference. The home cooking hasn’t been kind so far as they lost 4-1 to the San Jose Sharks who were playing the second game of a back-to-back as they played in Calgary Monday night .
The Jets looked like they were the team coming off a late game the night before as they were very slow and sluggish. This is something that has become all too familiar for this team lately.
“I liked our game,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said after his team improved to 4-3-1 in the second half of back-to-backs. “I thought we did what they did to in San Jose us [a 4-1 Winnipeg win Jan. 2]. We played a heavy game. We played hard. We did a lot of good things for a back-to-back on the road.”
They also continued to shoot themselves in the foot by taking numerous penalties and continue to take needless retaliation penalties like tonight when Tyler Myers took a five minute major for crosschecking Sharks forward Tommy Wingels in the head after he hit Myers with solid body check.
“We weren’t as good as we needed to be to beat that team,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “They were faster than we were from the start all the way through the game.”
The Jets may have been victims on the ensuing power play as Blake Wheeler came down and stole the puck from Sharks goalie Alex Stalock who then took a huge spill after Wheeler seemed to have scored the tying goal which was waved off and Wheeler was given two minutes for tripping and the Sharks scored a power play goal as captain Joe Pavelski one-timed a shot into the top corner for his 22nd of the season to make it 3-1 at that point.
“We didn’t play very well,” Wheeler said. “We didn’t have very many good players.”
The Jets were also careless with the puck as the Sharks’ first goal was a shorthanded marker by Chris Tierney as he stole a puck that Dustin Byfuglien gave away after trying to pass to Mathieu Perreault. It was Tierney’s 4th of the year.
Also scoring for the Sharks was Joe Thornton who got his ninth and seemed to control the play every time he had the puck tonight; Joel Ward added an empty netter his 13th of the year.
“We love when [Stalock] is in net,” Thornton said. “He has a tough job. He comes in every back-to-back, [the team] coming in late the night before. It’s a tough job he has, but he played solidly for us.”
Connor Hellebuyck stopped 23 of 26 shots and took the loss as he sees his record fall to 9-6-1 on the year.
The Jets scored their lone goal on the power play as Drew Stafford made a beautiful pass to Nikolaj Ehlers who scored his seventh of the year.
“I think that as a group we can build some more,” said captain Andrew Ladd, who has two goals in his past 16 games. “We have to find a way to build up more energy inside this room coming from everybody, so I think it’s something we can get better in.”
Stalock got the win for the Sharks stopping 21 shots and got some help from the post as Andrew Ladd caught the iron in the third period. Stalock improves to 3-5 on the year.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was in attendance and witnessed some Jets fans show their displeasure with the refs as they littered the ice with garbage and some were escorted from the MTS Centre.
“I’ve said all along that I’m optimistic about our group,” DeBoer said. “I like where we’re going. We’re heading in the right direction. We’re not where we want to be yet, but we’re heading there.”
The Jets have now lost three straight and will be in must win mode on Thursday night when they face the Nashville Predators before making a quick one-game trip to face the Wild in Minnesota before heading back home .
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