Jets losing skid continues with loss to Blues

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The Winnipeg Jets’ first three-game skid of the season rapidly grew to become a four-game slide on Tuesday evening – on residence ice, no much less.

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Two sleeps in their very own beds for a change didn’t take the sleep out of a group that’s now misplaced seven of their final 10 video games, the most recent a lackluster 4-1 defeat by the hands of the sub-.500 St. Louis Blues.

Test that – the win dragged the Blues, considerably rejuvenated underneath new coach Jim Montgomery, to 12-12-2.

The Jets? Now 18-8 and out of high spot, behind Minnesota, within the NHL’s Western Convention.

“There’s some psychological issues which can be occurring and also you go ‘Wow, the place did that come from?’” head coach Scott Arniel mentioned, citing his group’s troublesome schedule of late for what he mentioned could be the final time.

That lofty, 15-1 begin appears historical historical past now, a mix of street weariness, recreation unawareness, maybe an harm or two and an offence gone quiet humbling hockey’s shock group of the primary month and a half.

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Passing too typically and never entering into the soiled areas are what Arniel pointed to as his group has scored simply six instances within the final 4 video games.

“Typically it’s the opposition attempting to maintain you out of there,” the coach mentioned. “However generally it’s your will to go inside there and go get these second possibilities. The assault mindset is one thing that we’ve had for many of the yr however now we’re deferring.”

Centre Mark Scheifele, hampered by an undisclosed harm that stored him out of the faceoff circle for a number of video games and compelled him to start out this one on the wing, scored his group’s solely objective with Connor Hellebuyck out of the web and a few 4 minutes left.

However any ideas of a miracle end have been dashed with an empty-net objective by Robert Thomas lower than a minute later.

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“Everybody’s gunning for us,” Scheifele mentioned. “And so they know they’ve received to play us exhausting. It’s only a matter of getting again to wanting on the blueprint that we have been doing earlier, and simply attempt to get again to that.”

The Jets performed a shuffled lineup, inserting 20-year-old rookie Brad Lambert onto the roster with Nik Ehlers going through not less than per week on the sidelines with a foot harm.

They wanted way more than youthful exuberance on this evening.

Last photographs have been 32-21, St. Louis.

Some within the crowd of 13,100 went residence completely happy: Winnipegger Joel Hofer received the win for the Blues, in entrance of what he estimated to be 15 to twenty household and pals.

St. Louis has been a punching bag for the Jets in recent times, shedding the final 4 and Winnipeg holding a 12-1-1 mark of their final 14 conferences.

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Neither group tossed many punches within the first interval.

That gave option to a high-contact second, though just about all the things was landed by the visiting group within the Winnipeg zone, the Blues turning a scoreless recreation into their very own, scoring twice and out-shooting the house aspect, 19-3, within the course of.

“We have been attempting to play cute hockey,” Arniel mentioned. “We have been attempting to make highlight-reel performs. We weren’t taking part in north-south and forcing them to defend like we did within the first. They spent just about the entire interval in our finish of the rink.”

The targets got here inside 39 seconds of one another, each within the ultimate two minutes of the interval, each four-on-four, as Hellebuyck might solely maintain them at bay for thus lengthy.

Jordan Kyrou received credit score for the primary one, his rebound going off Scheifele’s skate and in.

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They’d barely introduced that one when Dylan Holloway was left untouched to deposit his personal rebound, because the Jets defence sprung leak after leak, Hellebuyck with not sufficient fingers to plug all of them.

That second St. Louis marker introduced out some boo-birds who anticipated extra from a group lastly again residence after a grueling, six-game street journey.

“We began to make 50-foot passes and 100-foot passes coming by the impartial zone,” Arniel mentioned.

Kyrou all however put the Jets out of their distress within the third interval, given every kind of time to gather a unfastened puck, spin round within the deep slot and hearth his second previous Hellebuyck as 5 gamers in blue merely watched.

The Jets’ keep at residence shall be temporary: on Wednesday they go away for Buffalo and a Thursday tilt with the Sabres, adopted by a Saturday afternoon recreation in Chicago.

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After that it’s 4 in a row at residence, starting Sunday towards Columbus.

What the house group will appear like by then is anyone’s guess.

“We had a number of success right here lengthy earlier than these 4 video games,” Arniel mentioned. “It’s swung the opposite manner now. It’s sticking collectively and ensuring that we exit and do what we do finest, and that’s defend first and play a easy recreation.”

Haydn Fleury put it one other manner.

“The primary little little bit of adversity we’ve had this yr,” the defenceman mentioned. “No one likes to cope with it, however the one option to get by it’s as a group… we have now to look ourselves within the mirror and actually dig deep, as a result of this isn’t going to get any simpler.”

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