Jets Nation Recap: Buried By An Avalanche Of Mistakes, Jets Lose 5-3

That was fun while it lasted.

A day after playing a game in Minnesota much like they had all of last season with tight checking, disciplined play, the Winnipeg Jets regressed back to the form we have seen from them more often than not this season.

Less than ideal goaltending, bad turnovers and poor defensive coverage leading to early mistakes doomed the Jets to a 5-3 loss against the Colorado Avalanche.

Falling behind 3-0 about six minutes into the second period isn’t exactly an ideal strategy to win hockey games, but it’s where the Jets found themselves after committing three defensive or neutral zone gaffes that lead directly to Avalanche goals.

Mistake 1 – Adam Pardy (last man back for the Jets) fumbles the puck at the red line as he gets pressured by Blake Comeau. Comeau skates in alone and puts it high glove side on Hutch.

Mistake 2 – A bit of pressure in the defensive zone catches the Jets scrambling with both defensemen – Tyler Myers and Toby Enstrom – caught at each face off dot instead of down lower towards the net. Duchene flings the puck towards the corner and the loose puck is batted in by Landeskog.

Mistake 3 – Jets again caught scrambling in their own zone but this time do manage to clear, but can’t control the puck in the neutral zone. The Avalanche come roaring back as Soderberg slips behind the defense (again cheating a bit too high) and puts the puck past Hutchinson who is without stick as he had lost it in a goal mouth scramble seconds earlier.

The Jets did make a game of it getting within one after 40 minutes, but a fourth Avalanche goal scored three minutes into the third period (off another defensive mistake) was too much to overcome.

Need to stay even: The Jets actually played pretty well when going up against Colorado 5 on 5 and out chanced them when at even strength – two critical errors in the first period while playing even not withstanding of course. One of the biggest issues the team faces is their play on special teams. Zero for two on the power play with no shots registered and the second attempt with an extra man looking worse than the first. The penalty kill didn’t fare much better allowing a goal on three chances. (Granted they got a shorty, but that’s not the primary ‘goal’ so to speak of a PK unit)

Spotty goaltending: The defensive errors didn’t help and the 4th goal against saw him flailing around a bit on what was admittedly a tough play, but the Jets again failed to get a key save from Michael Hutchinson that would have given the team in front a lift instead of being a back breaker type goal against.

Burmi better and better: Easily one of the best players on the ice for Winnipeg tonight was Alex Burmistrov. 25 games in to his return to the NHL and it seems like he is starting to gain more confidence and win half if not most of his puck battles along the boards. He’s been by far one of the most reliable penalty killers the Jets have.

C+/- is shot attempt differential; F+/- is shot attempt differential minus blocked shots; iSC is individual scoring chances; OZS is percentage of offensive zone starts relative to offensive and defensive. 

(The following charts are courtesy War-On-Ice.com)

Shot attempt chart for all minutes:

Shot location for all minutes:

Thanks to @colerosner for the inspiration..