Jets Nation Recap: Stars Out-Shine Jets 5-3

We knew coming off the All-Star break that the Jets were in tough against the Central Division leading Dallas Stars, but the Jets didn’t make things any easier on themselves with repeated stick infractions and blown defensive assignments that resulted in a 5-3 loss.

We now officially dub the last nine games: “The Homestand From Hell”.

For half a game the Jets hung in tough against the Stars and even had the lead a couple of different times thanks to a goal from Andrew Ladd who got credit for a slight deflection of a Drew Stafford one-timer on the power play.

A little under four minutes after Tyler Seguin scored his first of two goals on the night, Adam Lowry crashed the net and stuffed home his fourth goal of the season.

The Jets also had a handful of breakaway chances in the second period but Antti Niemi stood tall and kept the Stars in the game while they struggled through their defensive lapses.

And then the Jets ended up with a mother of all defensive lapses as they gave up a 2 on 0 while on a power play that Hellebuyck stopped and followed that up by giving the Stars a 3 on 0 chance as Jason Demers came out of the penalty box, Trouba lost all awareness of defensive coverage and Hellebuyck had zero chance preventing the Stars second tying goal.

It was a goal that felt like a back breaker for the Jets. Two minutes later the Stars took their first lead of the night off a backdoor passing play from Ales Hemsky to Vernon Fiddler.

From there, the Stars locked things down and any thoughts that the Jets could have their first comeback in the third period were dashed when Seguin scored his second on the power play.

Dustin Byfuglien made things interesting halfway through the third period and the Stars did have a string of chances to tie including a Tyler Myers shot that rang off the post while the jets had the goalie pulled. True to form for this season, the Stars scored an empty net goal seconds after the game tying effort went for naught.

Last Stand For The Captain? How quickly have things soured in Jets-land for Andrew Ladd? Demoted to third line duty for the most part, he did play a factor in the Jets power play goal and getting credit for the goal, but he also left for part of the game with what was dubiously referred to as “an equipment issue” and wasn’t anywhere on the ice when the Jets had pulled Hellebuyck for an extra attacker in the final two minutes.

Hellebuyck: The Jets rookie goalie only stopped 22 of 26 shots faced and had a weak looking ,846 save percentage, but it seems so unfair for him to carry those numbers when you could argue all four goals against were tough saves for any goalie to make. That said, people like to talk about that “key save” to keep a team in the game and you can argue the Jets didn’t get that.

Tanking The Right Way: If you’re a fan of Tank Nation, tonight was a good night for you. The Leafs and Oilers both won and while the Jets did play an entertaining game and had moments of brilliance, they finish up the night with zero points. *insert thumbs up emoji*

All charts courtesy War-On-Ice.com