The Wild beat the Jets 3-1 in a game that the home side pretty much slept-skated through the entire distance. If you thought the effort against the Flames was lacking, the Jets went out and proved that it could get much worse.

Oh and Buff could be injured after a nasty looking roll of his ankle.

The less we speak about this abomination of a game, the better, but here’s a brief recap of what happened.

The only thing worse than the lethargic effort the Jets gave in Calgary a couple of nights ago is the absolute lethargic effort they gave in the first period against Minnesota. Connor Hellebuyck is the lone reason the game was only at 1-0 after the first period as the Jets had all kinds of issues getting out of their own zone (a tale as old as time) and giving up three 2 on 1 rushes to the Wild.

The Wild’s first goal of the game comes off of sustained pressure in the Jets zone, a Jets team unable to get the puck out for a handful of shifts and a bad turnover.

The Jets finished the last 11 minutes of the first period with just a single shot on the Minnesota goal. The final shots in the first period were 11-6 for the Wild and it’s not like they were exceptionally good, it’s just that the Jets were pretty bad early on.

The bad continued in the second period and it started early in the frame as the Wild scored again.

The poor defense off the Wild counter-attack was just another example of the lack of skating the Jets had been guilty of over the first two periods. They did actually have an edge in shots in the second period, out-shooting the Wild 10-7, but a lot of it for lack of a better term was ‘fluff’ from the Jets as high danger scoring chances were actually in favor of the Wild by a 2-1 margin.

In a series of bad periods put together by the Jets over the last two games, things have progressively getting worse. If this wasn’t the worst period the Jets have played all season, it ranks up in the top five.

Finally a little bit of life from the Jets as the power play finally wakes up a bit.

 

But that was all the Jets could muster on this day as the Wild went into lock down mode to prevent the Jets from really getting anything else worthwhile in the game. They did show some brief flashes of life in the final twenty minutes, but the Wild were hardly challenged the Jets at all the entire game.

Yes, the Jets did out-shoot the Jets 11-7 in the final 20 minutes of play, but again most if not all of those shots lacked any real quality. High danger scoring chances were listed at just 2-0 for the Jets as the Wild kept everything to the outside of the zone and let goalie Devan Dubnyk see pretty much everything coming his way with no second chances given up.

To make matters worse, Dustin Byfuglien left the game with a very awkward ankle injury.

The Jets lose two in a row for just the second time this season and things aren’t looking good for the offense which as suddenly vanished in a cloud of lackadaisical play and a seemingly never ending run of mistakes and errors.

We’d like the real Jets – the ones who before the Christmas break were tearing up the league and staking their claim to first in the West – to come back from their Christmas break and soon. Hopefully Monday in Edmonton.

For Minnesota: Zach Parise – He had two assists I guess. It’s not like the Wild did anything exceptional in this game. Eric Fher and Matt Hendricks led the Wild in shots taken with four each.

For Winnipeg: Connor Hellebuyck – Since we have to give the nod to someone on the team – although we really don’t, but for some slight positivity sake we will – then let’s give it to the guy who at least kept the score respectful because with as many mistakes as the Jets made in front of him, this could have been a blowout.