You might have wondered after their contest on Tuesday night, what would have happened if the @Winnipeg Jets bad start against the Detroit Red Wings had just continued the entire game?

We got our answer on Thursday night as the Jets again had a bad – dare I say worse – start to the game than they had on Tuesday and played awful through the entire game as the ended up on the losing end of a humiliating 5-2 loss to the previously win-less in their last 12 Red Wings.

As mentioned, the start to the period was as bad as the start was on Tuesday. Shots seven minutes into the period were at the 7-1 mark in favor of Detroit and then this opening goal happened…

Nathan Beaulieu handles the puck like an absolute grenade and after a series of unfortunate events, the puck ends up bar-down and past a bewildered @Connor Hellebuyck for a 1-0 Wings lead.

One would have hoped that was going to be a wake up call to the Jets to settle down and settle in to the game much like they did two nights earlier, but nope.

Six minutes later the Jets take the first penalty of the game and the Wings – who came into the game with the 27th best power play in the league – made it a 2-0 game.

On one hand, that’s very unlucky for @Neal Pionk, but on the other hand… Uh, what was Neal Pionk doing there? What was he hoping to defend exactly?

Shots end up 14-5 in the period for Detroit in what is maybe the worst period we’ll see all season, but the good news is there are still two periods to get it all back, it *is* the Red Wings they are playing and we’ve seen the Jets comeback from worse.

Three and a half minutes into the second period…

It’s almost a carbon copy of the second goal. Again, what is Pionk defending here?

Detroit at this point is just going with the tried and true “throw everything at the net” strategy and it’s working to the tune of a 3-0 lead.

Of course the Jets mix up forward lines as Paul Maurice looks for something to get the team going and while the line juggling isn’t quite the reason why, the Jets start to claw their way back halfway through the game.

The back to back Kyle Connor goals that are a little over five minutes apart give the Jets some life as the team for a brief moment was threatening to make a game of it. Shots in the second period ended up being 12-10 for Detroit, but in the middle of the second period the Jets were the ones playing at a faster pace and starting to tilt the ice.

And then @Anthony Bitetto happened.

Bittetto takes a stupid momentum-killing retaliatory roughing penalty late in the third period and of course the Red Wings take advantage and of course it’s off a deflected puck yet again.

You don’t quite see it in the GIF above, but @Filip Zadina’s first of the season clearly goes off of @Luca Sbisa’s skate and past the waiting glove of Hellebuyck. The Red Wings go into the second intermission leading 4-2 and despite the rally midway through the period, this game feels cooked already.

Much like Tuesday but only in reverse, the Red Wings were more than happy to just settle in to playing low-event, low-mistake hockey even if it meant letting the Jets get a few extra shots from distance on goalie @Jonathan Bernier.

In fact the lone power play they had in the period and in the entire game saw the Red Wings get the best scoring chance. Hellebuyck had to remain sharp just so that score wouldn’t get even worse than it was.

The Red Wigs did add one more on a very rarely seen coast-to-coast empty net goal from @Filip Hronek as the embarrassment was complete. A brutal 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings that may as well have been a 10-0 shutout given how the Jets played the entire night.

Detroit played like a team desperate for a win and worked hard in the corners, raced for loose pucks and got to the slot area and around Hellebuyck as much as they possibly could… And the Jets seemed to be just hanging around for the ride and going through the motions of a hockey game. The Jets had an edge in shots 13-8 but at no time did they really feel like a threat to get back into the game.

Nights like this are hard to reward anyone with a “player of the game” type nod because of the nature of how bad the team played overall. Kyle Connor with two goals pretty much wins by default.

The Jets get to sit and dwell on this loss for a couple of days as they’ll head home, lick wounds and get ready to take on the @Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon. Puck drop is 4:00 PM CST with the game on TSN 3 and TSN 1290.