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JNR: Jets Fail To Cut The Mustard In 5-3 Loss To Oilers

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Photo credit:© Terrence Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Art Middleton
4 years ago
The Jets preseason record falls to 2-3-1 now as they choke up a one goal third period lead by giving up three goals in the final frame and losing 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers.

First Period

There wasn’t a whole lot to this period outside of a couple of goals – one on each side – with the Jets starting the scoring.
The Jets managed to find a way to give that goal back as Mathieu Perreault stumbled around his net and all but gift wrapped the goal to Edmonton.
Overall is was a pretty quiet, tight checking period. The Jets did out-shoot the Oilers 6-4 in the period and McDavid looked dangerous on a couple of rushes as McDavid does, but the first period was preseason hockey at its most preseason-ist.

Second Period

Much more enjoyable period of hockey as the teams not only started shooting the puck, but we saw a bunch of goals and two of them from the right team. After a rather bad Perreault penalty put the Jets short handed, the Oilers power play went to work which is never a good thing because it gives Connor McDavid more room to do this kind of thing.
The Jets responded with a stretch of good shifts after that goal and got a couple of answers back.
It’s good to see the bottom six forwards chipping in with some offense and we’ve seen the Jets a few times in this preseason crash the net and make life in generally overly tough for opposing goalies. They will need to keep this up in the regular season.
Overall a much better period for both teams, a little more entertaining and the Jets looked pretty good.

Third Period

After this, the rest of the game was inconsequential. I mean, even more so than what a preseason game should be. Mark Letestu eating a mustard packet on the bench.
Turns out it helps prevent leg cramping due to some science thing I won’t even pretend to understand.
Whatever, hockey players are weird.
Meanwhile after that, things went south in a hurry and it may or may not be because of mustard.
Ethan Bear tied the game up on a goal that got reviewed and I am not sure why it was in question.
No really, Mark Letestu ate mustard. I too thought it was one of those energy gel things, but it was not.
Meanwhile, the Jets defense and goaltending was falling apart with bad gap control by the defense and a lot of “what the heck was that” from Connor Hellebuyck.
To be fair, on that fifth goal there wasn’t much hope for Hellebuyck there as there was a maze of bodies in front.
After out-shooting the Oilers 18-11 after two periods, the Jets fell asleep as they are want to do in the third period, were out-shot 15-3.
Jets losing a third period lead? Check. Hellebuyck giving up 4+ goals in a game? Check.
Yes it’s only preseason, but it’s still very concerning.

TL;DR Why The Jets Lost

Mark Letestu ate a packet of mustard and threw everyone off.
Ok, fine, that’s not the reason. The Jets yet again got lazy in the third period, forgot how to play team defense and how to goaltend and undid 40 minutes of decent work with 20 minutes of very bad play.

JetsNation’s Top Gun

Tucker Poolman had himself a decent game and his goal was a great example of a defenseman knowing when to crash down low to chip in with offense. He’s earned a spot on the roster with tonight’s game.

The Boxscore

Next Up

One more preseason game, in Minnesota on Sunday afternoon. Puck drop is 1pm CST from Xcel Energy Center and will be on TSN3.

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