The Winnipeg Jets closed out a relatively good home-stand with an absolute dud effort against the Colorado Avalanche. Sure they put 40 shots on Avalanche goalie Pavel Francouz who made his NHL debut pressed into emergency service just 30 seconds into the game, but it’s the Jets willingness to just settle for shots from distance that submarined any hopes for offense while Nathan MacKinnon salted the game away with two goals in the third period.

There was an eventful moment in the first minute of the period and an eventful moment in the last minute of the period and a whole lot of nothing in-between.

Almost right off the faceoff, @Mark Scheifele got a pass from @Kyle Connor, made a hard charge for the Avalanche net and ended up plowing into Colorado starting goalie @Pavel Francouz. While Scheifele did make a serious run directly to the Colorado goal, it appears as though he wanted to turn at the last possible moment but was prevented from doing so by Colorado defenseman @Samuel Girard.

31 seconds into the game the Avs had to call on rookie goalie Adam Werner. The Jets were gracious enough to make things not too challenging for the 22 year old who was suddenly thrust into his NHL debut. Shots were 9-8 for Winnipeg, but nothing really up close to the Avalanche net.

In the final minute of the period, the Avalanche took a 1-0 lead as @Cale Makar put on a fantastic display of skill that was just an example of why he’s the front runner for a Rookie Of The Year nod.

If the first period was a whole lot of nothing, then the second period was even more so. The Jets do hold an edge in shots 12 to 8 in the middle frame, but it’s the same old story for them in that a lot of those shots come from distance.

With shots from distance and very little traffic, Werner is seeing pretty much everything and having very little trouble stopping any of it. This one scoring chance from @Mark Scheifele to @Kyle Connor maybe represented the best chance the Jets had through 40 minutes of play.

At least Colorado doesn’t score either, giving the Jets a chance going into the third period to get back into the game only down by a single goal.

So yeah about that… @Nathan MacKinnon had other ideas.

Whoops.

It didn’t get any better for the Jets as they did continue to rack up shots, but none of any real consequence. Meanwhile with the Jets in full press mode to get any kind of offense going, the Avalanche were able to exploit mistakes and poor defensive coverage on MacKinnon who torched Winnipeg’s D for a second goal seven minutes later.

That goal was the dagger as Jets continued to pile up shots and with the Avalanche up by three goals the Jets started to find their way into the slot area and actually had a 5-1 edge in high danger scoring chances in the period – but Werner continued to play well but he also didn’t have to make any scramble, desperation type saves to keep the Jets off the scoresheet.

As one final act of humiliation, the Avalache scored a fourth goal on the power play, snapping a streak of 11 straight kills the Jets had during this recent homestand.

The Jets do get 40 shots on the Avalanche net (but as we’ve explained before, 40 shots isn’t always as dangerous as what you’d think 40 shots would be) and Colorado picks up the team shutout. Thanks to rather lame NHL rules, no actual shutout credited to either Francouz or Werner, just a regular ol’ tam shutout.

Still, not a bad debut for Werner. Just wish the Jets would have made it tougher on him.

The Jets continue to play a rather passive game at both ends of the ice and it cost them in this game. They couldn’t generate any offense and the Avalanche made them pay for a string of mistakes made in the third period.

With eight shots on goal, Patrik Laine by far looked like the most engaged and active Jet from start to finish. There wasn’t much else to pick from as far as good Jets players were concerned, but even if there were a few more standout players, Laine may have still been the easy pick. He also seemed to be the one most annoyed by the turn events in tonight’s game.

 

 

It’s time for the Jets to fly on down to Florida to begin a road trip that starts with a meeting against the Panthers on Thursday night. Puck drop is 6 PM CST with the game on TSN 3 and TSN 1290.