Last night the Jets had an abysmal effort against the Vegas Golden Knights and were brought back down from the high feeling of having gained points in their last eight games. Less than 24 hours later the Winnipeg Jets will take to the ice again – this time in Glendale Arizona – to put all that behind them and show that it was a one-game aberration.

We’d rather not talk about it.

*sigh* Fine, if we have to… The Jets looked like a team that thoroughly enjoyed their three days in Vegas and played like a team that hadn’t seen the ice in three weeks let along three days. One doesn’t want to get too over reactionary after one loss, but the truth is the Jets have been carried by strong goaltending from Connor Hellebuyck and great play from the top line of Scheifele, Wheeler and Connor. In Vegas both of those things didn’t happen at all and as a result, the rest of the team looked lost. It’s not unfair to say this is a “Canary in the coal mine” type situation for the Jets. When the top line isn’t producing, the other nine forwards need to carry the weight. When the goaltending is struggling, the defense needs to tighten things up and take care of the puck and perform clean zone exits.

Steve Mason gets the start tonight for Winnipeg. He came in for the third period of last night’s game and stopped five shots that he faced, so hopefully, that was a nice warm-up for tonight’s work.

You think the Jets have had it bad? No team has had a worse start to the season than the Arizona Coyotes.

The Coyotes have yet to pick up a win in regulation this season as both their wins came needing extra time played. They have played a little bit better as of recently despite not picking up a win during the three game road trip they are just coming back from now, and on Thursday against St. Louis they took the Western Conference leading Blues to a shootout before losing 3-2.

Arizona has had a bright spot in the play of rookie Clayton Keller who leads the team in goals (11) and points (17) and goalie Antti Raanta looked good in a 36 save effort in that shootout loss to the Blues.

This is the first of a home and away series for the teams as they meet tonight and then will meet again in Winnipeg on Tuesday. Last season the Jets were 2-1-0 against the Coyotes picking up wins both home and away. The teams will also meet one more time in February to wrap up their season series.

Ok so maybe Vegas didn’t turn out the way most of us thought it would, but more was expected effort wise from the Jets coming off a three day break. Now after having been snapped back to reality, there is hope that the fire and drive the Jets needed to show in vegas comes out against the Coyotes. The lowly, lowly two wins, neither in regulation Coyotes. The Jets had better show up for this one and I think they will… Jets win 4-2.