When you woke up this morning and thought back to the @Winnipeg Jets game last night against the @Washington Capitals, how did you feel about it?

Did it feel like a loss? Certainly couldn’t blame you for that feeling because wow, were they bad pretty much the entire game and save for some Caps miscues, the game should have never gotten to overtime.

Did it feel like a moral victory at least? That would make sense because at least the Jets hung in there long enough to put themselves in a position to take advantage of those miscues and make the Capitals pay for them.

Are you not sure what to make of all that? I totally understand how you feel there because I am the same way as well. I have questions coming out of that game and no real good answers for any of it.

But here’s what I am taking away from that game…

At this point it’s becoming laughably predictable. The game wasn’t even two minutes old when the Caps buzzed the Jets net and @Alexander Ovechkin gathered up a rebound and put home goal #701 to give the home team a 1-0 lead.

Nobody was surprised.

It’s the ninth game in a row that the Jets have given up the game’s first goal and the fourth time out of those nine where a goal was given up within the first three minutes of the game starting.

You can (and some have) debated wither or not giving up the first goal in a game – especially so early – is as big an issue as we’re making it out to be. All I know is, falling behind 0-1 constantly isn’t ideal. Yes these Jets have some fight in them, very rarely this season have we seen them “give up” on a game. Some would argue that it’s the second goal scored in a game that’s maybe more critical because if it’s the Jets scoring the second goal to even things up – as they have in five of those nine games – then it puts them on even footing and gives them a chance to win.

The thought process is a team is likely going to give up a goal or two against each game anyway and the games are 60 minutes long, so what does it matter if it happens right off the bat in each game? I still personally feel like there is some higher than average value in a team scoring first in a game no matter when it happens. Having it constantly happen against you gives a team a sense of “here we go again…” and if you do subscribe to the idea that the second goal is more important than the first, well then giving up the first just adds more pressure to get the second doesn’t it?

When asked about it, Patrik Laine came out and basically admitted that it sure would be nice to start with a lead rather than doing the opposite.

And it would sure be nice to see it as well.

At the start of the second period, Paul Maurice had his blender out and juggled up the lines yet again. Kyle Connor got put with Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler. Andrew Copp was put with Jack Roslovic and Jansen Harkins. Cody Eakin centered a line with Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers. The fourth line of Logan Shaw, Mason Appleton and Gabriel Bourque was left alone because like everyone else watching th game, I don’t think Maurice was aware that they were even in the game.

And while I wish I could say “Hey it all worked, Paul is a genius!” because in a way it appeared to, I’m here to tell you it didn’t work as well as one would have thought.

Yes Ehlers picked up a goal late in the second to get the Jets on the board, but that goal happened because Caps goalie Braden Holtby had trouble covering up a shot that Eakin made directly as him after “stealing” a puck sent directly at him thanks to some forecheck pressure from Laine.

That second period wasn’t much better than the first if we’re being honest with ourselves. Yes the Jets out-shot the Caps 17-10 in the middle frame, but even strength high danger scoring chances were listed in favor of the Caps 10-3. Overall scoring chances in the period were 12-9.

The Jets were slightly better in the third, but if you look at last night’s heat map, it’s a copy of how the Jets played back in December and Janurary with lots of shots in close against, and not much pressure from the Jets on the offensive side.

Maybe the Jets don’t drive to the net as well as other teams do – I’ve kind of learned to just accept that as fact at this point – but when they get no traffic at all to the net as they did for 45 minutes of this game, they end up having a really bad time.

Did Paul Maurice’s line juggling help? I don’t think it did, but I also don’t think it hurt that much either. Maybe it was intended as a wake up call for the entire club because the one thing we can probably all agree on is this club at times lacks an ability to win smaller battles within the game, or take the extra two or three strides needed to complete a pass or gain a zone entry… Not that they are being lazy per say… it’s just that this hockey club feels like it expects these things to happen for it and not have to ‘earn’ them if that makes sense at all.

At this point though Maurice has gone to the blender a few times now over the last few weeks. We’re now a little over a month left in the season and I don’t know how much more he can expect to mix lines up without screwing the team over chemistry and comfort wise.

I’m not against the idea of putting Cody Eakin with Ehlers and Laine – maybe it’s crazy enough to work out and there is something to be said for spreading out talent over the top three lines – but if Maurice is going to go with that then he needs to give it more than a few periods for those three to figure things out.

One more thought about Nik Ehlers’ slapshot shootout attempt that was easily stopped by Holtby and ended the game.

At first I hated it, but then Ehlers explained himself…

You know what? Fair enough.

What’s the difference between a slapshot and a between the legs shot or a slow-motion skate in with about 53 different dekes between forehand and backhand? Things can go wrong, a puck can be flubbed and the shooter can look silly in either case… In Nik’s case last night, it just didn’t work out.

If you’ve played hockey before? Have you not ever tried a fake slapshot deke? I have multiple times in my beer-league experiences. Sometimes it’s worked, other times (most times) I face plant because I can neither hit a slapper or deke.

And it’s not like it’ll be the dumbest shootout attempt we’ll see all season. Brad Marchand has us covered there.

Nik Ehlers wasn’t trying to “prove a point” or “send a message” to Paul Maurice for the supposed third line ‘demotion’ from this past weekend that carried over into Tuesday night. He’s a professional hockey player who wants to win a game. Stop thinking any harder beyond that.