Jets look to bounce back Thursday after laying a “big fat egg” against Anaheim

Was it the 7:30 p.m. CT start time? Or maybe everyone just forgot to sleep the previous night, because whatever it was, it led to one of the Winnipeg Jets’ worst performances of the season on Tuesday night in a critical game in terms of positioning in the standings as they look to hunt down WC2.

“We laid a big fat egg,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel described his team’s effort following Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. “We didn’t execute, we didn’t compete on pucks. (We) chased the game, we chased the whole game.”

Winnipeg was held to just 13 shots on goal, tying their lowest-shot game of the season (Nov. 28 in Carolina).

After being outshot 8-2 in the opening frame, Winnipeg thought they had steered themselves in the right direction by opening the scoring on Morgan Barron’s 10th of the year. Elias Salomonsson picked up his first NHL assist on the goal, but the ship changed directions very quickly.

Tim Washe tied the game just 1:20 after Barron’s tally, then Ryan Poehling put Anaheim in front just 14 seconds later. Not long after, Alex Killorn netted the Ducks’ third goal at 8:08 to put his club up by a pair, stunning the Jets and the crowd at Canada Life Centre. It was dead silent. Anaheim simply dominated the middle frame, outshooting the Jets by quadruple (20-5).

A win on Tuesday night would’ve pulled the Jets within three points of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference since the Seattle Kraken fell 4-2 to the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks lost 6-3 to the Buffalo Sabres, but you aren’t going to win many hockey games with just 13 shots, a night where Winnipeg’s big guns went quiet.

Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Gabe Vilardi, Josh Morrissey, and Cole Perfetti combined for a whopping zero shots on goal. Gustav Nyquist led the way with three.

“If we’re going to get in, our top players have to be our top players, we’ve said that from the beginning,” said Arniel. “But everybody else has to also play their roles. It was throughout the lineup. The part about getting shots, we didn’t have the puck. Anaheim had the puck most of the night.”

Thanks to Nashville beating Seattle and Buffalo beating San Jose in regulation, Winnipeg still remains five points out of the playoffs and is set to host the New York Rangers on Thursday night, who are currently dead last in the Eastern Conference.

A Jets win Thursday night, along with Kraken, Sharks, and Predators regulation losses, would move Winnipeg to just three points out of WC2. But if that’s the kind of effort we’re going to see in a big game like that, especially while riding a three-game win streak, you may as well just pack it up.

Thursday is a must-win contest.

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