Latest News

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Jets let game slip away

By: Ed Tait

Posted: 02/7/2013 6:17 PM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 02/7/2013 11:10 PM | Updates

Toronto Maple Leafs Goalie James Reimer looses his helmet after Winnipeg Jets' Chris Thorburn crashed into the net during the 3rd period Thursday night at MTS Centre. (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

Related Items

Slideshows
- Photos: Leafs at Jets, Feb. 7
Articles
Columns
- Kitty's paw waves off old times in Winnipeg

Enlarge Image

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle, who played and coached in Winnipeg for 18 years, waves to the Winnipeg Jets fans as they give him a standing ovation during the first period at MTS Centre in Winnipeg Thursday night. (JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

If a team can be defined by its killer instinct, then the Winnipeg Jets might be best described early in this 2013 season as a bunch with all the ferocity of a newborn baby.

Actually, that might be considered a slight to newborns everywhere.

Given the opportunity to wrap their fingers around the throats of the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night and squeeze out a win, the Jets instead loosened their grip and gave up a critical two points in a 3-2 loss that drops them to 4-5-1 through 10 games.

"We let that game get away. To say I’m disappointed would be an understatement," said Jets head coach Claude Noel. "The problem I have is we are finding a way to lose games. And some of the problems we have are created by ourselves, and that’s the disturbing part."

First period

The Jets do everything but finish to get the joint jumping, dominating the first handful of shifts but failing to capitalize. And yet when Dion Phaneuf is sent to the box to give the Jets the man advantage, the power play actually serves as a buzz-killer with no shots.

That ineptitude with the man advantage would continue all night. The Jets were 0-4 on the power play and generated just one shot on goal in those four tries.

Second period

More power-play woes for both teams. The Jets open the scoring while short-handed as Bryan Little tees up Zach Redmond — the same two teamed up for the OT winner against Florida — for his first career NHL goal.

"Awesome. It’s always a great thing to get out of the way and always something you dream of," said Redmond. "I never thought it would come on the PK (penalty kill), but I’m definitely happy to get the monkey off my back."

Noel praised Redmond, again, as being one of the best of the Jets. He now has three points (1G, 2A) in four NHL games played. As for the puck he scored his first with...

"I don’t have it right now," said Redmond. "I don’t know where it is, but I’m sure they’re keeping it for me somewhere."

Third period

One word: disaster. The Jets were clinging to a 2-1 lead late but kissed away the win when Matt Frattin tied it with 5:02 left and Phil Kessel won it — with Alex Ponikarovsky in the box — when he rifled home the winner with 4:08 remaining.

"When you have a 2-1 lead in the third you’ve got to be smarter and learn to close out games," said Bryan Little. "Same thing last year... we had trouble closing out games. We’ve got to be better with it. We’ve got to learn to sacrifice and get those points."

After the buzzer

Noel, understandably, came to the podium for his post-game media scrum looking like a man who had just swallowed sour milk. And he’s promising some changes to his top lines. The Evander Kane-Olli Jokinen-Blake Wheeler trio was a combined -3 and is now -20 as a unit this season.

"We’ve got the one line that is minus all over the place, so you’ve got to make changes," Noel said. "You just can’t sit back and watch this. You’ve got to juggle this thing around a little bit."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @WFPEdTait

Winnipeg Jets host the Toronto Maple Leafs at MTS Centre.

History

Updated on Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 7:51 PM CST: updates after first period

8:43 PM: updates after 2 periods

11:10 PM: rewrite with quotes

Fact Check

Have you found an error, or know of something we’ve missed in one of our stories? Please use the form below and let us know.

* Required

In which story did you find the error? *
Please post the headline of the story or the title of the video with the error.
What was the error? *
Please post exactly what was wrong with the story.
What should we have written?
Please indicate your source for the correct information.
Who else should we interview to improve this story?
Please include any contact information you may have.
Can we contact you in the future for advice on stories about this topic?
Yes

No
First Name: *
Last Name: *
E–mail Address: *
This will only be used to contact you if we have a question about your submission, it will not be used to identify you or be published.
Phone: *
This will only be used to contact you if we have a question about your submission, it will not be used to identify you or be published.
Colour:
Are you blue? If you can see this, leave it blank and get some CSS support.
Enter the words that you see: * This is to prevent our forms from being filled out automatically.
You have failed to correctly identify the words in the box above. Please try again.

More Latest News

Undock

You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.

Have Your Say

New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.

The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010.