The Winnipeg Jets are vying to snap a season-worst three-game losing skid when they continue their road swing against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.
The Jets, who have opened a six-game road trip with a trio of losses, only suffered three losses in their first dozen games of the season prior to this sojourn.
Winnipeg, last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners as the top regular-season squad, finished a fruitless trek through California with a dispiriting 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
Granted, the Ducks are riding a seven-game winning streak that has vaulted them to the top of the Pacific Division, but Winnipeg was the rested squad for the affair. Anaheim played the night before in Las Vegas.
“We wanted to get on them early and we just didn’t do it,” forward Cole Perfetti said. “We just didn’t execute properly. We’re just not playing our style the way we can.”
The Jets are struggling offensively, having managed only two goals in those three games. Of even bigger concern is their defensive play, which is usually their strong suit.
On the positive side, Kyle Connor’s goal in Anaheim made him the fourth player in franchise history to record 600 points (293 goals, 307 assists), joining current forward Mark Scheifele along with Blake Wheeler and Ilya Kovalchuk.
“I’m sure down the line I’ll look back on that and it will be pretty cool, but (I’m) trying to help the team win here,” Connor said. “We’ve lost three in a row now and we’ve got a long way to go.”
The Canucks are coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, but they’re actually feeling upbeat about their game.
Even though they are on a win-one, lose-one trend for the last eight outings, the Canucks put in a strong performance against the dominant Avalanche one night after beating the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Despite outshooting the Avalanche by a wide margin through the first half of the game, the Canucks trailed by two goals before the midway point of the first period, but managed to battle back.
“That should give us some confidence,” said forward Linus Karlsson, who scored his first goal of the season. “We were in the game all the time, and I think we played really, really good.”
Vancouver rallied three times against Colorado to earn a single point, which is no easy feat against the team atop the league standings.
“We get three out of four on the weekend, so we have to look at the positives,” forward Drew O’Connor said. “Obviously, we want to win every game, but we fought back.”
One element up in the air is the status of No. 1 goaltender Thatcher Demko, who missed both games on the weekend. Demko reportedly hit the ice on both Saturday and Sunday, and coach Adam Foote said after Sunday’s game that Demko should be ready to start against the Jets — the final outing in a four-game homestand — after taking maintenance days.
Goalie Kevin Lankinen started both games on the weekend.
“I was happy to get the nod and battled my butt off,” Lankinen said. “I feel great. That’s what I’ve been working extremely hard over the years, not just this summer, but all these past summers … I feel like I can play a third game here too.”
–Field Level Media
