Jets need to 'stay in the fight' if they want to halt surprising slide

EDMONTON — The beauty of video is, by the time a hockey coach pores over the tapes of the game his team lost the previous night, he’s had a night’s sleep and a morning coffee. It never looks as bad today as it felt last night. 

“It’s everyone. Soft plays at the wrong time,” Winnipeg Jets coach Rick Bowness said in a post-game media address. “We’re playing the Stanley Cup champions. They’re big. They’re strong. They’re aggressive. And we’re making soft plays! We’re shooting ourselves in the foot. 

“We’re making poor-percentage plays and we’re making soft plays. It’s a bad combination.” 

Those were Bowness' comments after the last Jets' loss, a 5-3 setback to the Vegas Golden Knights in which his team had been tied 3-3 with five minutes to play on Thursday night. 

On Saturday morning, the veteran coach had softened up somewhat. 

“We spoke with the team again this morning. We feel we're playing better than our record. We do,” Bowness said. “We've had some really good games. We're finding ways to lose and lose points. 

“Our last game: It's a 3-3 game; we battled back to tie it up and then we take a penalty; we don't kill the penalty; and then we lose some points there.” 

Welcome to the NHL, where the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers can start the season at 3-1, while the Jets, the well-hyped Edmonton Oilers and the supposed-to-be-surprising Buffalo Sabres can all limp out of the gates at 1-3. 

It’s like players go away in the spring, play summer hockey back home, and by October have forgotten what it takes to win games. 

“I don’t know if we forget things. Sometimes things just don't go your way,” Bowness said. “I don't think we're that far away, let's put it that way. I just think we need to stay in the fight. We need to keep doing what we're doing, and things will turn around for us.” 

Tough times have descended on Winnipeg, despite the good news that Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck both agreed to identical seven-year contracts with an AAV of $8.5 million per season. 

On the ice, the team has started slowly, heading into their Hockey Night in Canada matchup against the similarly struggling Oilers (on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+, 9 p.m. CT / 10 p.m. ET). Off the ice, dwindling crowds have left the Jets with the lowest average attendance in the NHL after three starts (12,052). 

They recorded an all-time low of 11,226 against Los Angeles, then upped that marginally to 11,521 when the defending Stanley Cup champs from Vegas rolled through town two nights later. 

Of course, that issue, and others, all have the same solution: 

“Winning takes care of everything,” said Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey. “It's easier to come to the rink every day. It's easier to go get a coffee. It's easier to talk to the media. Everything, right? 

“It's a little easier when you're winning hockey games. So, ideally, we start doing that here.” 

There are a lot of similarities here between the Oilers and Jets, both of whom were not expected to have any issues scoring goals this season. With Hellebuyck in goal, however, the Jets should be well-equipped to keep goals out of their own net, something that not been the case through four games. 

“The overall team games is better than the 1-3 record, and it's better than the (4.75 ) goals-against average. We’re (31st) in the league. That, I have never been a part of,” Bowness said. “We still can tighten things up, there's no question. But I don't think — and the players don't feel like — we're playing as bad as our record indicates.” 

The Jets have surrendered 19 goals in four games — three five-goal outbursts and their lone 6-4 victory. Nearly half of the 17 goals Edmonton has let in came in their season-opening 8-1 loss. 

Hellebuyck’s stats aren’t pretty — a 4.38 goals-against average and an .843 save percentage — and he’ll get the start Saturday against Stuart Skinner (5.33 and .750). Those are some ugly stats, no matter how you break them down. 

Both teams will tell you that it’s not about the goalies as much as it is the defensive play in front of them. And both would be right, to some degree. 

“Mistakes happen every night, but there's never been a game without a mistake or a turnover. So, it's just managing the game. Crucial points in time,” Morrissey explained. “There's lots of intangibles that kind of come into play winning hockey games.” 

Intangibles that are widely appreciated when your team wins, and mostly disregarded by fans when they lose. 

Because it’s all about that line, coined by the old Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis: “Just win, baby.” 

It works in hockey as well as it did in football. 

“You can kind of do all the talking you want. Eventually, it's time to get going — for both teams,” Morrissey said. “To start producing and winning games, which is what this thing is all about.”