It turns out that beating the last-place Nashville Predators Saturday night wasn’t a cure-all for the Winnipeg Jets.
The Jets went into Buffalo on Monday night, got embarrassed by the Sabres in the first period, and never recovered en route to a 5-1 defeat.
The Eastern Conference’s last place Sabres scored three times in the game’s first 15 minutes and completely outclassed the Jets as Winnipeg lost for the fifth time in their last six games.
“It’s pretty disappointing that effort after playing a pretty good game in Nashville,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “Three minutes into the game – you’re down two-nothing. We gave up nine rush chances. They scored four goals off the rush. Showed video, did our pre-scout. Their last three games, how many opportunities they get off the rush with four-man rush with their ‘D’. Whether that’s stubborn or whether that’s not being quick enough, not reading the situation fast enough. We kicked ourselves in that one.
“We’re a veteran group, recognize we just embarrassed ourselves and we’re gonna have to be a heck of a lot better next one.”
Arniel indicted captain Adam Lowry called a player-only meeting following the game after winning just four times in their last 13 games.
“It’s disappointing,” said defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “You want to carry that effort that we had in Nashville and that style of game into this one. And for whatever reason we didn’t.
“We can’t hang our heads. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. No one is gonna be throwing us a lifesaver here and helping us out. We got to figure it out and we got a big game against the Habs and hopefully get that one and get that good feeling back again.”
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Josh Norris scored twice and also tacked on an assist for Buffalo in his return to the lineup from an injury.
Kyle Connor notched the Jets only goal as they started December much like the way most of November went.
“It’s been a struggle at times this year to kinda come up with that identity,” said Connor. “Play that same way. Play a full 60 (minutes), string games together. For whatever reason we just weren’t able to do it again tonight.”
Just 91 seconds in, DeMelo was called for holding in the neutral zone and Buffalo made the Jets pay on the power play.
With Winnipeg chasing the puck and unable to clear it, Norris was left with all kinds of time and space to find Josh Doan alone in front. He steered a hard pass on goal that trickled through Eric Comrie and sat in the crease before Jason Zucker banged it home.
It went from bad to worse for the Jets when the Sabres doubled their lead just 15 seconds later. Buffalo carved Winnipeg in transition before Bowen Byram collected a cross-ice pass, skated in on Comrie and ripped a shot past him.
The lead ballooned to three goals when Norris got on the board, playing in his first game since he was injured in the season-opener.
A clean breakout pass sprung the Sabres on a 3-on-2, where Tage Thompson dropped the puck down low in the Winnipeg end to Norris who put a backhand on goal from a tough angle. Dylan Samberg had dropped to a knee in the crease, trying to take a cross-crease pass away but the shot from Norris banked in off of Samberg.
Buffalo outshot the Jets 14-8 in the first and knocked Comrie out of the net after 20 minutes as Thomas Milic took over from there.
Winnipeg finally showed signs of life just past the midway point when they got on the board thanks to their top players. Josh Morrissey made a juke at the blue line before dropping the puck to Mark Scheifele along the wall. Morrissey then cut to the middle of the ice where he one-timed a pass from Scheifele that Connor tipped through Ukk0-Pekka Luukkonen for his 13th goal of the season.
The good vibes for Winnipeg were short-lived as the Sabres restored the three-goal lead just 1:23 later.
A turnover and a bad line change led to a 2-on-1 for Buffalo. Alex Tuch was denied by Milic before the rebound rolled to the corner but Tuch caught up to the puck and, from just below the goal line, took a shot that banked off Milic and into the net.
The Sabres extended their lead early in the third, fileting the Jets in transition once again. Rasmus Dahlin skated behind his own net with the puck and banked it off the boards into the neutral zone where Zach Benson one-touched it to a streaking Norris. Norris stormed in on a breakaway and deked out Milic before beating him five-hole, capping off a fantastic return to the lineup.
Nothing much happened from there, save for Peyton Krebs delivering a hard, clean open ice hit on Cole Perfetti that Logan Stanley took exception to, sparking a brief melee that earned three players, including Stanley, a misconduct for the rest of the night.
Comrie got saddled with the loss, making 11 saves while Milic turned aside 15 shots in relief as the Jets have now gone 1-5 since Connor Hellebuyck went on injured reserve.
Winnipeg will wrap up this five-game road trip Wednesday night in Montreal. The puck drops just after 6:30 p.m. with pregame coverage on 680 CJOB starting a little after 4 p.m.
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