Jets drop fourth-straight game, lose 4-1 to Blues
Well, it was fun while it lasted. After a brilliant start to the 2024-25 season, the Winnipeg Jets are officially in a slump.
After starting the season 15-1, the Jets have now lost four in a row and have fallen to 18-8 on the season (3-7 in their last 10) after falling 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre.
The Jets simply have no spark. Injuries to Nikolaj Ehlers and Dylan Samberg and a seemingly nagging injury to Mark Scheifele has resulted in a Jets team that can still keep their opponents off the board for the most part, but simply can’t mount much of an offensive attack.
Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre, the Jets barely had any life at all.
Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck did everything he could to keep the home side in the game, but eventually even the reigning Vezina Trophy winner couldn’t stop the inevitable.
With Ville Heinola and Logan Stanley playing together as a defensive pairing and Brad Lambert of the Moose getting a shot in the city’s NHL lineup, the Jets couldn’t muster any offence and when they did, Winnipeg’s own Joel Hofer, the big 6-foot-5 Blues goaltender, was more than equal to the task.
The first period was uneventful. The Jets outshot St. Louis 8-6, each goalie had to make a couple of big saves, but for the most part, there were few real scoring chances.
In the second period, the Blues came out hard. They attacked the Jets net and were it not for two great saves by Hellebuyck and one johnny-on-the-spot stop by defenceman Hadyn Fleury, St. Louis might have broken this one open early. By the 12-minute mark, St. Louis had outshot Winnipeg 12-2 in the period. It was getting ugly.
At the 18:04 mark of the period, while the teams were in a four-on-four situation, Jordan Kyrou took a pass from Brayden Schenn and beat Hellebuyck on the rebound to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead. Then, at 18:43, the Blues made it 2-0 on a goal by Dylan Holloway. At this point, the Jets needed resuscitation. When the buzzer went to end the period, there was a big sigh of relief. The Blues outshot Winnipeg 19-3 in the second period. In a word, the Jets were horrible.
The Jets opened the third period with a little intensity, but Hofer took care of any chances the Jets could muster and then the Blues scored again to put it away.
Kyrou fired a shot from the slot that seemed to startle Hellebuyck and found the back of the net to give St. Louis a 3-0 advantage at 6:38. It was Kyrou’s second of the night and ninth of the season.
With about seven minutes left in regulation time, fans started leaving the building in droves. Good excuse to beat the traffic.
However, for those remaining, the Jets offered a little hope at 15:45 when Mark Scheifele scored his 14th of the season as he banged home a rebound off a shot by Neal Pionk. Pionk and Josh Morrissey drew the assists. Hellebuyck was sitting on the bench at the time as the Jets went with six attackers.
Of course, St. Louis took advantage of the empty net just moments later when Robert Thomas scored from just outside his own blueline at 16:21. It was now 4-1 and only the true believers remained in their seats.
St. Louis outshot Winnipeg 32-23 (Winnipeg outshot St. Louis 12-7 in the third). The Jets won only 36.8 per cent of the faceoffs and were outhit 24-18. It was just a depressing night from every perspective. Now, the Jets head out on the road again for a pair of games on Thursday and Saturday.
The local side will try to get back on track this Thursday night in Buffalo.
Game time is 6 p.m. CST and can be seen on TSN 3.
The full photo highlight package from Tuesday night's affair is courtesy of Scott Stroh and James Carey Lauder:
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