ST. LOUIS — Do you remember all of those times Scott Arniel mentioned building calluses over the course of the regular season?
This is when those teachable moments should come in handy.
After being on the receiving end of a 7-2 throttling on Thursday, the Winnipeg Jets used Friday to recharge their collective batteries.
Frank Franklin II / The Associated Press files
Winnipeg Jets’ Josh Morrissey (centre) expects the Jets to bounce back after their Game 3 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday on account of the team’s resiliency through the regular season.
With a two-day break before Game 4 on Sunday at Enterprise Center, the Jets did require some additional time to lick their wounds, but this lopsided loss doesn’t necessarily signify the beginning of the end either.
You can understand why some folks in the fan base see any defeat as a sign that a four-game losing skid is right around the corner, given the way several of the more recent playoff series have gone.
But the Jets used the 82-game regular season to prepare them for dealing with adversity and — to be honest — a single playoff defeat, no matter how ugly it was, doesn’t even represent a full dose of it.
The Jets will enter Sunday’s game with another opportunity to build a 3-1 cushion in this best-of-seven series with a Central Division rival.
Of course, the Jets hoped to end the series as quickly as possible but a sweep was always the unlikeliest of outcomes. Especially when you consider how well the Blues have played coming out of the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, and how hard they pushed the Jets in Games 1 and 2 before faltering in the third periods of each game.
Jets defenceman and alternate captain Josh Morrissey exuded a calmness in his post-game interview. No doubt he was disappointed with the outcome and the overall performance, but this is not a time for panic.
“You lose that game in overtime, you lose that game how we did, it’s the same result,” said Morrissey. “Playoffs are all about turning the page, learning lessons, and improving as the series goes on.
“Our team has done a great job all year of being resilient and bouncing back from games that aren’t us, so that’s our expectation over the next few days.”
There haven’t been many games like Thursday’s, where the sound defensive structure gets poked, prodded and penetrated.
That doesn’t mean the Jets need to reinvent the wheel or come up with a completely new game plan for Game 4 — though better execution is also a necessity.
Obviously, adjustments will need to be made, but this is more a matter of getting back to a blueprint than overhauling what has made the Jets successful for most of the 85 games they’ve played to this point.
“Bottom line, like we’ve talked about all year, we try to look at what we’re doing and what we do in our room and how we know when we’re at our best and when we’re not,” said Morrissey.
There was some saltiness in Jets head coach Scott Arniel’s tone during his media availability and that’s to be expected.
Nobody likes getting their butt kicked, and hating to lose can sometimes be as important as knowing how to win.
Not only was giving up a seven-spot out of character, it was the manner in which most of those goals were allowed.
“We gave up the middle of the ice a lot,” said Arniel. “Which we don’t usually do.”
Because the Jets don’t normally give up the middle of the ice, it stands to reason that it should be an area that is fairly easy to get sorted out.
But there are a number of things the Jets can do better, even while holding a 2-1 series lead.
One of the storylines that was under the microscope going into these playoffs revolved around how Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck was going to play.
After getting pulled for the first time this season on Thursday, a lot of eyes will be on Hellebuyck again.
While his removal was more of a mercy pull than an indictment of his play, Hellebuyck’s turnover less than a minute after the Jets had scored to narrow the deficit to 3-1 was a critical error.
As far as Hellebuyck’s play goes, there aren’t an abundance of soft goals that he’s allowing. Though, there haven’t been as many timely saves being made either.
After another incredible regular season that has Hellebuyck on the verge of a third Vezina Trophy and a strong possibility he could be a finalist for the Hart Trophy, it’s been an uneven start to these playoffs.
Although the sample size is remarkably strong, the early numbers don’t paint a pretty picture.
Going into Friday’s action, Hellebuyck has allowed 10 goals in his three starts and, while it’s worth noting that five of those have come on the power play, his goals-against average has ballooned from 2.00 to 3.54 and his save percentage has dipped from .925 to .844.
Want to look under the hood at some underlying numbers?
MoneyPuck has Hellebuyck at -3.9 goals saved above expected and that number is tied for 16th among goalies with Linus Ullmark of the Ottawa Senators.
Hellebuyck led the league with 39.6 goals saved above expected.
These early returns don’t mean that Hellebuyck can’t get the job done when the lights are brightest, though it does suggest he’ll need to find another level in order for the Jets to retain control of this series.
The Jets don’t need Hellebuyck to single-handedly carry them to the promised land either, they simply need him to come up with a few more saves — like the breakaway stop he made on Jordan Kyrou late in the second period of Game 1.
Now, there are other areas that require improvement for the Jets in Game 3 — including special teams, secondary scoring and a return to stifling defensive play among them.
The Jets are minus-4 in the special teams battle after surrendering six power-play markers and scoring just two so far.
The improvements the Jets made on both the power play and penalty kill during the regular season were significant — with Winnipeg finishing atop the NHL with the man-advantage and jumping up from the bottom third to 13th while shorthanded.
But cleaning up those two facets of the game would take off some pressure when it comes to scoring at even strength.
The Jets’ top line delivered the game-winning goal in each of the first two games, while the Blues’ top guns and top D-men were all over the scoresheet in Game 3.
By the time the buzzer sounded, top-line centre Robert Thomas had four assists and first-line winger Pavel Buchnevich delivered his first career hat trick and added an assist.
Cam Fowler, acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in mid-December to bolster the blue line, had a Morrissey-esque effort, scoring a goal off the rush and adding four helpers for five points.
It’s been said often already that the best players have to be the best players, and that’s been the case through three games.
The Jets’ fourth line has already scored twice in the series, while the Blues’ fourth unit got a goal from Alexey Toropchenko in Game 3.
Jets captain Adam Lowry had the lone goal for his team’s identity line and that one was scored into an empty net. Lowry thrives at this time of the year and supplying supplementary offence is something the Jets have come to rely on from that trio, so they’ll need to do more as well.
As the Jets continue to play without Gabe Vilardi and Nikolaj Ehlers, there must be some temptation for Arniel to reunite Nino Niederreiter with Lowry and Mason Appleton.
Although moving Niederreiter into the top-six where he’s spent a good chunk of his career is an option, he’s got to produce a bit more offence no matter what line he’s playing on, as he’s generated only two shots on goal so far.
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The same goes for Vladislav Namestnikov, who has gone 16 games without scoring, has one goal in his past 32 games and has yet to record a shot on goal in this series.
There’s no questioning the effort of Niederreiter, Namestnikov or Cole Perfetti (who has one assist and nearly had a goal in Game 3 that didn’t count because there wasn’t conclusive video evidence to overturn the original call on the ice), but they’ll need to chip in some more offence given how well the Blues’ second line has been playing.
The Jets leaned on their depth throughout the roster all season long and it’s time to see if they can stand tall once again.
X and Bluesky: @WiebesWorld
Ken Wiebe
Reporter
Ken Wiebe is a sports reporter for the Free Press, with an emphasis on the Winnipeg Jets. He has covered hockey and provided analysis in this market since 2000 for the Winnipeg Sun, The Athletic, Sportsnet.ca and TSN. Ken was a summer intern at the Free Press in 1999 and returned to the Free Press in a full-time capacity in September of 2023. Read more about Ken.
Every piece of reporting Ken produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
