Slow start, but Jets outfly Ducks

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This article was published 03/12/2022 (655 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets got away with some bad behaviour on Sunday afternoon, overcoming a bowling shoe ugly start against the NHL’s worst team to eventually skate away with a 5-2 victory at Canada Life Centre.

After saying all the right things about responding with a better effort following Friday’s 4-1 lacklustre loss to an injury-riddled Columbus Blue Jackets squad, the Jets came out and did the complete opposite in the first half of the game against Anaheim. That would be the not-so-mighty Ducks, who came to town with just six wins in 25 games, played on Saturday afternoon in St. Paul and yet raced to a well-deserved 2-0 lead by early in the second period, outshooting the home team 18-7 after 20 minutes.

“It’s just not right to start a game like that,” a still red-hot Rick Bowness said following the game.

“Listen, I’m the head coach so I’m responsible for the way we start and getting our team prepared. So that starts with me. The second thing is I’m not a babysitter. These guys are men. They’re professionals and they’re paid to show up here and go to work. My job here is to make that happen. The third thing on that would be: you cannot play this game without passion. Without emotion. You cannot play this game on your heels. And I hate when we’re on our heels. It’s not right.”

After Saku Maenalanen and Dylan Samberg — with his first-ever NHL goal — had evened things up in a much-better middle frame, Morgan Barron scored the winner with just under six minutes left in regulation. Mark Scheifele and Nate Schmidt added insurance markers late in the third period. The Jets ended up outshooting the Ducks 33-12 over the final 40 minutes.

“It wasn’t intense enough from us. We weren’t playing with enough passion in that first period. We all knew it on the bench, on the ice, and I’m sure you guys could tell from the press box that was the case,” Barron told a media scrum following the game. “We need to have better starts. There are no games you can take for granted in this league, especially when we’re fighting for position in the standings like we are.”

Winnipeg improves to 15-7-1, moving within two points of first place in the Central Division with two games in hand on the Dallas Stars. Anaheim falls to 6-17-3.

There’s plenty to pore through in this one, so let’s get to it, shall we:

1) It would appear Bowness is still learning a few things about his team — including that some old habits may die hard around here.

“So we had a bad game on Friday and everyone is saying all the right things (Saturday at practice), but words mean nothing to me. They mean nothing. All I want to see is action,” Bowness continued in his candid, post-game assessment.

“I want to see passion and emotion in the way we play. Right or wrong, play with passion, play with emotion and we’ll figure the rest out. We’re still trying to figure this team out a little bit. We are.”

He was visibly angry during the first period, as cameras caught him pounding his fist on the glass at one point.

“They made it pretty clear, the coaching staff, something needed to change and our effort wasn’t good enough,” Barron said of how the first intermission went down. “We all knew that. So I feel like it kind of slowly started getting a little better in the second. Obviously in the third we were able to tilt the ice a little bit and create some more chances.”

2) Kudos to Samberg for finding the back of an NHL net, a seeing-eye knuckler apparently clocked at just 56 miles-per-hour that got the Jets back on even terms at 13:28 of the second period.

The 23-year-old Minnesota product had to wait 32 big-league games for this moment, plus a few additional minutes while the league’s situation room reviewed whether a high stick from one or both of teammates Mikey Eyssimont and Pierre-Luc Dubois had re-directed the puck.

“I guess you never really know when it’s going to come, but obviously a special feeling. Monkey’s off my back, so to speak,” said Samberg.

“I was just looking to get the puck through on the net. Once I got rid of it, I knew it was just a little blooper and I had a good angle of it and I saw it go right up and over everyone’s head and I saw it drop down right behind the goalie’s head. I had a feeling nobody touched it, but when they’re waiting there that long, it’s a little worrisome.”

It was nice redemption for Samberg, who bobbled a puck at the Anaheim blue-line which gave Brett Leason a breakaway that turned into the 2-0 goal at 5:09 of the second. Jakob Silfverberg had opened the scoring at 15:16 of the first.

“That’s part of growing. That’s an honest mistake. That’s going to happen. You can’t criticize him for that. I would never criticize him for that. That’s just hockey man,” said Bowness.

The veteran bench boss has been telling Samberg to use his shot more often, and it appears the young blue-liner took the message to heart.

“He’s got a heavy wrister. That blooper wasn’t quite his shot. But give him credit,” said Bowness.

“I’ve been after him all year. I saw it in training camp. When he has time, it’s perfect. It’s about a foot off the ice, so it’s easy to tip and it’s coming hard. So when he gets it through, there’s probably going to be a rebound. I love the way he shoots the puck and we’ve been encouraging it from training camp. Shoot the puck, shoot the puck. Again, he’s a young player. It’s going to keep getting better.”

3) Last week, Barron was bemoaning the number of Grade A chances he’s had to score, only to come up painfully short this season. A month-long absence due to a broken bone in his wrist didn’t help, but he was stuck on just one goal through his first dozen games.

He picked a great time to bag his second, finishing off a terrific Tic-Tac-Toe passing play involving linemates Maenalanen (who got the Jets on the board at 10:31 of the second) and Adam Lowry.

“It’s a pretty hard one to miss,” Barron joked of what was basically a tap-in. [Lowry] was giving me crap about it on the bench, so it was a great pass from him and I kind of just did the easy job and put it in the empty net.”

4) Welcome back, Nathan Beaulieu. The rugged former Jets defenceman, who was traded at the deadline last year to Pittsburgh and signed with Anaheim last summer, was up to some of his old tricks on Sunday.

That would be painful shot blocks, with two big ones on a pair of first-period power plays. He then had a golden chance to score later in the game, only to be thwarted by Connor Hellebuyck’s right pad.

It was the best of Hellebuyck’s 28 stops on the night.

Beaulieu played 105 games with Winnipeg over parts of four seasons and was given a warm applause by the crowd during a TV timeout, tapping his glove to his heart as acknowledgement.

5) A crowd of just 13,444 — one of the smallest of the season — took in the matinee. But there were an additional 15 NHL scouts in the press box, as the Jets have been getting plenty of eyes on the product lately.

In fact, there were 17 scouts at Friday’s game against Columbus, and a whopping 20 present for Saturday’s AHL contest at the downtown rink between the Manitoba Moose and Milwaukee Admirals.

With the Jets potentially still looking for some forward help — thanks to long-term injuries to Nikolaj Ehlers and Mason Appleton — and having a surplus of young defencemen such as Ville Heinola and Declan Chisholm on the farm, it’s something to keep an eye on.

Jansen Harkins, Dominic Toninato and Kyle Capobianco were the healthy scratches Sunday, while Ehlers, Appleton and Logan Stanley remain on injured reserve.

UP NEXT: The Jets close out a four-game homestand on Tuesday night when Paul Maurice and the Florida Panthers come to town.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg