WINNIPEG — Every time Rick Bowness has been asked about what went wrong in Winnipeg last season, he has found a polite way to sidestep the question.
He wasn’t here, Bowness tells reporters. He reminds us that it’s easy for players’ comments to the media to get misunderstood. He insists that the Jets are a much closer team than advertised, citing the number of Jets players at Josh Morrissey’s summer wedding, and said the Jets are proud people who want to put last season’s misery behind them.
On Saturday night in Winnipeg, following the Jets’ third straight loss — and their fifth loss in their last seven games — Bowness finally changed course. Bowness gave a scathing assessment of his team’s play, not just in their 4-0 loss to Philadelphia but throughout their recent struggles, trading unflinching public support for pointed statements of calculated exasperation.
His most scathing words were reserved for the Jets’ star players and the team’s overall lack of commitment to itself.
Here is the story of Winnipeg’s first significant slump of the season, tucked inside a game story, told by a coach who seems to have had enough of the Jets’ inability to handle adversity.
‘As soon as the adversity kicks in, we’re going on our own program.’
Last season’s Jets accused themselves of being unwilling to play for each other, most notably in Paul Stastny’s exit interview. We’ve beaten those quotes to death but the implication at the time was that some of Winnipeg’s stars were playing a selfish game.
Bowness agreed with that assessment on Saturday, reaching back through history to a time before he was hired to call out the Jets for a return to selfish play.
“Right now we’re going through a spell that as soon as the adversity kicks in, we’re going on our own program — which was the problem all of last year,” said Bowness. “We thought we had corrected it, now we have to correct it again, and we will.”
It’s the first time I can remember Bowness speaking so plainly about what went wrong last season and I think it was by design. The Jets’ playoff spot may look secure but they’ve played three more games than Minnesota or Colorado, putting their standing within the division at risk. Monday’s game vs. St. Louis is not remotely in the realm of “must win” in a literal sense but the Jets are backsliding at just the wrong time. I think Bowness wants them to be on edge about that.
The moments of individualism have been easy to observe, whether it’s Kyle Connor trying to play one-on-three, Pierre-Luc Dubois holding on to the puck high in the offensive zone until his possession kills the play or selfish penalties like the one Dubois took against Travis Konecny when the game was still 1-0 Flyers and Konecny took the puck away from him just inside the Flyers blue line.
But Connor and Dubois have not been alone in their struggles.
‘The difference-makers, you can’t even find them out there.’
Dubois has been one of Winnipeg’s best players for most of the season, but he has scored just three goals and one assist in his last 10 games. More recently, he has taken to gaining the offensive zone and then pulling up towards the blue line and waiting until the puck gets taken away. The Jets were outshot 10-3 with Dubois on the ice on Saturday.
Connor has zero points in his last three games. He was on the ice for three Flyers goals and was held to one shot on Saturday.
Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers had five shots each, but Scheifele was also on the ice for three Flyers goals. They also continue to pass off great opportunities and sometimes they don’t even get that far. On one second-period rush, Ehlers darted into Philadelphia’s zone, wound up for a slap shot, and fell over, apparently tripping himself up with his own momentum. It was an apt metaphor for the rest of the team’s game.
Blake Wheeler is producing offense, with 36 points in 42 games, but he gave the puck away on the play before Philadelphia’s second goal and couldn’t seem to control the puck all night. A different giveaway led to what should have been a tripping penalty, with Wheeler hauling down Cam York. (What actually happened: No tripping penalty was called and Joel Farabee was sent to the box for berating the officials about it.)
“The difference-makers, you can’t even find them out there,” Bowness said. “Until we make that commitment again to play as a team and we want to win, this is what you get.”
Prior to Bowness’ press conference, I thought it would be reasonable to cite 14 games in 26 days as a reasonable vehicle towards exhaustion. I’ve seen enough icepacks to respect the effort level, even as bad habits crept in and then took over Winnipeg’s playing style.
Bowness is calling Winnipeg’s team commitment into question and that’s a scary thought.
Philadelphia’s Kieffer Bellows has a shot blocked by Jets defenseman Nate Schmidt in front of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. (James Carey Lauder/USA Today)
‘We had some guys that clearly didn’t want to play tonight.’
Perhaps as a nod to his star players’ disappearing acts, Bowness shredded his lineup card and then tossed the shreds into a blender to start the third period.
“Adam’s (Lowry) line was the best line out there by far,” Bowness said. “We didn’t have enough guys going to follow it up. We had some guys that clearly didn’t want to play tonight.”
Thus out came the following lines:
- Connor — Scheifele — Kuhlman
- Ehlers — Lowry — Barron
- Maenalanen — Dubois — Gagner
- Perfetti — Stenlund — Wheeler
The first of those four lines gave up two third-period goals while chasing the play. The Lowry line played well in its new incarnation while not much of anything happened with Dubois or Stenlund on the ice.
Perhaps most notably, I can’t remember Wheeler ever playing on the fourth line under any circumstance. Whether his demotion was a specific nod to his giveaways or an overall assessment of his play, Bowness didn’t say.
“There were a few guys who were having bad nights,” he said. “It wasn’t just Blake.”
I’m not sure if any of these lines will survive until Monday’s game but I will be deeply curious to see the lineup that Bowness puts together.
‘Don’t embarrass pretty clearly one of the best goalies in the league.’
When Tony DeAngelo scored Philadelphia’s fourth goal 6:48 into the third period, Bowness pulled Connor Hellebuyck and replaced him with David Rittich. It was the first time Bowness pulled either goaltender this season. Bowness said Hellebuyck’s performance didn’t have anything to do with it. Bowness took him out of the game to send a message to the rest of the team.
“Don’t embarrass pretty clearly one of the best goalies in the league,” Bowness said, “Don’t embarrass him. That was enough.”
Hellebuyck is carrying a .923 save percentage through 39 games — a figure that is in line with his career best and puts him fourth among NHL starters this season. He’s in a three-way tie for second in wins (23) with Andrei Vasilevskiy and Martin Jones while saving the third most goals above expected (24.3), according to Evolving Hockey.
Hellebuyck hasn’t scored any goals and that’s just about the only thing wrong with his game. The Jets have scored just 15 goals in their 2-5-0 run of play and 10 of those were in their two wins. But it’s worse than a lack of running support. Hellebuyck has the best seat in the house to watch crisp breakout passes but is paying for turnovers. Philadelphia’s first goal came four seconds after Logan Stanley’s first-period hooking penalty, itself the result of a Nate Schmidt giveaway. Philadelphia’s second goal was the result of failed clearances by Wheeler and then Neal Pionk. The Flyers’ third goal was Owen Tippett’s breakaway and their fourth was a three-on-one rush created when the Jets committed four players up ice while chasing the game.
It was a mercy pull, nothing more, and the Jets will start Hellebuyck on Monday against St. Louis.
‘I’m surprised there weren’t more boos. I am.’
By the end of the game, the Jets crowd turned on the home team — and deservedly so — with whistles and jeers filling the otherwise dead air.
I asked Bowness about the boos. He said he was surprised there weren’t more of them.
So I asked him what he might say to the fans.
“We’re still fighting for first place. Now we’ve gotta turn this around, clearly. We gotta get that game on Monday night. We get that game on Monday night, we’ll be OK. But regardless of the outcome of that game on Monday night, we need a 60-minute effort. That’s all the fans want to see, is a 60-minute effort. The wins and losses will take care of themselves if you take care of the effort and take care of the process. That will take care of itself. Right now the process isn’t good enough and the effort isn’t good enough. And that’s all our fans want to see. So they’re justified in their boos.”
(Top photo of the Flyers’ Owen Tippett scoring past Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck: James Carey Lauder / USA Today)
.