The longest road trip of the season for the Winnipeg Jets started with a bang on Tuesday night as they dropped a 4-1 decision to the Canadiens in Montreal.
After the Jets opened the scoring, the injury-plagued Canadiens, with eight regular players from their lineup, scored four unanswered goals to end the Jets’ three-game winning streak.
The Jets didn’t have their feet and just looked out of sync for most of the contest.
“We weren’t skating,” said Jets head coach Rick Bowness. “Our legs were not moving. Our competition was not good. Our practice was closed.
“There are very few games that we are going to walk out of a rink and say we didn’t deserve to win. But he definitely has one tonight. We didn’t deserve to win that because we were behind them all night, making it too easy for them to play their game. So, when there is no competition, and no legs, and no execution, then you look bad. We were feeling bad.
Kyle Connor scored the only goal for the Jets in the loss after they had won eight of their previous nine games.
“We weren’t able to connect on a lot of plays,” Connor said. “A little scattered all over the snow. All three zones, not one zone in particular, and they were able to counter on us very well, caught us on some bad turnovers, and we just didn’t take care of each other tonight.
“We are sitting in the back. It’s the opposite of what we’re trying to do,” defenseman Josh Morrissey said. “We’re trying to be offensive. I thought we didn’t handle the puck as well as we could have and missed a lot of shots.”
Connor’s goal was his 200th career goal in his 429th NHL game.
“It’s great,” he said. “You never dreamed you would be in the NHL and score 200. That’s great. I’m sure I’ll look back on it year after year as always.
Read more: Analysis: Western Conference-leading Jets capable of greatness
Neither side was able to find the back of the net in the first period, although Montreal made two power plays and outscored the Jets, 10–6.
But the Jets started the second with the man advantage and took advantage of the opportunity.
Morrissey hit Connor with a fine pass and the sniper blasted Samuel Montembault’s one-timer to open the scoring with his 200th career goal.
The rest of the period was a disaster for the Jets.
After a chaotic sequence in front of the Winnipeg net, the puck found its way back to the point where Justin Barron, brother of Winnipeg’s Morgan, found a wide-open Evgeni Dadonov down for a one-time past Connor Hellebuyck and even That did the scoring too. 7:46 mark.
Less than two minutes later, Kirby Dach led a charge up the ice and fed to Mike Hoffman, who was given too much time and space as he fired a precise shot over Hellebuek’s right shoulder to put the Habs in front. Imposed.
Just four minutes later, the home side struck again.
After a faceoff in the Winnipeg end, Dylan DeMello tried to clear the puck around the board, but it took an awkward bounce and went dead, allowing Montreal to take it. With several Jets out of position, Christian Dvorak was denied a chance on Hellebuyck, but Dadonov grabbed the rebound and made it 3–1 after 40 minutes.
Montreal took the lead early in the third when Dack made a great wraparound attempt that Hellebuyck made a great save to deny, but Josh Anderson was right there to bang home the rebound at the 4:19 mark.
Winnipeg outscored Montreal 10–7 in the third period, but it was too little, too late.
Hellebuyck took the loss allowing four goals on 28 shots, while Montembault split 25 shots in the win.
Read more: Scheffley’s double scores Jets 4-1 over Penguins
The Jets look to bounce back two games out of their five-game road swing in Toronto on Thursday night. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 4 p.m. puck drops after 6 p.m.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.