DALLAS – The Winnipeg Jets picked a bad night to have too many passengers.
After winning four of the previous five games — including a tidy effort against the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Saturday to open the road trip – the Winnipeg Jets were mostly overwhelmed in this battle with a Central Division rival that was looking to get its mojo back as they worked through a lacklustre stretch of hockey.
Just when you thought the Jets might be catching the Dallas Stars at a good time, it turned out to be the complete opposite.
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Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) takes control of the puck in front of Winnipeg Jets’ Alex Iafallo (9) in the first period of Thursday’s game in Dallas.
A Stars team that had managed just one victory in the past seven games and two in the past nine came up with a dominating effort and won this one in a cakewalk, handing the Jets a 3-0 defeat that was damaging to their flickering playoff hopes.
“Everybody has a role to play and you gotta go out and play it. And if we don’t have 20 guys playing to their identity, it makes it very difficult for us,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel, whose team closes out the four-game swing on Saturday against Rick Bowness and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“And that’s the one thing that we’ve gotten since coming out of the break, we’ve been very good with 20 guys stepping up and working together and being cohesive that way. (On Thursday), it was loose. We were missing nine or 10 guys.”
That’s far too many to be missing on one night and it’s one of the biggest reasons the margin for error just got slimmer, as the Jets now have just seven games remaining in the regular season.
“We have got to reflect on it and learn from it. There are lessons to be learned from games like these,” said Jets captain Adam Lowry.
“It is tough going into other teams’ rinks and playing from behind, digging yourself two or three goal deficits, generally, do not lead to good outcomes. Get our rest here. Recover and reset and clear the mind and get ready for Columbus. They are in a similar position as us, fighting for their playoff lives. They have been struggling and we know it is an important game for both teams. Hopefully, whoever gets the jump on the other one comes out on top.”
The Jets, who slipped to 32-31-12 for the season, entered the contest just two points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, but they’ve got three teams to leapfrog and two others in hot pursuit of them.
Since the Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators were facing off in a game that was ongoing at press time and the San Jose Sharks won their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Jets deficit has widened to three points and could possibly reach four by later this evening.
“We just flush it. They knew that wasn’t good enough, that’s not going to win you hockey games,” said Arniel. “We’re desperate. We need to be desperate right from the start of the game. And it has to be for 60 minutes. But we’ve got to move on to Columbus. That’s a team that has their own battle, obviously they got beat again (on Thursday), so they’re going to be pretty ornery in their own building. We’re going to have to be a lot better with our details, our execution, our battle.”
With the win, the Stars completed a four-game sweep of the season series, limiting the Jets to a solitary point that came from an overtime loss in Dallas in the previous meeting.
“We’ve always had those similar playing styles. And, they shut it down pretty well,” said Jets defenceman Dylan Samberg. “We have a good goaltender, they have a good goaltender. And, sometimes it goes our way, sometimes it goes their way. And obviously, with our start we kind of dug ourselves a hole there and couldn’t dig out.”
Let’s take a closer look at how things unfolded:
THE HIT – The Jets lost defenceman Elias Salomonsson with just under nine minutes to go in the second period.
TONY GUTIERREZ / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo (2) strips the puck away from Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson (21) on an attack in the first period of Thursday’s game.
Salomonsson, who was playing his 32nd NHL game of the season, was going to play the puck in the corner in the defensive zone when Stars left-winger Jason Robertson caught him with a reverse hit that appeared to include an elbow to the head.
Salomonsson was a bit wobbly as he made his way back up to his feet and eventually went down the tunnel for further evaluation.
Following the game, Arniel said Salomonsson has been placed in concussion protocol, which means he’s out indefinitely.
“I’ve always thought that’s a dirty play, but, whatever,” said Arniel. “He’s a young kid, probably not expecting that. That’s exactly what it was, he wasn’t expecting it.”
Salomonsson has been providing quality minutes and his absence will certainly be felt.
“It is one of those ones where it’s a tough because by rule of law that is a legal hit, but it is one of those ones where as a defending player you can’t hit the guy with his face to the wall, but he can hit you, and generally I find those hits that hit you in the head and neck area, generally name bar into the chin,” said Lowry. “Obviously, as a guy that plays a lot of defence I prefer to see that hit (taken) out.
“It is tough to see Sal go down as he has played well for us all year, stepped in playing big minutes when guys are out, whatever we have asked of him, he has really excelled at and really taken another step forward and was starting to play with a lot of confidence.”
THE LAPSE – After hammering home the importance of having a strong start, the Jets got tentative after allowing the first goal of the game to Matt Duchene, who banked a rebound chance off Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck for a power play marker just before the midway point of the first period.
They gave up another 89 seconds later to Arttu Hyry, who finished off a nifty passing play with Stars captain Jamie Benn.
That was compounded by a goal from Adam Erne that happened early in the second period and the three-goal deficit was too much to overcome.
“We didn’t have enough compete, we didn’t have enough guys getting our nose over the puck and being heavy on it,” said Arniel. “Our execution wasn’t great.”
THE KEY PLAY – A tic-tac-toe goal for Hyry made it a two-goal game and the Jets never fully recovered.
TONY GUTIERREZ / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Winnipeg Jets centre Adam Lowry, left, and Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) fight in the third period of Thursday’s game.
THE THREE STARS
Arrttu Hyry, Stars, Scored once, added an assist.
Adam Erne, Stars, Scored once, added an assist.
Jake Oettinger, Stars, Recorded his third shutout of the campaign.
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EXTRA, EXTRA – Hellebuyck made his 52nd start of the season and made 18 saves.
The Jets’ healthy scratches were defencemen Ville Heinola, Jacob Bryson and forward Danny Zhilkin.
Nino Niederreiter and Vladislav Namestnikov shed the non-contact jerseys and were full participants in the morning skate, as they continue to work their way back from lower-body issues that have sidelined the Jets forwards since late February.
The Stars switched things up and went with 11 forwards and seven defencemen, which allowed former Jets blue-liner Kyle Capobianco to return to the lineup for the first time since early February.
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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.
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