Despite a 12-point gap in the standings, both teams are fighting for playoff spots as the Winnipeg Jets visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The Jets (32-31-12, 76 points) sit three points back of the Western Conference\u2019s final wild-card spot. The Blue Jackets (38-26-12, 88 points) are tied with Ottawa and Detroit for the final Eastern Conference berth but lose the tiebreaker in regulation wins.<\/p>\n
Both teams are coming off lopsided losses Thursday \u2014 Columbus fell 5-1 in Carolina, while Winnipeg dropped a 3-0 decision in Dallas \u2014 and drew criticism from their head coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some guys out there (pour) their whole heart and soul into that game, we really did, and then we had some guys give us absolutely nothing,\u201d said Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness. \u201cSo, if we want to make a serious effort to get in, it\u2019s going to take a whole lot more than some of those guys gave us tonight. They can say all they want, \u2018Oh, we want to get in, we want to get in\u2019. I\u2019d shut up and let my play do my talking for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said the team\u2019s urgency over its final six games will determine its playoff fate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely is,\u201d Jenner said when asked if Saturday\u2019s game was a gut check. \u201cWe know the spot we\u2019ve put ourselves in here. At the end of the day, it\u2019s up to us to step up and go take it if we want it. We know what\u2019s at stake, and the belief is in this room.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loss was Columbus\u2019 fifth straight, four of which have come in regulation. Winnipeg, meanwhile, had been climbing the standings, winning four of five and posting a 10-4-4 record since the February Olympic break before the setback in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Jets coach Scott Arniel said Thursday\u2019s performance resembled the inconsistency that created their deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody has a role to play and you gotta go out and play it,\u201d Arniel said. \u201cAnd if we don\u2019t have 20 guys playing to their identity, it makes it very difficult for us. And that\u2019s the one thing that we\u2019ve gotten since the break. \u2026 Tonight, it was loose. We were missing 9-10 guys. \u2026 They know that wasn\u2019t good enough. That\u2019s not gonna win you hockey games. We\u2019re desperate. We have to be desperate right from the start of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
With seven games remaining, captain Adam Lowry said the margin for error is gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lessons to be learned from games like these,\u201d said Lowry. \u201cWe\u2019ll review the tape and then find a way to get a good start like we had in Colorado. It\u2019s tough going into other team\u2019s rinks and playing from behind and digging yourself two, three-goal deficits, which generally don\u2019t lead to good outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the injury front, Winnipeg\u2019s Nino Niederreiter and Vladislav Namestnikov are day-to-day after shedding non-contact jerseys in practice. Elias Salomonsson is also day-to-day after leaving Thursday\u2019s game under concussion protocol.<\/p>\n
For Columbus, Mason Marchment is day-to-day and Dmitry Voronkov is week-to-week. Also, defenseman Damon Severson underwent season-ending shoulder on Thursday. He was injured on March 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite a 12-point gap in the standings, both teams are fighting for playoff spots as the Winnipeg Jets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5121],"tags":[5,78,4,77,18,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-539882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg-jets","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-winnipeg","12":"tag-winnipeg-jets","13":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116345010089020391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}