Jets get right to work on resetting penalty kill after 'unacceptable ...

Members of the Winnipeg Jets were pretty hard on themselves after they gave up three power-play goals and lost 4-1 on Thursday night to a New Jersey Devils team that was a seller at the trade deadline.

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Veteran defenceman Brenden Dillon said it was “unacceptable” and of course he’s right — it’s just a fact that you aren’t going to win many hockey games when you give up three power-play goals and score none.

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Getting outshot 41-19 and going 0-for-4 with the man-advantage is not exactly a recipe for success either.

However, even the very best of teams have “blip nights” and you have to expect this was one of them for a Jets team that is battling for first place in the Central Division and was coming off a huge win over the front-running New York Rangers only a couple days earlier.

The very fact that a player with Dillon’s experience and influence came out with harsh words — even an F-bomb — for his team, suggests the Jets get that they simply can’t let their feet off the gas pedal at all during this wild stretch run.

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They had a chance to move two points up on the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars in the current three-way race for first, in which all three teams sat on 93 points heading into Friday’s games.

But instead of jumping ahead, there’s a chance the Jets will find themselves in third place by the time they take on the New York Islanders on Saturday afternoon on Long Island. The Stars were set to host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night, while the Avalanche were plahing host to the East Division bottom-feeding Columbus Blue Jackets.

Still, you could easily argue that at least a couple of the New Jersey power-play goals were bad bounces and not so much the result of poor defending or a badly executed penalty killing, could you not?

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Dillon was clearly having none of that with his post-game comments on Thursday and when the Jets practised on Friday afternoon on Long Island, the penalty kill was front and centre.

“Today the emphasis was on the kill,” Jets winger Mason Appleton told reporters.

“We cleaned up a couple things that we feel are going to help us sort some stuff out and be able to jump a little quicker.

“You look back at those goals and it was almost like ‘Dang, how did that happen? How did that fall?’ It happens though. We’ve got to be a lot better on the kill. You can’t expect to give up three and win the game. That’s unacceptable but we cleaned up some stuff today and I think we’ll feel a lot better tomorrow going into it.”

The Jets still have two tough afternoon games on their five-game road trip. The Islanders, despite being mired in a six-game losing streak, are still only five points out of a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and were strong contenders until recently.

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The Jets also play Sunday afternoon in Washington, against a Capitals team that is three points out of a playoff spot.

There really can’t be any more “unacceptable” performances if the Jets really want to finish first in the division.

Their penalty kill, a sore spot for much of the season but much better since the start of the 2024 calendar, simply can’t have nights like that. The Jets remain 25th in the NHL in penalty killing (76.6), which is a true shortcoming of a very good hockey team. The fact that they face fewer power-play situations (192) than all but four teams in the league is a saving grace.

“I don’t like it,” Jets associate coach Scott Arniel told reporters on Friday.

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“I’ll take a lot of the blame for the PK but those things happen. You get in situations where those types of bounces happen on us.

“We just reset, talked about it, reset some of our principles that we talked about from the start of the year, things we want to be good at, no matter what power play we see, that we want to do each and every time we’re out there.”

Arniel will be behind the bench for both games on the weekend, with head coach Rick Bowness remaining in Winnipeg after returning home to undergo a “minor medical procedure.”

Arniel said Friday that winger Cole Perfetti will return to the line-up on Saturday, although he didn’t specify which player he would replace, while defenceman Nate Schmidt will go in for Colin Miller as the Jets continue to rotate players on the back end.

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Winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who scored a beautiful goal in New Jersey on an individual effort, took a maintenance day Friday but is expected to play on Long Island.

The Jets will play their 12th and 13th games of March and still have three more before the end of the month, so the fact they even were able to squeeze in a practice to work on the penalty kill on Friday was a bonus.

“We’ve had a ton of hockey,” defenceman Dylan DeMelo told reporters. “But at the end of the day, we have to find a way to win games, no matter what. We’re here for solutions, not excuses. We’re professional athletes, it’s our job. We have to make sure we’re ready to go at all times.”

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