Wins and losses are not that big of a deal in the pre-season, which is a good thing for the Winnipeg Jets.
The Jets lost their third straight game to begin the exhibition slate, dropping a 4-0 decision to the Oilers in Edmonton on Friday night.
With both teams resting their big guns, the Oilers scored twice in the first frame and added a goal in each of the final two periods for the four-goal win.
While the shots were fairly close at 21-20 in favour of the Jets, that really didn’t tell the whole story as the Jets barely had any grade-A chances.
“We had some veterans, a couple guys that hadn’t played games yet and there was some rust,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “More of our veteran guys made some mistakes that they don’t usually do, so, it’s just everybody kinda getting the rust off from the summer, young guys still trying to show they deserve another game, and there was some good efforts out there.
“Yeah, I don’t want to lose games but there’s some positives there and also some things we got to work on.”
The Jets only dressed a handful of players from last season’s roster, and Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl both sat out for Edmonton.
Both teams only had five shots on goal in a mostly uneventful third stanza.
“It was a little scrambly,” said Jets forward Morgan Barron. “I’m sure there’ll be some things we can look at and try to learn from, playing a little bit more connected, and a little bit tighter on support. It just kinda felt like we were chasing the puck a lot tonight, so obviously we’ll have to get that cleaned up in the next week or two.”
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The Jets have three pre-season games left to work out some of the kinks, and they’re expected to dress a more veteran lineup on Saturday against Calgary as Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, and Gabriel Vilardi have yet to make an appearance in the pre-season.
“There’s a pretty big roster coming in tomorrow night,” Arniel said. “Our last three – it’s going to be a lot more of getting down to sorta where the battles are for positions and who’s going to be on our roster at the end of camp. The last three games will be a lot of our top guys.”
“We got a couple more days here to keep pushing and get things really sorted out,” said Barron. “I know everyone is excited to go for real here.”
Defenceman Elias Salomonsson was supposed to be in the Jets’ lineup but he didn’t make the trip after coming down with an illness and Flin Flon’s Ashton Sautner dressed instead.
Just shy of the midway point of the first, one of the few veterans in the Oilers’ lineup got on the scoreboard. Darnell Nurse took a pass in transition and blasted a shot from the point that went off the post and in to beat Domenic DiVincentiis at the 9:12 mark.
After a failed power play by the Jets, Edmonton doubled their lead thanks to a miscue from one of Winnipeg’s veterans.
Vladislav Namestnikov collected a loose puck in front of his own net and skated with it behind the net. As he skated towards the corner, he tried to send a pass to Sautner on the near boards, but it was picked off by David Tomasek. He fed a wide-open Josh Samanski who roofed it past DiVincentiis from in close to make it 2-0 after 20 minutes.
Edmonton added to their lead early in the second. As the Jets went for a line change, Troy Stecher took the puck in the neutral zone and dashed into the Winnipeg end, skating it in fairly deep before dropping it back to Noah Philp. Using Danny Zhilkin as a screen, Philp ripped a shot past DiVincentiis to make it 3-0 at the 2:26 mark.
Winnipeg was unable to generate much in terms of offence in the period, with their best chance coming on a shorthanded 2-on-1 with Morgan Barron and Cole Koepke, who were perhaps the most impressive Jets forwards on the night.
The standout moment in the middle frame was when Tyrel Bauer dropped the gloves with Josh Brown and the two engaged in a long and spirited tilt.
Edmonton made it 4-0 at the 9:50 mark of the third thanks to a major defensive breakdown in the Jets’ end. The puck found its way to Andrew Mangiapane in front of the net, and two Jets defenders went to him as he shot the puck. Nobody was around to deal with a rebound as Kasperi Kapanen calmly collected it and roofed it past a helpless DiVincentiis.
Winnipeg managed to get 21 shots on goal but none of them beat Calvin Pickard, while DiVincentiis stopped 16 shots in defeat.
The Jets will play their third and final home pre-season game on Saturday night against Calgary. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 5 p.m. with game action starting just after 7 p.m.
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