In the span of a few months, the Winnipeg Jets have gone from a first-place President’s Trophy regular season to today, where on December 29th, they sit just one point out of 32nd place.

A miserable November has turned into a ghastly December, even with the return of Hart Trophy-winning Connor Hellebuyck.

Since the Edmonton Oilers blasted the Jets on December 6th, Winnipeg has won just once in eight tries, mired in a five-game losing skid.

Saturday’s loss 4-3 in overtime at the hands of the Minnesota Wild came with extra oomph as Mats Zuccarello tied the game with just 22 seconds left in regulation, setting up an eventual Matt Boldy game-winner.

“To give one up like that late, and then obviously the bounces didn’t seem to go our way late in the game, it’s definitely frustrating,” said Jonathan Toews after the game.

Snakebit

When it rains, it pours.

Super snakebit forward Gustav Nyquist appeared to have scored his first goal of the season to make 2-0 in the 1st period with a brilliant end-to-end rush. However, Jon Hynes wisely challenged the play, and it was called back for offside, prolonging Nyquist’s donut in the goal category to 27 games.

“It’s another bounce that’s tough to stomach, but I think [Nyquist] did a [heck] of a job of just kind of taking a deep breath and moving on,” Toews added. “And he played great tonight and rang one off the bar there in the second.”

Fans have become accustomed to a steamed and annoyed head coach Scott Arniel in postgame pressers, but that was not the vibe after the Wild game.

In fact, the game before on December 21st saw the Jets claw back down by three goals to force overtime, but suffer the same scoreline of a 4-3 loss in overtime to Utah. After five days off between games, there wasn’t any rust for the Jets.

“You know what, that was a [heck] of an effort by our hockey team. It really was,” Arniel said. “Minnesota is, what, the second-hottest team in the League since November 1st? That was a heck of a hockey game by us. And I thought that we did everything we possibly could to win that hockey game.”

Morrissey banged up

Another note in the bad news ledger is that stalwart Josh Morrissey is day-to-day after what they believed to be a questionable cross check from behind by the Wild’s Joel Eriksson Ek. He didn’t participate in the team skate on Sunday and we’ll have to watch for his status against the Oilers.

Dylan DeMelo was penalized for cross-checking moments after Morrissey hit in the third period, which set up the eventual tying goal for the Wild on the power play.

Jets special teams haven’t been a major sore spot, middle of the pack or better in penalty kill and the powerplay, but at times, the ability to get a tying goal and force extra time, accumulate points that way, has eluded them.

In fact, all five losses on this skid have been by one-goal.

“It’s kind of been our Achilles’ heel,” Morgan Barron said after a tough 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on December 19th. “It feels like a lot of times when we play poorly or play OK, it’s a one-goal game and we just can’t, kind of, find that extra juice to squeeze two points out of it.

“There’s obviously some things we can build on, but sooner or later, gotta find a way. We’re in crunch time here.”

The Jets were wicked good in overtime and shootout last season, going 13-4 in games that went past 60 minutes. That’s been another area this season that has flipped, as they’ve lost four games alone this month in extra time.

Depth

Similar to the Edmonton Oilers’ top-heavy offence, once you get past Mark Schiefele, Kyle Connor, and Gabe Vilardi, the stars aren’t twinkling so brightly in the ‘Peg.

However, those games can still take over a game, and will command the Oilers’ respect, particularly after the Oilers blew out the Jets just a few weeks ago.

Since returning from injury, Hellebuyck has started all six games, but his play does not resemble the all-world stature from a season ago. How could it when you win 47 games and post a .925 save percentage in 62 starts?

Notes:

Kyle Connor had his 13th multi-point game of the season in the Wild loss, now sitting with 45 points in 36 games.
Connor recently scored his 300th career goal to become the third player in franchise history to reach 300 goals, joining Mark Scheifele and Ilya Kovalchuk.
Connor also becomes the second-fastest active American player to hit the mark, trailing only Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs (482 games).
This wraps up a mini two-game homestand for the Jets, who begin a three-game road trip on New Year’s Eve at Detroit.
Jonathan Toews recently surpassed the 1,100 game plateau, and provided an assist on Saturday for his 10th point of the season. However, his 5-on-5 play is being punished as he sits -14 on the season. His ice time is also steadily declining, only surpassing 12 minutes once in the last five games.
Defenceman Logan Stanley has had an uncharacteristically good season offensively. His six goals in 36 games is more goals than he’s scored throughout his entire career in 202 games previously.
Remember, tonight’s game can only be seen on Amazon Prime.
The Oilers are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games vs the Jets, but have won their last three contests at Canada Life Centre.

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