Early in the season, it is important how you play, not just whether you win or lose. When you get late in the season or playoffs, it's all about winning.
Could the Winnipeg Jets have beaten the Philadelphia Flyers at the MTS Centre Tuesday? Yes. Would they have deserved to beat the Flyers? Probably not. It was a heartbreaker, but one that the team simply can't dwell on. What could have been was top spot in the Southeast, but what is most important now is getting ready for Thursday's game against Tampa, the fourth game of an eight-game homestand. (TSN Jets, TSN 1290)
For the third straight home game, the Jets scored first with Dustin Byfuglien's ninth of the year on the power play. When the Jets had the great homestand in December, scoring first was important. It was tied at one after the first with Claude Giroux scoring for the Flyers.
It was a wild second period with Scott Hartnell giving the Flyers the lead with a power play goal, but two goals by Andrew Ladd 1:04 apart gave the Jets the lead once more. Ladd snapped a 13-game goal-less drought Sunday, and with the two in this game, has 19 on the year. It was his eighth career two-goal game. Max Talbot tied the game before the second period ended with the Flyers outshooting the Jets 31-20 after two.
Evander Kane gave the Jets a 4-3 lead at 4:57 of the third and then the Jets tried to hold on. And it looked as though they would do it, thanks do some outstanding goaltending from Ondrej Pavelec, including a save off Jakub Voracek that will be up for save of the year. The Flyers outshot the Jets 18-5 in the third and, as the crowd at the MTS Centre came to its feet anticipating the win, the Flyers got a goal from Wayne Simmonds with 10 seconds left to tie it, sending it to overtime.
With the way Pavelec was playing, and with Ilya Bryzgalov struggling (first three Jets goals on 14 shots), you felt if the Jets can get to a shootout, they could pull this one out. However, a centre-ice turnover led to Jaromir Jagr's record-setting 16th overtime winner and the Flyers had their win. Shots from the start of the third to the end of the game favoured the Flyers 24-6, and overall 55-26. That is the most shots the Jets have given up this season.
On a positive note, the Jets power play went 3-for-3, scoring on the only shot they had on each man-advantage. Going back to the Avs game Sunday, the Jets' power play has now scored on five straight opportunities. Tim Stapleton drew an assist on each power play goal for a career-high three-point night.
It was the third straight game a Jet has recorded at least three points, the other two going to Blake Wheeler. Also, it was the third straight game a Jet scored two goals with the last two games by Bryan Little. Byfuglien now has 11 points in seven games, Little picked up two assists for his third straight two-point game, giving him 7-3-10 in the last 10 games.
Giroux had 10 shots on goal, James Van Riemsdyk seven, showing the Jets were not as good defensively as they needed to be.
Players viewed this in different ways. "They threw a lot at the net, so shots were misleading. Tough loss and you feel for Pav. He was great," said Kane. From Wheeler, "we let it slip away with nine seconds, after Pav was terrific. It's disappointing. Something's not acceptable on our part considering what was at stake." Stapleton felt the power play did some good things, "but there was a lack of defensive coverage. We are a better defensive team than we showed. We're better than that."
As for head coach Claude Noel, it's back to what we mentioned off the top. "I will not pound on my players over this one. Disappointed we lost, happy with the point. Pavelec was the best player on the ice. Did we deserve two points, you can be the judge of that," said the coach in his post-game news conference. "They make a lot of great plays, but we didn't defend as well as we can. We'll take the positives. Three power play goals, seven points out of the last eight, I was very impressed with Pav. We don't want to get too demoralized. Recovering from this is not an issue. We have another game Thursday and we'll focus on that."
Zach Bogosian was again out of the lineup with an upper-body injury, while Antti Miettinen and Mark Flood were healthy scratches.