League-Best No More, Streaking Jets Have Hit a Wall

Head coach Scott Arniel called it "cute hockey." Star forward Mark Scheifele said he and his mates weren't playing "their game." Defenceman Haydn Fluery felt things were harder than they needed to be.

All in all, it wasn't a pretty scene in downtown Winnipeg on Tuesday night.

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Fans flocked for the exits well in advance of the final buzzer of the team's fourth 4-1 loss of the season, third loss in a row, fifth in their last six, and seventh in their last 10 games.

Yes, this is the same Winnipeg Jets team that started the year 15-1-0.

The Jets are now 18-8-0 and no longer hold down first place in the league. As a matter of fact, they aren't even tops in the Central Division anymore.

“There's some mental things that are happening and you go 'wow, where did that come from?’” Arniel said following Tuesday's disappointing home loss to the St. Louis Blues. “It's happening and it's happening at the wrong time for us now.”

Sure, telling any Jets fan back in the pre-season that their beloved team would win 18 of 26 games to start the year certainly would have provided some excitement.

But the way that Winnipeg has played over its last 10 contests adds some serious murk to a once shiny pond.

With the cold weather, that shiny pond has completely frozen over, much like the ice cold play from the Jets' offence.

Injuries have also been a concern, while reigning Vezina and Jennings trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck has seemingly fallen back down to earth following his red-hot start.

“I thought we made the game harder on ourselves then we needed it to be and we paid for it," Fleury said of his team's recent play.

Fleury, who has become a bit of a regular on the blueline following the lower-body injury to fellow defender Dylan Samberg, earned his spot through hard work, determination and some injury luck - or bad luck, as some would say.

Ville Heinola missed a good chunk of time dealing with an ankle infection, stemming from last year's broken ankle. Samberg now has a broken bone in his foot as well, meaning the offseason losses of Brenden Dillon and Nate Schmidt continue to be felt as the calendar hits December.

Coming back home for a rare test at Canada Life Centre following six-straight on the road was supposed to be an exciting homecoming, a rousing and raucous crowd ready for a standout performance. Right?

Not so fast.

Things did not go as planned on the road, and much of that worked its way back on the private charter to Winnipeg for the divisional contest.

And with two more road games before the Jets get a four-game homestand next week, some of these plaguing issues need to work themselves out, and quick.

“The attack mindset is something that we've had for most of the year but now we're deferring,” Arniel added. “We're trying to maybe make one more play. Our D aren't getting pucks down from the top to the net front but also we (aren’t creating) that second chance or getting into that battle to get that second chance."

“You're not going to just get those one-timer situations with nobody standing around you. It's going to take greasy goals, getting inside, deflections, those type of things. Right now… we haven't been able to score as of late, so it's probably going to take greasy ones. It isn't going to take highlight-reel ones.”

Winnipeg re-shuffled its top-six forwards, brought Heinola and Logan Stanley together on a defence pair and scratched veteran Colin Miller for a game against a team that had not beaten a single Central Division opponent yet this year.

Each of those decisions will most certainly be deep-diving topics over the coming week, as the Blues absolutely took it to the Jets on Tuesday.

Scheifele skated alongside Vlad Namestnikov and Kyle Connor on the top line, while scoring the team's lone goal. Scheifele had previously been playing with Connor and Gabe Vilardi - a trio which had no goals since the 6-3 home win over Florida on November 19.

The road trip was not kind to the Jets' top forwards.

Nikolaj Ehlers also went down with a lower-body injury in Vegas, and missed Sunday's test against Dallas, as well as Tuesday's clash with St. Louis.

Youngster Brad Lambert was recalled from the Moose as Ehlers was placed on the team's injured reserve. He did not seem out of place with the big league team and fit well alongside Vilardi and Cole Perfetti on the second line.

Vilardi and Scheifele had previously been swapping centreman roles with the latter clearly nursing some sort of faceoff-impeding upper-body injury.

Despite the alterations, things did not go over well, with the Jets being horribly outplayed, out-hit, out-shot and simply outclassed on the night.

The brightest part of the evening for Winnipeggers was seeing one of their own - Blues' netminder Joel Hofer - nearly earn a shutout in his home province against the team he grew up cheering for.

Next up for the slumping Jets is Buffalo on Thursday and Chicago on Saturday.

“We have to look ourselves in the mirror and really dig deep because this isn’t going to get any easier,” Fleury said.