Winnipeg Jets Plagued By Slow Start, Fall 4-1 to LA Kings

The Winnipeg Jets experience their second straight slow start to a game and couldn't find their way out of it as they lost to Los Angeles Kings 3-1 on the road Wednesday. It was a rough night for the Jets offence as they severely struggled with generating chances as they finished with 14 shots on net. Rasmus Kupari was the standout player for the Jets although he didn't record a point he drew three penalties including a penalty shot.

The Kings on the other hand were firing on all cylinders with three of their four forward lines contributing a goal. LA's Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, Alex Laferriere all had big nights with each player recording two points a piece.

The Kings started off the game with certainly more jump as they entered the zone with a couple of fast break chances but didn't amount to anything. Their quick play early into the period drew a quick penalty off Vladislav Namestnikov, who has been struggling with the amount of penalties he's been taking as of late.

LA didn't waste the opportunity as they win the face off in the Jets end and work it to the point where Laferriere takes a quick shot on net that Kopitar redirects past netminder Connor Hellebuyck for the games first goal, just seconds into the power play and minutes into the game.

The Jets hopefully can find a solution for their slow starts as of late as they've been outshot 35 to 12 in the first period of their last two games. The second peroid started off with the Jets looking to regain some of the momentum with a couple early chances but the Kings quickly evaporated any hopes of that when they added to their lead.

LA worked the puck in deep where Phillip Danault caught the Jets defence sleeping and had a clear lane to the net. Laferriere finds a wide-open Danault making his way towards the net and gives him a quick pass that leads to a quick move to his backend from Danault. The first shot is saved from Hellebuyck is saved but when no other Jet defender is around,

Danault picks up his own rebound and sqeaks it past Hellebuyck for an easy goal that the Jets could've prevented. Winnipeg needed to wake up and start playing their game and the oppurtunity came when Tanner Jeannot takes a costly slashing penalty and puts the Jets on the man advantage.

Much like LA's first goal, it doesn't take long for Winnipeg to respond as Nikolaj Ehlers finds Gabe Vilardi in front of the net as he quickly peels off from his goalie screen position to make a shot put Kings netminder David Rittich makes a poke check and knocks the puck loose. Vilardi gets back to the puck before a Kings player could and quickly finds an opening on Rittich and fires home the puck to cut the deficit to one.

It woke Winnipeg up as they had a chance in this game and began using some physicality. They were outshot again in the second but the Jets ended off the period much better than the first and had some hope rolling into the third only being down 2-1 and had 20 minutes to tie things up.

The third period was even for the first few minutes with both sides breaking in and out of the zone. It wasn't until six minutes into the period that Winnipeg's luck ran out as a Kevin Fiala shot on net through traffic from the boards takes a fluky bounce off two separate Jets and redirects past Hellebuyck for the Kings third goal of the game and extended their lead to 3-1 with just under 15 minutes left in regulation.

The bizarre goal started to sink the Jets confience as they couldn't register a shot on net for the first 15 minutes of the period despite recieving a power play at one point. Kings winger Trevor Moore almost fired one past Hellebuyck but the puck dinged off the right post and crossbar, flying out of net without crossing the line and entering play once again.

The game was capped off with an Adrian Kempe empty net goal. It was empathic win for the Kings where they showed they have a stellar offence that is capable of backing up their elite defence while the Jets will need to go back to the drawing board.

Winnipeg will need to examine what is causing these ebbs and flows in their momentum as they recorded just two shots in the third period when they needed to be at their best. Winnipeg will look to hopefully get back in the win column on Friday when taking on the Vegas Golden Knights in a Sin City showdown.