The Winnipeg Jets have now lost four-straight games.
They say a little change can go a long way.
But unfortunately for the Winnipeg Jets, playing back at home, wearing different uniforms, and welcoming head coach Rick Bowness back into the fold was not quite enough to shake the team's recent losing ways.
On Tuesday night, the Jets fell 4-3 in overtime at the hands of the visiting Edmonton Oilers, seeing their record drop to 44-22-6 in the process.
The game featured two desperate clubs, as both the Jets (0-3) and Oilers (0-2) entered on miniature losing streaks. Winnipeg's streak would continue, while Edmonton's was kicked to the curb before it hit three contests.
Although there wasn't much going on in the first period, it was a fight between the hulking Logan Stanley and veteran pest Corey Perry that did bring fans to their feet at Canada Life Centre.
Zach Hyman had Edmonton's best chance in the opening frame, while it was Sean Monahan who nearly gave Winnipeg a late-period lead, but his breakaway shot rattled off the post.
The Jets led 13-10 on the shot chart through 20 minutes, but the teams remained deadlocked at zeros after one full period of play.
Things changed drastically in the middle stanza.
At first, it was Winnipeg that came out of the gates firing, as Appleton got his 14th of the season on a rebound play from Adam Lowry and Kyle Connor.
But it was all downhill from there.
The Jets were outshot 19-4 in the frame, and gave up two goals in the late stages.
Moments after Nino Niederreiter narrowly missed the net on a partial break, Connor McDavid took the play back up-ice and helped setup teammate Leon Draisaitl, who put the disc past a sprawling Connor Hellebuyck, knotting the game at ones.
Then, a bad line change led to a perfectly-placed Connor Brown wrist shot, which gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead.
Winnipeg was given a four-minute power play off a high-sticking double-minor, but was unable to even put a single shot on net.
The best part of the period for Winnipeg was a monstrous open-ice Brenden Dillon check on Corey Perry, which led to the second fight of the game.
The Oilers finished the period atop 2-1, while heavily leading the shot chart 29-17.
After successfully killing off two penalties in the early stages of the third, Winnipeg finally gave up a power play goal. With Nikolaj Ehlers in the box on a double-minor high sticking call, McDavid gave Edmonton a two-goal lead.
With the Jets unable to even register a single shot on their four-minute power play, the Oilers scored jus 27 seconds into theirs.
But Winnipeg wouldn't go away quietly.
Scoring twice in just one minute, the Jets knotted things back up at threes with half a period to go.
First, it was Dillon who hammered home a one-time blast, before Monahan redirected a perfect Ehlers shot 60 seconds later. Stuart Skinner denied a third-straight Jets goal moments later, but the damage had been done.
“Yeah, just rip it," Dillon laughed post-game. "Arnie's been really stressing with us as defence to take some more slappers, get it towards the net. I mean, teams are so good at blocking shots these days. And, we've got a big group that when we go to the net, we tell these guys to practice. It's tough to move you. So, just trying to get it on that there, and obviously happy to get it in.”
With 2:06 remaining, Nugent-Hopkins was called for a high-sticking minor, but the Jets' man advantage was once again unable to deliver, and the teams needed overtime to find a winner.
And that winner came by way of Zach Hyman's 51st goal of the season. A Jets turnover in the offensive zone led to the Oilers bringing the puck up ice, and Hyman made no mistake banking home his own rebound 1:22 into the mini game.
"I thought especially tonight, it was a good effort by us, but at the end of the day, we need to get two points out of them," Dillon added. "We just continue to prove to ourselves throughout this year, through now 72 games, when we're on our game, when we’re playing the way that we talk about Winnipeg Jet hockey, we're an elite team. But we're not doing that when we're trying to be fancy or letting our foot off the gas.”
Hellebuyck finished the night with 38 saves on the 42 Oilers shots he faced, while Skinner turned aside 22 of the 25 pucks that the Jets put his way.
Next up for Winnipeg is the second test of the three-game homestand, with the Vegas Golden Knights popping into Canada Life Centre on Thursday evening. That game can be viewed live on TSN.
