"It's Water; I Drink it, Shower, Like Everybody Else" - Dubois on Markstrom's Bottle Spray

Wednesday evening in Winnipeg marked a testosterone-fuelled affair with two clubs hungry for playoff hockey. But despite scoring 12 times in the two games leading up to the affair with Calgary, the Jets simmered out to the Flames by way of a 3-1 loss.

After getting out to an early 1-0 lead, the Jets spent the majority of the game on special teams, straying from their game plan.

"We would have preferred to play more five-on-five," head coach Rick Bowness said post-game. "You take six penalties in a game like that, you're shooting yourself in the foot. There's no question about that. So that's what's disappointing."

That was certainly part of the disappointment for the Jets.

Another area of concern was the lack of scoring. 

On one play in particular, three Jets - Pierre-Luc Dubois, Mark Scheifele and Neal Pionk - made their way up-ice on a three-on-one play. And rather than finishing off a glorious scoring chance, all three players ended up crashing the crease, as Calgary took the puck up-ice and scored on a two-on-one the other direction.

Dubois - who last year led the league with 43 minor penalties taken - found himself involved in the netfront skirmish, both before and after the Flames tied the game at the far end of the ice.

After crashing the net, Dubois received a shot to the head, courtesy of Markstrom as he slowly removed himself from the crease. He retaliated with a slash to the netminder's pad before watching Andrew Mangiapane score the equalizer.

Neither player was going to be penalized on the play, that is, until Dubois circled right back to Markstrom as Calgary celebrated. He uttered a few choice words in the direction of the goalkeeper, who in-turn sprayed him with a blast of water from his nearby bottle. 

_{Video courtesy of Sportsnet.}

"That's hockey," Dubois said when asked post-game about his altercation with Markstrom.

"He punched me in the back of the head. I didn't appreciate it. That's it."

When pressed for more details, he mentioned Markstrom's use of the water bottle, which really didn't seem to phase the third-year Jet.

"Yeah, I didn't really care about that," Dubois added. "It's water. I drink it, shower, like everybody else. It's just water. I didn't like the punch in the back of the head."

"It's water. I drink it, shower, like everybody else. It's just water.

At a time when climate change is heating the earth's average temperature at an all-time pace, Markstrom's blatant waste of water certainly drew the attention of referee Jean Hebert, who wasted little time assessing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the veteran netminder.

With no post-game question and answer period from on-ice officials, there is no way to know if Kozari had earth's sustainability on his mind when assessing the minor penalty.

In aiming to put the extracurricular events of Wednesday's loss behind him, the disgruntled Dubois was able to shift his focus to the task at hand: finding a way back into the win column.

"We are still ahead of them," he said. "We still have one game in hand. We could be in a worse position right now, but we’ve got to look forward to the next game.”

And that next game? A test with none other than the Nashville Predators - AKA, the other known threat to Winnipeg's postseason hopes.

Sitting at 86 points through 77 games, the Predators are three points back of Winnipeg and Calgary for that final Western Conference wild card spot. Although having one game in hand on the Jets and two on the Flames, Nashville will need to finish with more points than Winnipeg in order to get into the postseason. Much like Calgary, a tie in the standings is not enough, as the Jets own the tiebreaker.

"The season is not over yet; we have two more big games coming up at home before finishing the season on the road," Dubois added. "We are going to need (the fans) more than ever. We really felt that energy (tonight). There was a great crowd out there and we are going to need them again over these next two games."

Winnipeg faces the Predators on Saturday evening, before hosting the San Jose Sharks on Monday in its final home game of 2022-23. The Jets will then hit the road for Minnesota and Colorado for two tough tests to finish the season. 

"We could be the team that played one more game right now and is still tied," Dubois said, adding perspective to his comments. "The tiebreaker for us is better and we have a game in hand. We are obviously disappointed, like I’m not going to stand here and say that we are happy and thrilled, but we’re still in a good spot being on the inside."