Jets Drop Sixth-Straight Game, Fall 5-1 to Paul Maurice's Florida Panthers

On the night where Connor Hellebuyck picked up his first victory in the New Jersey Devils' red and black (a 5-1 win), the Winnipeg Jets gave up five goals in a lopsided 5-1 game of their own against to the visiting Florida Panthers. 

The Jets played some extremely uninspiring hockey, took sloppy penalties and gave up three goals in the first period - all key pieces to their loss to old friend Paul Maurice and his new-look Tkachuk-filled Panthers on Tuesday.

And despite there being multiple very willing heavyweight opponents in the Florida lineup, Tyrel Bauer didn't even drop the mitts. 

Winnipeg has now lost six-straight games and seven of its last eight outings. 

Things do not get any better for the Jets either, who now head out on the road for tests against Eastern Conference juggernauts in Tampa Bay, Florida (again), Montreal (again) and Carolina over the next week. 

“Well, go and get the next one," Dylan DeMelo said post-game.

"We’ve got to move on and be ready for a very strong Tampa team, and be ready right from the get-go. That's all we can do, we’ve got to try to learn from our mistakes here and see where we can be better at. But our focus now has to be on the game in Tampa.”

What is currently a six-game losing streak very well could turn into a run of 10-straight, should the favourites come out on top.

Head coach Scott Arniel also very well could hear his name called by GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, signalling the conclusion of his time atop the bench. 

Yes, it has been that bad. 

Winnipeg's power play went 0/2 on the night, dropping its lowly total to 2/26 in its current dry spell. While Forida managed three goals on the man advantage on Tuesday.

Matthew Tkachuk collected four points, brother Brady had three, while defenceman Seth Jones had three assists in the first period alone for Florida.

Winnipeg got its lone goal off the stick of Adam Lowry, who nearly didn't score. In fact, his pick-pocket play off the stick of goaltender Akira Scmid wasn't originally ruled a goal on the ice, but an NHL-initiated review halted play, to which the Jets' captain was able to celebrate his second goal of the season late in the middle stanza. 

“Unfortunately, we didn’t use it as a good reset," Lowry said of the last two games at home. "The first period, just mental errors. Reads, assignments, penalty kill. We give up three goals in three minutes and obviously, you have to give them credit. They did some right things, but we kind of fed all of that offence for them and kind of continue that in the second and the third. A lot of shooting ourselves in the foot right now. 

Florida scored three times in the first period and added singles in the second and third frames.

Clay Stevenson was lit up five times on 24 Panthers shots, while Schmid turned aside 24 of the 25 pucks sent his way by Winnipeg.

"Whenever you're not getting goals, and not generating the offence that we want, there's some things that we can do better, exactly what those things are, I'm not fully sure, but I think it's just, it's an array of things," DeMelo reflected.

"Full five man units out there trying to do the right things, and I’m sure we'll turn it around. But, we’ve got to stay with it and stay together and not go off script, or iso-ball it. We’ve got to continue to do it together, and do the right things, and that's the only way to turn it around.”

The Jets will now look to turn things around on a gruelling road trip, as they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Panthers again, the Montreal Canadiens and the Carolina Hurricanes, before returning home to face Vancouver next week.