Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness was not impressed with his club on Monday.
The Winnipeg Jets have been hot and cold for the better part of the 2023-24 NHL season.
Monday's afternoon matchup with the Calgary Flames was yet another perfect example of it.
Pulling ahead 3-1 in the first period off a natural hat trick by former Flame Sean Monahan, the Jets cooled off and watched as Calgary put up five unanswered goals, erasing the deficit and coming from behind to double up Winnipeg 6-3.
"We were up 3-1 because of the power play so, when you take the power play out of that... Yeah. That's the only reason," Jets head coach Rick Bowness said. "That's as soft a 5-on-5 game as we've played all year. That's not us at all, so that didn't even look like the Winnipeg Jet out there. But you know what? You flush it and we're going to get ready for tomorrow."
Sure, the power play did score, and not just once, but twice for the second-straight game, but that was essentially the best part of Winnipeg's game, or first period at that.
"We don't play like that," Bowness added. That's just not our hockey club.
"That's as soft as we've played, as loose as we've played, so yeah. I mean, to shift up the pairings, shift up the lines, it wouldn't have mattered one little bit. We just had nobody going, other than Sean and our goalie."
Unfortunately, veteran bench boss saw it coming from the first period, despite being ahead of his opponent by a 3-2 score.
“Don’t get fooled by the score," was the message he sent his crew between periods. "...we’re not playing that well. Power play carried us there, which is great to see, we need that power play. We’ve said from day one, it would be nice to get those guys together, get them a couple games and see what they can do. So, that was good to see. That would be the one and only positive.”
Things don't get any easier for the Jets, who return home to Canada Life Centre on Tuesday evening for a tilt against another red-hot Western Conference club.
“It’s Minnesota, they just scored 10, seven in the third period against an excellent hockey club," Bowness said. "So, we’ve just got to get back to Winnipeg, hard-nosed, hard to play against hockey. That’s as easy as we’ve played, and as easy to play against as we have all season. So flush it and we’ll get ready to play tomorrow.”
Tuesday's game features a 7:00 PM central start time and can be viewed live on TSN.