In the end, the Winnipeg Jets didn’t seem to have the legs to earn a win against the well-rested Seattle Kraken on Sunday night.
With the opening faceoff coming just about 19 hours after the end of the Jets’ 5-1 Saturday win over the Canucks in Vancouver, the Jets did a good job of staying in the fight, but ultimately fell 3-2 to the Kraken.
“Obviously the schedule is tough right now,” Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey said.
“That’s two times we had to play a late game on Saturday night and then come in here and play at 5 o’clock in Seattle. To have that happen twice, against a fresh team, it’s not ideal. We battled hard, both games, and got two points the last time. Couldn’t hang on tonight, but I liked the battle tonight, considering. That’s not an easy thing to do.”
Jared McCann scored the game-winning goal for the Kraken, with 4:32 left in the third period. Seattle trailed 2-1 after two periods, but got a goal just 16 seconds into the third from Ryan Donato and then dominated the rest of the way.
“We were half a step behind physically and then mentally, we complicated the game a little bit,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said.
“When you do that, you’re on your heels a little bit too much.”
“We got it right down to the last five minutes and you hope at that point you can find a way to hang on and we didn’t tonight.”
Jordan Eberle also scored for the Kraken, who improved their record to 17-10-1.
The Jets, now with a 20-10-1 record, got goals from Mark Scheifele and Pierre-Luc Dubois, and a pair of assists from Morrissey, giving him a team-leading 36 points on the season.
“They were flying, we weren’t,” Scheifele said. “That definitely wasn’t our best game and there are things we would have done differently if we could do it over. But we’ve got to park that one and get some rest and get ready for Ottawa on Tuesday.”
Backup goalie David Rittich was the Jets’ best player, making 32 saves, many of them in high-danger situations.
Philipp Grubauer needed to make only 15 saves in the Seattle goal.
There would be some understanding if the players were tired and sluggish, especially since it was the Jets’ seventh game in 11 nights.
But Scheifele had no interest in offering up excuses.
“For sure, that’s a lot of games,” he said. “It’s definitely a lot of games, but we’ve got to be better tonight. We’ve got to find a way to find some energy and be better. We didn’t’ do that, so we’ve got to regroup and be better on Tuesday.”
Even if they were a tired team, the Jets still got the opening goal of the game, on a two-man advantage, in the first period.
After a faceoff win by Dubois, Morrissey made a perfect slap pass to a wide-open Scheifele, who tapped the puck past Grubauer for his team-leading 19th of the season.
It was 1-0 after one, but the Kraken pushed back hard in the second and managed to tie the game on a nifty backhand by veteran Eberle, who went high to beat Rittich.
The Jets got it back on another power play, this time with Kyle Connor and Morrissey providing the assists on the rebound goal by Dubois, who got his 15th of the season.
“Power play looked great, some great plays,” said Scheifele, whose team went 2-for-3 on the power play.
“We executed, scored on the five-on-three early. We would have liked to have a little more five-on-five. That’s something we’ve definitely got to look at.”
Morrissey, who is having by far his best season and is looking very much like a Norris Trophy candidate, extended his assist streak to nine games, a club record for a defenceman.
He has points in 26 of the Jets 31 games this season and now with 36 in 31 games (including 31 assists), he’s on pace for an incredible 95-point season.
“It’s definitely something I don’t take for granted,” Morrissey said.
“It’s a pretty cool achievement. I’ve been saying this all year. You play with great players and you give them the puck. Assists, you need to get them the puck and they need to score. So it’s easy with the guys we have on our team.”
The Kraken tied the game just 16 seconds into the third period as Donato tipped a point shot past Rittich.
The home team continued to be the primary attackers for the rest of the third period and they got the go-ahead marker from McCann with just 4:32 left in the game.
The Jets return home to host the Senators on Tuesday night and finish out their pre-Christmas schedule with games in Boston and Washington on Thursday and Friday.
In other words, things won’t get any easier in the travel department or terms of the busy schedule.
“The most important thing is to try to get some rest,” Morrissey said. “We’ve got another big three in four coming up, West Coast to home for a day and a bit and then out to the East Coast. It’s going to be a tough stretch here, these next three games.”
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