Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness didn't mince his words after his team's loss on Monday.
The Manitoba club lost 6 to 3 to the Calgary Flames. After a natural hat trick from striker Sean Monahan, he led by two goals at one point in the first period. Two of his goals were scored with the man advantage.
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“We were up 3-1 on the power play. That was the only reason. It's the worst game we've played all season in a five-on-five system. That's not us. “We didn’t look like the Winnipeg Jets,” Bowness said during the postgame press conference.
The experienced pilot revealed that he intervened in his dressing room after the first third so that his players “didn’t let themselves be deceived by the score”.
“We have never been so meek and cowardly,” Bowness added. Make changes in our pairs [de défenseurs] or in our trios [d’attaquants] wouldn't have mattered at all. Nobody played well except Sean [Monahan] and our guardian.”
Speaking of goaltending, Connor Hellebuyck's streak of games in which he didn't allow more than three goals ended at three. It is the seventh-longest such streak in National League history.
“It’s just disappointing on our part. “The entire team in front of him gave up and he couldn’t do anything,” analyzed defender Josh Morrissey.
The Jets will try to rediscover the habits that have allowed them to be in the race for first place in the Central Division on Tuesday during a visit to the Minnesota Wild at the Canada Life Centre.