Winnipeg Jets nearing ‘panic time’ as losing streak puts playoff spot in jeopardy

Daily Faceoff hockey analysts Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli discussed the Winnipeg Jets’ recent slide in the standings on Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live.

The Jets lost (again) on Wednesday, dropping a 4–2 decision at home to the Minnesota Wild despite controlling the shot clock by a 48–23 count.

With the demoralizing defeat, the Jets fell to 2–6–2 in their last 10 games and now sit just four points up on the Calgary Flames for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Plus, the Nashville Predators are six points back with four games in hand.

It’s getting tighter all the time in the West. Here’s what Yaremchuk and Seravalli had to say on the topic:

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Jets dropped yet another game, and another crucial game in terms of where it could’ve put them in the standings. Now you look at the West and you go, you’re only four points clear of the Calgary Flames, and points percentage-wise, the Nashville Predators are right there behind you. They have four games in hand on the Jets and are only six points back. Is it panic time in Winnipeg? Scale of 1–10, what say you?

Frank Seravalli: I would say an 8, teetering on an 8.5. And certainly part of the issue is, you see a game like last night (on Wednesday evening against the Wild), and you’re thinking, ‘OK, this Jets team, their process is there.’ They were peppering the Wild and they were in a spot where they were absolutely buzzing. However, we’ve seen a much larger trend for the Jets that goes back, really, to January — if not early January, then certainly the latter half of January — until now. And that’s a six-week-plus sample size of saying, ‘hmm, there’s some really alarming trends here with this team, in terms of the sheer volume of goals that they’re giving up.’ Prior to right now, earlier this week, they were on a 10-game run in which they had allowed 38 goals against. They’re really taxing Connor Hellebuyck, who is the backbone of that team. […]

I’m not so much concerned about the standings because the Jets are really the only team that can play themselves out of a position. I’ve never really been a big believer in Nashville in terms of being a playoff team but Calgary just has so much work to do to really get itself back in the mix, that I think the Jets really need to take a second, take a step back here, and consider where they are and reboot. I just don’t know how you do that, especially with a really tough slog coming up ahead.

Watch the full episode here: