Three things - Jets drop second straight to Leafs

WINNIPEG – The Jets played their final game before the player/All-Star break, and they ended up dropping their third straight contest 4-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Dylan Samberg and Mason Appleton scored for the Jets and Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves for Winnipeg who won’t play again until February 6 when they head to Pittsburgh.

SAMBERG SCORES, JETS LOSE A D-MAN

The Jets failed to get one puck past Ilya Samsonov in Toronto on Wednesday. It didn’t take long Saturday for Winnipeg to beat the Leafs netminder as Dylan Samberg scored his first of the season at 4:13 of the first period. Samberg ended up playing 22:44 tonight because for the second straight game, Winnipeg lost a defenceman in the opening period. Brenden Dillon left with an upper body injury and that left the Jets short a key penalty killer. Josh Morrissey missed two periods in Toronto and returned tonight to play a team high 27:40.

JETS LOSE SPECIAL TEAMS BATTLE

Winnipeg missed Mark Scheifele for a sixth straight game but got Gabe Vilardi back after he missed two games. The Jets had three consecutive power plays in the second period and only managed three shots on goal and Josh Morrissey had a great chance and had his shot go wide. Conversely, the Leafs got their first power play of the night in the third and John Tavares deflected a point shot past Connor Hellebuyck to make it 2-1. Later in the third, the Jets got into some penalty problems giving the Leafs a 5-on-3 and that’s where Auston Matthews scored his 40^th of the season for the game winning goal.

“The penalty killing has been outstanding for a while, but again, we had a terrible night on faceoffs. It’s those areas.  Like we’re losing 30, 40 seconds on every power play because we lose the faceoff and they ice it,” said Rick Bowness.

“And we’re spending too much time after losing those faceoffs. And tonight, they’re scoring off them. Again, the penalty killing has been outstanding for a while.”

BREAK COMES AT A GOOD TIME

With the injury to Dillon tonight and Scheifele still recovering from his lower body injury, the Jets roll into the break which will allow some important pieces to heal up and get ready for the stretch run.

“Enjoy these few days, kind of get that mental reset so that when we come back, we really get ready for that stretch run,” said Adam Lowry.

“It's going to be a busy couple months of hockey. We're really excited for it. We've got a great group.”