Winnipeg Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec reaches back for the puck as Jakob Silfvergberg (33) and Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators press at MTS Centre on Sat., Jan. 19, 2013 in Winnipeg, Man. (KEVIN KING/Winnipeg Sun)
WINNIPEG - It must be awfully tempting for the Jets to chalk that one up to rust, a few new players and a short training camp.
If that’s the case, then how did the Ottawa Senators do it? How did they come into MTS Centre and thump the Jets 4-1? They had the same set of circumstances, and they had to travel.
So you can’t say the Jets lost because of the three factors mentioned in the first paragraph. Sure, they played a bit of a role, but Saturday’s loss looked eerily familiar. The Jets go up first, they give up a couple of goals, and they just can’t respond. It looked a lot like last season.
The difference between the Senators and Jets is Winnipeg will be counting on a couple of new players, Olli Jokinen and Alexei Ponikarovsky, to contribute offensively. Ottawa’s snipers are all returnees, so the new Winnipeg duo gets some time to figure things out.
The only problem is the Jets don’t have a lot of time to stop playing like they did last year. And that’s wh
