The Winnipeg Jets' second-half slump came immediately

It's become an unfortunate annual tradition: the Winnipeg Jets collapse as soon as the second half of the season arrives. In a severe case of déjà vu, the fallout seemed to come at once.

Airplanes that once ranked first seem to be lost now

The Jets are on a five-game losing streak and don't look like the top-ranked “wagon” in the entire NHL a month ago thanks to a dominant first half.

The team hasn't won since January 20th, and before the All-Star break, the Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins and Maple Leafs fell again. Those losses — two in regulation and one in overtime — were somewhat understandable because they came with injuries to key personnel and at the end of hard work.

What's not clear is how poorly they've played since the nine-day layoff. Coming off a 3-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 6 and a 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 8, the Jets' minds still seem to be on the sunny side of their return; instead of looking fresh and ready for a strong ride, they looked truly complacent for the first time all season.

The defense, the scorers, the special teams are all struggling

The Jets' play has had no edge during their losing streak, and some troubling trends have emerged over the past three weeks.

Their suffocating defensive structure – a structure that led them to post an impressive streak of 34 games allowing three goals or fewer between early November and mid-January – breaks down regularly, yielding an unusually high number of dangerous chances. They have allowed 16 goals in five losses.

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In addition, they've lit four lights in five losses, shutout four of their last eight games and scored 12 goals in their last nine (they went 3-5-1).

Again, the scoring struggles in the absence of Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Villardi may be understandable, but the Jets are not currently with their deepest and healthiest lineup of the season. Scheifele, Vilardi and Kyle Connor are back, and the team added Sean Monahan in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens, who scored 82 points in one season.

The second score is completely dry. General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff worked hard to deepen the forward group during the offseason, and their contributions on the scoresheet in the first half were key to the success. But now the drought is long for many who must be holding the stick tighter than ever. Nino Niederreiter was scoreless in 15 games, Alex Iafallo in 13 games, Morgan Barron in 12 games, Adam Lowry in 10 games and Cole Perfetti in eight games.

It was the Jets one of the best five-on-five teams this season but struggled with special teams. Now that uniform targets have dried up, the special teams shortage will be even greater.

The Jets' hapless power play is 14-for-0 in their five-game losing streak and 1-for-30 in their last nine games. Unlike football, they can't give up penalties, but if head coach Rick Bowness could, he'd probably have his team own the league's seventh-worst power play at 15.03 percent and kill momentum as often as they create it. The power play reached true “unmade bed” status in the second period against the Flyers, when Monahan got back to the blue line, but Kyle Connor and Neil Pionk collided and collided. Shorthanded goal by Ryan Poehling after a few seconds.

Two plays depicting Winnipeg's struggles:

1. Monahan wins PP faceoff. The Jets would allow a shorthanded field goal seven seconds later.

2. Kyle Connor fumbles, passes, no punt for Jets.

— Scott Billeck (@ScottBilleck) February 9, 2024

The penalty kill broke down in key moments. While they picked up all four foul shots against the Flyers — one of the only bright spots — they allowed four turnovers in a five-game losing streak: two in the third period on Jan. 27 against the Maple Leafs in a 1-1 3-1 lead with the Maple Leafs and Brenden Dillon's penalty kick gave the Penguins two goals, turning a 1-0 deficit into an insurmountable 3-0.

A similar slump to last season

As we said earlier, this is not the first time. As the only guarantee in life, you might have to add “Jets second-half slump” to death and taxes.

On January 12th of this year, the Jets sat atop the Central Division and Western Conference with a record of 28-9-4. They are now 30-14-5, third in the Central and fifth in the Western Conference, eight points behind the Vancouver Canucks for first.

Last season, the Jets were in a similar situation: 29-14-1 through January 16th, they sat atop the Western Conference. However, they reverted to their bad habits, going 17-19-2 from there and falling down the standings as a result. They entered the playoffs in just the second wild card spot and were quickly swept by the Golden Knights in the first round. That's when reconstruction and a dramatic change in the outdated status quo seemed inevitable.

Imagine not realizing that these problems are almost the same as last year

— Pete Tessier (@Teddier) February 9, 2024

The Jets also went through a messy and lifeless stretch before the playoffs in 2019, when the locker room was divided — remember then-head coach Paul Morris' “ruffled feathers” comment that some weren't listening to him? — and the work ethic problems that have plagued them for five seasons are beginning to surface. They fell out of first place in the Central due to lethargy and lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in the first round.

The Jets have a chance to prove they are different and stop the slide before it crashes

As a result of their history, most Jets fans – and this author – have been cautiously waiting for another skate to fall, and have repeatedly noted that the Jets have yet to accomplish anything. This poor stretch has once again hurt the narrative of the Jets.

No team, not even the best of the best, can go an 82-game season without struggling at some point, and this is the Jets' first extended losing streak this season. The Jets aren't a bad team all of a sudden, but they're certainly playing like one, and they need to find a way to apply the lessons they learned from last season to nip this slide in the bud before it becomes too long. Cheveldeiff expressed his faith in the team by trading a first-round pick — something he rarely does — for Monahan, expressing his faith and high expectations. They cannot let this season slip away.

Related: Cheveldayoff Believes Jets With Rare 1st Round Trade

Compared to Lowry as the new captain this season, the Jets have appeared more mature and balanced, and there doesn't seem to be anyone rowing in the opposite direction after the departures of Pierre-Luc Dubois and Blake Wheeler. However, according to this author, the feeling of déjà vu did not penetrate the minds of the players as it did in the fans.

Dylan DeMelo, for one, believes the Jets will return to sticking to the blueprint for success that served them well in the first half.

“This is a group, we can overcome difficulties. We feel confident with this. We learn here every day. We will continue to improve. And we're going to get out of this little jam together,” the defenseman said after the loss to the Flyers.

“There's anticipation all season. There's a structure that has dominated when we've been doing this, and we've moved away from that in the last couple of weeks,” Lowry added. “It starts with all of us. There are things we can all personally clean up, and then structurally there are things we can all clean up. I think some of it is ready to go right away.”

The Jets still have runway to correct that skid — a five-game losing streak isn't half a setback, and they still have 33 games to play — and they've built themselves a nice cushion when it comes to playoff positioning. . If they can find the strength of character to get back on track, they should be fine, but with each game they don't, the “here we go again” sentiments in the fan base grow stronger and more justified.