The Winnipeg Jets secured their 15th win in 16 games with a 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers and were also aided by a poor performance from Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad.
Zibanejad was guilty of a trio of turnovers that directly resulted in goals for the Jets in what was truly a forgettable night for the veteran. Following practice on Wednesday, Zibanejad was upfront and honest about his struggling performance against Winnipeg via Chris Stephenson on X.
“You don’t want to have those nights, but it’s going to happen,” he said. “And it’s just the way you respond from it, learn from it, and move on. I know I can play better. I can bury myself in negativity and make it even worse, or try to learn from it.”
“My job is to play a good game tomorrow. Whether I have a great game, the game before, or a bad game doesn’t change. You’re expecting me; I’m expecting myself to play good every night. That’s not going to happen every night. But just play hard and short memory.”
During the second period of Tuesday’s game, Zibanejad briefly departed and returned to the dressing room before eventually re-emerging.
“I just felt off. I don’t know; I just felt off and needed a breather. And that was it. It was nothing major. So just felt off going into the face-off, and I missed a couple minutes and came back out, finished the game.”
The Rangers host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
Rangers coach Peter Laviolette had a subtle warning toward Mika Zibanejad
While he didn’t directly challenge Zibanejad, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette knows that he can be better, via Newsday.
“There were times where I thought that he was prowling offensively, he was on the attack,’’ Laviolette said. “Like everybody else, we just made a mistake or two at the wrong time, and it cost us. But I do believe that we’re better than what we played (Tuesday) night.
I believe that we can still clean up those things that seem to plague us a little bit in winning a game like last night.’’
So far this season, Zibanejad has scored only twice while adding nine assists; he’s two years removed from a career-best 91 points.
