The Winnipeg Jets lost in heartbreaking fashion on Thursday night to the Dallas Stars, and Stuart Skinner didn't hold back.
The Jets held a 2-1 lead over Dallas heading into the final stages of the game. But the Stars struck at the 18:00 mark of the third period to tie things up and force overtime, thanks to a goal from Roope Hintz. To add insult to injury, Hintz scored the game-winner at 3:47 in overtime, nullifying Winnipeg's chances of pulling off a road upset.
Via Robert Tiffin of NHL.com, Skinner made a massive admission, saying, "It's tough to lose that point. Those were big points. It's tough to lose that way, especially like, we felt we had it in the bag going into the 6-on-5, and then they obviously make a couple sweet plays and make us pay. But that's a good team over there. I thought we battled."
The words "we felt we had it in the bag" will linger long after this one. That's a telltale sign of a team that may not have played an entire 60+ minutes against one of the league's most dangerous groups.
In the NHL, no win is guaranteed across an 84-game slate, regardless of how strong an opponent is or how weak a team looks. The 2026-27 season has already shown plenty of examples of that, and the Jets are no exception.
Winnipeg started the season on a tear, going 4-1-1. Since that incredible start, the Jets have fallen to just 4-3-3, losing four straight games. What's worse? The Jets could have won all of them. On Oct. 15, they fell to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks in overtime, before losing by a goal to the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 17. The same outcome occurred against the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 20.
Then on Thursday, they dropped a winnable game to the Stars. Now that Skinner said what he did, it is easy to speculate whether the Jets played down to lesser competition like the Blues and Blackhawks, while making the same mistake they made against Dallas vs. the Hurricanes.
Remember, Winnipeg led Carolina twice before the Hurricanes tied and eventually won the game thanks to Nikolaj Ehlers .
For the Jets, the winning formula should be simple and straightforward: Never make the mistake of thinking the game is over. And if they are playing against teams that are struggling? Never make the mistake of thinking they have an easy opponent.
In a world-class league like the NHL, no game, let alone one-goal games, is over until the final horn. That is textbook and is taught well before anyone wearing a Winnipeg Jets uniform steps onto the NHL ice. While some teams fall behind the eight-ball early and slog through bad seasons, there is no such thing as a bad NHL team on any given night.
Stuart Skinner's comments shed light on the Jets and the mentality they may currently have. To keep it from becoming a recurring theme, Winnipeg must string together a few outings with 60 solid minutes of hockey from the time the puck drops until the final horn sounds.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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