The Jets (35-23-1) have now dropped four of their last five. Head coach Rick Bowness said after the loss to the New York Islanders that the game against Colorado had increased importance given how the road trip went.
What he saw didn't measure up to his expectations.
"We were asleep to start the game. No question," said Bowness. "We just got embarrassed."
After Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring just 19 seconds in on a breakaway, the Jets used their first power play chance to tie the game 2:53 later. Appleton tipped home a Nate Schmidt point shot, giving Appleton his second goal of the season.
Blake Wheeler assisted on the goal, giving him 800 points with the franchise.
The tie was short lived though, as 90 seconds later, Mikko Rantanen snapped home his 37th of the season on a long two-on-one, putting the Jets behind 2-1.
"They showed us what the benchmark is, what a team that's won and knows the importance of these games and how to rise to the occasion," said Dillon. "We've got to take the lesson from that."
J.T. Compher then made it 3-1, deflecting a Josh Manson point shot past Connor Hellebuyck with 12:26 to go in the first. Bowen Byram made matters worse for the Jets 3:24 later, as he wired a wrist shot from the high slot just under the bar and in.
Colorado scored four goals on their first five shots, but Bowness wasn't blaming Hellebuyck for any of them.
"I wasn't worried about the goaltending," Bowness said. "Did you see the shots they had? They had all day to shoot."
Kyle Connor had Winnipeg's best chance in the second, as he used his speed to cut to the middle and get around Compher, but his shot off a partial breakaway went just wide.
Shortly after, the Avalanche extended their lead to 5-1, as Matt Nieto tapped in his 11th of the season, converting a centering pass from Compher from the top of the crease with 9:01 left in the second.
Up until this point of the season, the Jets had won the first two match-ups against Colorado, but the Avalanche were out for vengeance on this night.
"Maybe we give their best guys a little too much credit, a little too much space out there," said Appleton. "We got to find a way to smother those guys because with time and space, the best players in the world are deadly. We can't hang the best goalie in the league out to dry."
That was it for the offence on the night. The Jets finished one-for-five on the power play and threw 27 shots at Alexandar Georgiev, but Bowness was left wanting more of a response from his team.
"What we were supposed to do, we clearly didn't do," said Bowness. "If you're asleep, those X's and O's mean nothing. X's and O's weren't the issue tonight."
Next up, the Jets continue the home stand against the New York Islanders on Sunday afternoon.
And Bowness expects his group to rise to the challenge.
"We're a good hockey club. We've just got to respond. It's as simple as that," he said. "It's a matter of preparing to do it and preparing to work to do it because the way we play, you work to get above and all of the other things we talked about in September."
