The Jets outshot the Senators 26-24, but had another 22 shots blocked at Canadian Tire Centre.
Defenceman Josh Morrissey finished with one shot on goal, but 10 shot attempts, with seven of those being blocked.
"I think I can do a better job obviously of getting pucks through," said Morrissey. "We talk about getting it past the first layer at the blue line, the high forwards - and I was able to do that most of the time but their D-man stepped in front of a bunch of shots in front of the net."
Morrissey's adjustment or next game? Make it difficult to stand in front of those shots.
"That's where if you know you're playing a team that does that and that's something they do, then usually a D-man won't step out in front of slap shots or half slap shots, so maybe try to put a little more power behind the shot and get it through," he said. "But credit to them as well and try to be better at that next game."
Natural Stat Trick had the five-on-five shot attempts at an even 33-33 split on Monday, and while the Senators didn't have much for sustained offensive zone pressure, the high-danger chances were 10-2 in favour of Ottawa over the final 40 minutes.
A big part of that were the four breakaways the Jets gave up - clearly an area they want to clean up before Wednesday.
"Three or four breakaways, you're not defending," said Maurice, who said things on the offensive side of the game were a struggle as well. "We had a handful of even strength shots through two periods - that's a tell that we're not driving.
"We were off in just about everything that we did."
Over the course of a 56-game season, or even an 82-game season in other years, the tough nights at the office are bound to happen.
Then, there will be nights when every line and every player is working in unison like a well-oiled machine.
Avoiding the ups and downs that can come with that is important.
"You want to go out there and give yourself a chance to win every single game, and we didn't do that yesterday," said Ehlers. "You can't play 56 perfect games, but you want to get pretty close to that. So, we just have to bounce back tomorrow, we've been able to do that a lot this year. We're looking forward to that."
He's not wrong.
The Jets are 11-1-2 coming off a loss of any kind this season and have only lost consecutive games in regulation once this season.
Winnipeg has also won five of the seven games against Ottawa this season, something Maurice attributes to the mindset the team has in those games.
"One of the things we've done this year well is not disrespect them. They've got good skill and they work hard," said Maurice. "Last night, we weren't good. It was the first game that we played against Ottawa that I felt we weren't particularly competitive.
"They're a good team. If you don't play hard against them, they have a real good chance of beating you."
With 14 games left on the regular season schedule and an opportunity to play in the postseason on the horizon, the Jets are looking to get their game to a place they're happy with by the end of the regular season.
"All regular season you work toward figuring out your team's identity and getting close to a playoff hockey style of game as quickly as possible," said Ehlers. "I think we've improved and improved all season long. That really showed against Montreal. We didn't do that again last night. We have to get back to that, like you said, we want to get there now. We are going to get there now."
