Coming off one of their worst performances of the season, the Winnipeg Jets were hoping for a strong, bounce-back effort against the worst team in the Eastern Conference Thursday night.

Instead, they fell apart defensively in a 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers to further dent their fleeting playoff hopes.

The Jets never had a lead, and Connor Hellebuyck surrendered five goals on only 16 shots as the Jets dropped their second straight. But it’s hard to fault the goalie when three of the five goals were from direct deflections.

“We gave up nine 5-on-5 scoring chances and they scored four goals off coverage,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “It was all coverage, every one of those. Obviously, the tip ins, those deflections, those are getting beat to the net front. They were just coverage. Coverage goals that we have to be better at.”

The Jets outshot the Rangers 26-17.

They traded goals back and forth as the Rangers took the lead four separate times, but New York had three unanswered goals in third period including the empty netter.

“Got to be a little bit sharper and talk it out and know who we have in coverage,” said Jets forward Kyle Connor. “Thought we did a good job offensively, a lot of zone time and holding onto pucks and creating some there. Yeah, for whatever reason, kind of a lack of discipline in a lot of ways in our own zone that leads to some of those goals.”

Connor, Gabriel Vilardi and newcomer Isak Rosén scored the goals for the Jets in the loss.

Rosén notched his first as a Jet, while Jacob Bryson recorded his first point with Winnipeg.

“Getting to know the system more and how we want to play here,” said Rosén. “Yeah, more comfortable.”

The Jets gave up four goals in the final frame and have now allowed a goal in the first two minutes of the third period in five of their last six games.

“It’s been said,” Arniel said. “Be ready to go. Be ready to go. That’s just the focus, that’s a detail. Those are just things that you have to be ready for. As much as I keep saying it, maybe I’ll just say nothing. Whatever, we tried starting different lines, doing different things and it’s sort of backfired the exact same way.”

The Jets also might want to think about putting those Heritage jerseys in storage for the rest of the season as they have just three wins in 11 games when wearing them this season.

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Dylan DeMelo appeared in his 700th career game in the loss.

Things went wrong early for the Jets as Vilardi was called for a questionable hooking penalty just 59 seconds into the game.

It took New York all of nine seconds to capitalize as Adam Fox beat Hellebuyck from the point thanks in part to a drive-by screen from Gabriel Perreault.

A couple minutes later, Rosén sprung Jonathan Toews on a breakaway thanks to a long, yet accurate stretch pass from his own end. Toews tried to sneak a shot blocker-side on Igor Shesterkin but the Rangers’ netminder stopped it with his right pad.

The Jets earned their first power play look of the night at the 11:18 mark of the opening frame but were not able to capitalize.

Not much else happened in a fairly low-event period with Winnipeg managing just six shots on goal to only three for New York.

Winnipeg drew even at the 2:21 mark of the second when Rosén deflected a Bryson point shot past Shesterkin for his first goal as a Jet.

The Rangers responded at the 7:36 mark when Alexis Lafrenière tipped a point shot through Hellebuyck.

New York picked up their second power play of the game just past the midway point of the second, but the Jets had the better chances as Cole Koepke and Morgan Barron both came close to scoring shorthanded.

Winnipeg got back on level ground with 2:11 left in the second thanks to a highlight-reel marker from Connor, not long after he was robbed by Shesterkin.

After New York cleared the puck and changed some of their players, the puck came back to Elias Salomonsson in the Winnipeg end. He sent it up to Mark Scheifele who carried it into the Rangers’ end before passing it cross-ice to Connor.

The U.S. Olympian then toe-dragged the puck through the skates of Fox, a former Norris winner, and faked out Shesterkin before depositing the puck into the net for his 29th of the season.

The score stayed tied 2-2 heading to the second intermission with Winnipeg outshooting New York 9-5 in the period.

Scheifele came within an inch or two of giving Winnipeg the lead in the opening minute of the third when Mika Zibanejad turned the puck over at the Jets’ blue line, springing Scheifele on a partial breakaway. He bore in fast on Shesterkin before firing a shot that beat the netminder but rang off the post and ricocheted into the corner.

That proved costly for the Jets because less than a minute later, the Rangers got the lead back.

New York won a faceoff in the Jets’ end, leading to Braden Schneider getting the puck at the point before sliding it over to Matthew Robertson. He sent a shot to the slot that was steered past Hellebuyck by Tye Kartye to make it 3-2 at the 1:15 mark.

The lead didn’t last long, however, as Vilardi pulled the Jets back level just 3:04 later, collecting a rebound in close and depositing it into the net for his 25th of the season.

The seesaw affair continued less than three minutes later when the Rangers picked up their fourth one-goal lead of the game.

Zibanejad carried the puck up the ice and into the Jets’ end as DeMelo blew a tire in the neutral zone. After several players got a touch on the puck in the Winnipeg end, Schneider sent a pass back-door that Perreault steered into the net to make it 4-3 at the 6:57 mark.

The Rangers grabbed their first two-goal lead of the night at the 11:08 mark. Adam Edstrom collected a loose puck along the boards in the Winnipeg end before leaving it for Conor Sheary. He dropped it to the corner for Vincent Trocheck as Edstrom circled into the slot. Trocheck passed it to Edstrom who took a shot that deflected off the stick of Bryson and past Hellebuyck to make it 5-3.

Josh Morrissey came close to making it a one-goal game when his shot from the slot rang off the post with 4:23 to go.

With 2:15 on the clock, Hellebuyck went to the bench for an extra attacker and Fox nearly hit the empty net from his own end a minute later, missing just wide for an icing to keep Winnipeg’s faint hopes alive.

It turned out to be immaterial, however, when Noah Laba scored to ice the game with 50.8 to go.

The Rangers only managed to get 17 shots on net in the win while Winnipeg got 26 on Shesterkin.

The Jets will be in tough to get back into the win column when they host the league-leading Avalanche Saturday afternoon. Pregame coverage on 680 CJOB begins at 1 p.m. with the puck dropping just after 3 p.m.