from Paul Wiecek of the Winnipeg Free Press,

Give Bryan Little credit.

On a night Little’s Winnipeg Jets teammates — and even head coach Paul Maurice — were talking about moral victories and the pride of effort in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues, Little was having none of it.

"It was a better effort but it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow — we lost again," said Little, who had a goal and a team-high four shots against the Blues on a night he was clearly the best Jets player on the ice.

"But it doesn’t make it better — or make this trip feel better — that we put in an effort. Sometimes, it’s just not enough."

The loss to St. Louis sent the Jets home from a much-hyped four-game road trip through the Central Division a perfectly awful 0-4. Add to that two earlier losses — a regulation loss to Philadelphia at home and a shootout loss to Ottawa — and Winnipeg has now lost six in a row.

So yeah, full marks to Little for recognizing the hollowness of any moral victories and seeing his coach’s post-game comments for what they were — the very best efforts of a man trying to find something, anything, positive upon which he can build a turnaround.

"It was absolutely a bounceback (game)," Maurice insisted. "We needed a better result to feel good about it, but certainly it was there."

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