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Digestion Problems: Jets edition

October 15, 2019, 6:03 PM ET [97 Comments]
Peter Tessier
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • RSSArchiveCONTACT
For those who have their Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday of the weekend you probably had more than your fair fill of turkey given the game the Jets put forth against the Penguins. After finding a way to come back and take two points from the Blackhawks the night before, the Jets served a turkey with extra stuffing at home on Sunday. What is anyone to make of this team?

Well let's start at reality the Jets were unlucky as everything the Penguins did seemed to find the back of the net. The game was relatively even until the Penguins opened up the 4-2 lead in the second and then the Jets poured on the offense and of course score effects come into play as well but for the most part the Penguins got the luck.

Now where the concern should come is the Jets had 9:19 in PP time compared to 3:00 for the Penguins and could only muster 1 goal 9 shot attempts and 5 shots compared to Penguins with 1 goal 10 shot attempts and 4 shots.

The Jets were also without Ville Heinola for the second straight game while the Penguins play a pretty open style the nice tight passes leading to zone exits where missing again, just like against Chicago. The Penguins were also without Malkin and Galchenyuk.

So tonight against the Coyotes what happens? What team shows up and what kind of luck can the Jets make for themselves? Consider the following...

The Jets at 5vs5 had 4.83% shooting percentage that game and .763 save percentage for a 780 PDO. The Penguins shot 26% at 5v5 with .956 save percentage for 1220 PDO. Somewhere in the middle of those two numbers lies the truth, for both teams.

The Jets since arriving from Atlanta are 10-0-0 vs the Coyotes at home and look to build on that tonight while still missing Little (possible Thursday return) Byfuglien and Heinola based on morning rushes. The good news is rookie David Gustafsson finally draws in at centre and the clever Swede gets a chance between Bourque and Appleton on the apparent 3rd line.

Hellebuyck is back in net and the defense combinations stay the same with Bitetto and Kulikov on the bottom pairing.

The Coyotes are a mess with a 1-2-1 record for 3 points. While positive on the possession side the Coyotes do not have much in the way of goal scoring despite the acquisition of Kessel and but they do seem to stop the puck much better having only allowed 5 5vs5 goals so far. In all situation the Coyotes after 4 games have scored 7 and allowed only 7 goals. The simply are not bad but rather boring and that could be the danger for the Jets tonight, who are anything but boring.

Correcting the little problems one at a time is the goal here during this home stand and it starts with defensive coverage. Somehow the reads and the communication have to slowly start getting better if this fire wagon brand of hockey is to cool off.

One other thing to think about is Adam Lowry and his play. Its been shown on Twitter a how much he is tilting the ice when on it- should he get a shot between Ehlers and Connor at some point? What happens when Bryan Little returns too as someone is going to have to move to the wing. Tonight it's time to watch the defense and see what hopefully start to improve and then see what happens should the roster shift come Thursday.
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