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Hayes gets on board in 5-3 win over Preds |
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So I'm back. Was a away for a few days doing some needed R&R up in god's country on snowmobiles. So anyone who know what's that's like knows I'm still recovering and need more R&R.
The Jets had a bit of time between games after the disappointing loss to Minnesota to work on a few things and last night, at times it seems there was success but in the end, the big picture there are still troubling issues that do little to raise confidence in this team.
Before jumping all over 'negative Pete' let's look at some of the positive as there were a few. The CPR line of Copp Perreault and Roslovic was a handful for the Peds and generally made life a mess for them when on for their 8:36 of 5v5 ice time. If the coach can see some benefit there hopefully he can bump up those minutes a bit as the goals will come.
Connor, Hayes and Ehlers were also fantastic as the new kid, Hayes, fit in well and managed to have a 3 point night with a empty-net goal and 2 assists. The pressure, the control and chances were all there and hopefully that can grow into something.
Jacob Trouba, despite his brain fart in the behind the back no look pass to the front of the net, had a solid game and led all defence in 5v5 ice time. Praise also has to go to Sami Niku who had an excellent game of controlling play through neutral zone and with zone entries. It can be seen now that once Niku gains experience to see habits and tendencies of more NHL players he's going to be a royal pain in the offensive zone. His board work needs some cleaning up as he seemed a bit tentative playing along the boards to corral pucks and stop them.
Now the troubling and this is not so much something that can't be fixed but needs to be understood by the coach(es). Kulikov and Myers, while steady for awhile is falling apart. To compound the pair's struggles is the alignment with forward lines. Last night the defence pair was on the ice for 33 and 31 shot attempts and for actual shots on net 20 and 19. No other players aside from Laine Scheifele and Wheeler (Little too) had more than 10. That's also where the deployment/assignment struggles come in- often Kulikov and Myers were out with Wheeler's line and the results were chaos- the numbers speak for themselves.
So when looking at TOI at 5v5 with the Kulikov Myers pair what happens is that the forwards are really only trying to contain the chaos and not get burned. There's a stark difference between the pair with the #1 line vs others. Consider the Trouba Beaulieu pairing. When out with the top line for the 6 minutes of 5v5 ice, the shots attempts against were 6 against and 4 for. When Myers Kulikov are out then the shots attempts against are 13, 11, 11, while the attempts for were 3, 3, 3.
Take the pair of Chiarot Niku who only had 1 minute of TOI with the #1 line and no more than 5 mins with any of the others aside from 7 mins with Perreault. They were used sparingly and perhaps sheltered, but maybe not when they faced the Arvidsson, Johansen, Forsberg line the most, which says something about either necessity or trust. Deployment might be linked to special teams too and when either a PK or PP happened neither Niku or Bealieu saw time. It also meant they were coming on in certain yet specific areas and matchups. The downside is that much more responsibility is being assigned to a pair that clearly struggles in certain situations.
In the end though, a goalie made the timely saves, the Jets scored some timely goals, namely the Blake Wheeler go ahead goal, and the Jet won. They needed to win but they also need to build on the new roster and modified won with Buff and Morrissey out. There were some steps but it's time the coach optimize his deployments and put some faith in others.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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