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BREAKING
The Winnipeg Jets have signed 2013 first round pick Josh Morrissey to a three-year entry level contract as announced by Scott Brown of TNSE. The contract is for a average value of 1.425 mill per year.
Morrissey impressed many at the rookie tournament in Pentiction and the Jets pre-season camp. He has poise with the puck and incredible instincts through the neutral zone and transition. While he is back with Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL has has been named captain of the team. Morrissey was also name the WHL Scholastic player of the year the past season.
I read Matt's piece and it's a fine illustration of a lot of things done right by Ales Hemsky, a player who has taken more flak than a most soldier's ever see. I don't agree with Matt's conclusions about how that goal came to be but that's aside from the point I'm going to make now.
What I found interesting in Matt's observations about the goal is the criticism put onto Ladd. Yeah he did a full on 2011-12 Ovechkin effort on that back check but he's not the only one guilty of that kind of screw up, especially in a game full of scerw-ups.
Let's take a look at Bryan Little, he like Hemsky did later, came into the offensive zone did some cuts, held onto the puck across the slot before traffic came in front and scored. Sounds familiar right?
So look at how Little takes that pass and waits, letting things unfold around him before he shoots. Go to the 30 second mark of the above video and see the replay looking from a different angle? Oh, who is that gliding back across the blue line on the back check as Little cuts across about 5 feet in front of him? Hemsky.
Nice back check.
Remember that line though Hall, Hemsky and Smyth as that was not their only highlight of the night.
Watch Trouba's goal above. Notice anything similar? Of course you do, it's Hall, Hemsky Smyth at work again, this time it's a doozy.
First off Hemsky picks up the puck in his own end and as he turns he sees Hall in the neutral ice and rather than take a check he flings it up to Hall. I think Hall is a pretty 'aware' player and he knows he's got his back to the Jets defense and has been set up to get creamed should he not be careful. Interestingly it was Ladd closing the gap on him in the neutral ice and Bogosian on his off-side at the blue line.
Hall wants nothing of the physical game(at least I could write it that way to make you think he's like that) and quickly sends a pass across the ice to a streaking Smyth. Well a kid who's nearly young enough to be Smyth's son easily steps up and picks off that pass and boom it's back behind Dubnyk and the game is tied.
The point here is while both teams scored goals that are viewed as exceptional or 'well-played' there was a lot more going on in the play than the individual goal scorer's effort.
For the Jets, Little, Ladd, Wheeler and Byfuglien rolled out a red carpet and did a Keystone Cops routine around it as Hemsky came in to dazzle. As for Little and Trouba's goals had Hemsky skated to back check and decided to take a bit of a bump the Oilers might have won that game. Yes, Hemsky has offensive instincts and skill but there's a reason he has taken all that flak over the years and this small sample of his play shows why he has not won over all critics.
Regardless of these videos and the one on Matt's piece both of these teams have some glaring holes on the ice in terms of how they played. It will be interesting to see which team finds solutions first.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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