Monday, October 24, 2011

Game 3 - The Immelman Maneuver

Somehow, somewhere, this team found some heart. They found a way to change course during a game.

This is, as they say, a good thing.

Down 2-0 in the first 7 minutes, Claude Noel yanked Pavelec.  It seemed like a bit of a short hook, and you couldn't really blamed Pavelec for either goal - the first should have been blown dead before the Canes got their fourth whack at Pavelec, and the second was the result of 5 players crashing into the net.


But the swap worked. It woke the team up from what was, to that point, looking to be a repeat of the home opener - bad passes, a lack of energy, turnovers. The whole nine yards. The level of play in that first 7 minutes was just bad.

After the switch, though, the Jets played like they did against Pittsburgh. They made smart, crisp passes. They got pressure on the forecheck. They took the play to Carolina, so much so that the Canes only managed 1 shot on Mason in the last 13 minutes of the first. It also resulted in a pair of goals for the Jets, sending them to the locker room tied.

The second period was a continuation of the first. The Jets were flying, the Canes were on their heels. While the Jets didn't manage many shots, they made the most of them - 6 shots, 3 goals.

Suddenly, the home team was in control. They had a big lead! They were unstoppable!

Until the third.

The last 10 min. of the third period was a return to form. They got sloppy, they got lazy, they took penalties. A lot of penalties. It seemed like they wanted the Hurricanes to get back in the game.

The Jets held on, though. A lot of it had to do with some strong play by Mason, more than the rest of the team, though.

The Jets won't be able to count on this sort of thing regularly though. Noel's patience with a slow start will wear thin, I'm sure. If the team can't find a way to get themselves motivated and moving from the opening puck drop, it will be a long season. The coach shouldn't be needing to be find ways to wake his team up so early in the season. And not this many times, so early in the year. As a team, the players need to find a way to be ready at game time. They can't use the pressure from the crowd as an excuse - this isn't the home opener - we're past that. They should know that the crowd will be there for them, and make life difficult on the opponents (right, Brian BOO-SHAY?). What the crowd would like is a good reason to cheer right off the bat. Come out flying, come out with some energy! Come out looking like you want to be there.

On that note, it looks like Jim Slater might be on the shelf for a while. This is, bluntly, bad. Slater is tied with Wellwood for the team lead in goals. He's been one of the top three players on the team this year. His line has, night after night, been either the best or second best out there. Losing him is a big blow to the team. He brings it every single game, and losing him might take some of the spark out of that fourth line.

Talking about lines, though - as things have progressed, the second line is showing it really has some chemistry going. Burmistrov is great at maintaining possession, Wellwood is just plain puck-hungry and keeping the forecheck pressure on, as well as being a solid two-way player. Antropov just seems to click with the pair of them and - shocking to say - has been seen being a physical presence on the ice.

The first line... wel, Ladd picked up a goal, his second. A nasty knuckleball that bounced right in front of Boucher and then over his shoulder. Ugly, but it counted. The rest of the line has been starting to click and get some chances, but seem to have issues keeping the pressure on in the offensive end. Most of their chances come off the rush, and then the puck will be coming right back down the ice. There is far less cycling of the puck from these guys than the second or fourth lines.

Anyways, the team played hard for 45 minutes, and held on for a win. Let's see what happens tonight when an angry John Tortorella and the New York Rangers come to town.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Game 2 - Systems are go!

So, the team picked up a win Monday night and all was right in the world.

Or was it?

First, let's look at the positives in the game, shall we? The second line of Burmistrov, Antropov and Wellwood played like a top line all night. I've tweeted before about how Wellwood has been looking hungry, and he continued to keep the pressure on. Combined with some nice puck handling by Burmistrov and Antropov (who even threw his body around), the line is really clicking.

The fourth line of Glass - Slater - Thorburn played like they have all season: aggressive and smart. They're giving opponents fits and generating a lot of chances.

The nominal first line of Ladd - Little - Wheeler wasn't as effective as the 2nd or 4th, but you could see they were starting to click, and they had some good shifts that generated some pressure.

The defense? They played some solid D. Even "Free Pizza" Oduya played a sound game and personally swept a puck out of the crease. Byfuglien backchecked. Bogosian cut loose for a beautiful end-to-end rush.

Lastly, Ondrej Pavelec. Wow. He made the saves he should have been making, but more importantly, made saves that he had no business making. Hard to believe this was the same goalie as opening night. He saw everything and stopped it all.

That being said, let's be honest here. Pittsburgh was missing Crosby. And Malkin. And Orpik. And Kennedy. Just about $30 million in salary was missing from the lineup, and that's a lot of talent to go without. Could Sid or Gino have made a difference? Almost certainly. Would it have affected the score? We'll find out in December.

The other glaring issue is that Pavelec had to come up with those big saves. It's nice that he did, but the fact that he was put in that situation means that the team was giving up solid scoring chances, and that needs to change. Teams won't be sitting their top offensive players every night, and top scorers will feast on defensive mistakes. It doesn't help that Ron Hainsey is now out for an extended period with a separated shoulder. He's been a steady presence on the blue line, sporting a +2 in 4 games (second best on the team), and it'd be nice if the rest of the defensive corps could show the same steadiness in their own end.

Overall, though, the team looked good. They were playing fundamentally sound hockey Monday night and were rewarded for it. They didn't try to force plays, they didn't make many bad passes. They were breaking out well and getting some good pressure in the offensive end. They need to build from here and pick up some more points on their road trip to Toronto and Ottawa.

And as an aside, I'm pretty sure Claude Noel is a fan of British humor. The man can deadpan one-liners with the best of them.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Define "fan"

"Once we don't have the unlucky charms like PM Harper and Bettman there to jinx us and take up valuable seats for real fans ... all will be good." said vbmanitoba in a comment published at the Winnipeg Free Press.


Now, I may not be his biggest fan, but lets get one thing straight here - PM Harper is a fan of hockey. He is no stranger to the game, and regularly attends them. I'll go one further and commend him for actually watching the game. He could have spent the game sequestered in a suite, nibbling at the nachos, and talking politics in the back. He didn't. He sat down with everyone else and watched the game. He wasn't a big part of the ceremonies, but, as would be expected, his presence was noted.

Yes, it probably helps that he's the PM and can ask about (and get) tickets much more easily than you or I could. However, if he hadn't shown up, what would people say? That he only cared about Alberta and Ontario? That it showed his indifference to Manitoba?  You can spin his appearance (or not) either way. I'm looking at it from a (strangely) positive light - he came out to Winnipeg for something that we, as Winnipegers, considered a hugely important day. As a city, it enhances the level of importance given when our PM is there for the event.


As for Bettman, i'm willing to bet that even if there was a seat there for him, it was likely in a suite (quite likely the TNSE owners box), and that he probably had enough going on that he didn't get to take in too much of the game. Feel free to correct me, though - maybe he had a regular seat and I haven't heard about it. I suspect, though, with the season starting, multiple sales pending (Dallas and St. Louis, in particular) and the multiple media requests he would have had to deal with, I think Gary would have been a bit too busy to kick back with a beer and watch the game.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Game 1 - Crash landing

Tonight was the night we've all been waiting for - the home opener. The Big Game. The fabled Return of the Jets.TNSE did a really great job of setting the stage - the crowd was raucous when the history clip brought up Hawerchuck, but exploded when Teemu appeared. It'll be interesting to see what happens when The Finnish Flash comes by. Also, how classy was it to let Rick Rypien's mom drop the puck? Just about anyone from Jets history could have been chosen, and TNSE chooses to honor a player who never even played in a Jets uniform.

As with most everything TNSE has done with the franchise, it was a classy, stand-up move.

Which brings us to game time. To say that the crowd was ready for this game is an understatement.

It would have been nice if the players were as ready as the fans. They played tight. It really showed up in the passing: passes were missed, made poorly, or worse, made when they shouldn't have. Captain Andrew Ladd said it best - they weren't making good decisions with the puck tonight. That's bang-on, and the Jets got spanked for those decisions. Turnovers led to Habs goals, and it put the visitors up early. The crowd got taken out of the game quickly, and only really got back into it early in the third when Nick Antropov scored the new franchises first goal, making it 2-1.

And that's when the refs took things back into their own hands. Dustin Byfuglien got called for interference soon after Antropov's goal. To say it was bad is being kind. It was a crap call, and not the first time Buff had been on the receiving end. If a player runs into you and falls down, you are not interfering with them. You're playing hockey. On the first call, Big Buff was chasing his man behind the net - someone steps in front of him, and it's #33 off to the sin bin. The second time was similar - player bounces off Byfuglien, and Byfuglien heads off.

It killed any momentum the Jets had, and the resulting PP goal took the crowd right back out of the game and put the game out of reach.

What could have been a really exciting finish was instead decided by poor officiating. Byfuglien didn't risk the fine by saying it, but it was written all over his face. He was pissed off about the calls, and rightly so.

While we're talking about #33, though - has anyone noticed that although he's eager to join (or lead) the rush, he's slow to get back? When you're playing D, you shouldn't be coasting back when the play goes the other way.

Other notes: Scheifele looked solid with Kane and Wellwood.  Wellwood was looking good, too, actually, chasing the puck down and maintaining possession well. Burmistrov also showed some real skill at playing keep-away when he had the puck. Pavelec looked... well, as much as you can't say all those goals were his fault.... you need your #1 goalie to steal some of those. That's the kind of thing that can turn around a game, or make the difference between golf and hockey in April. Mr. Oduya - repeat after me: "I will look where I'm passing."

It was a tough situation for the Jets to be in. The pressure here, tonight of all nights, was immense. I get that. Maybe Buff is right when he said that the road would help build some chemistry. It better. Right now, this team looked lost and woefully unprepared  for the season ahead.