FYI the Jets have officially signed Arturs Kulda to a one-year, one-way pro-rated 550k deal for the final 20 games of the Jets' season.
I’m not going to review the game from yesterday- let’s put it mildly: the effort was not there. However, the loss presents a whole load of other questions, which may help explain some of Coach Claude Noel’s actions/choices in Burmigate.
What is Burmigate?
It’s the ongoing controversy of a benched first round draft pick from 2010 who has what many see as ‘boatloads of upside’ yet find himself to be the lone dog in Noel’s doghouse. It’s created a divide amongst fans and a continued talking point for media as speculation starts to get to uncontrollable levels.
Right now there are a number of people, fans and more particularly online media who are questioning the usage of players by Noel. After the game in Ottawa those making noise got a bit louder and the name they were mentioning was Alexander Burmistrov.
First go back a few days and go to an interview with Claude Noel. One quote, which I have taken from Paul Friesen of the Winnipeg Sun via Twitter is, “It’s not that I don’t trust them. But the games are so close…one mistake becomes the difference.”
Against Ottawa the Jets 4th line of Thorburn, Tangradi & Cormier had a combined 1 shift in the 3rd period. In the Toronto game the same line combo had a combined 4 shifts in the third period. At home against the Rangers it was one shift. Against Toronto on Tuesday it the line had an usual amount of 3rd period shifts with a combined 14 shifts and 8:35 minutes of ice time. That game was also a 5-2 Jets win. The Rangers game was 2-1 until Ladd got an empty net goal and the Leafs game in Toronto was tied for the majority of the third period and went to 10 rounds in a shootout.
So like the quote tweeted by Friesen says and suggests, it’s not that Noel doesn’t trust them, he doesn’t trust them at all in one-goal games. That presents a bit of problem and the evidence may be the performance by the Jets in Ottawa on Sunday evening. They were flatter than the prairie landscape they call home.
This is where the argument for and against Burmistrov gets interesting. Why is Burmistrov, who is a solid possession player:
2nd in team PDO at 1036
2nd in on-ice save % at .962
3rd in on-ice Corsi
3rd in Offensive zone finish
sitting on the bench or in the press box for four straight games?
It’s a tough one to explain because there has been no indication from Noel or GM Kevin Chevaldayoff to explain his absence from active duty. Is it attitude, is it performance, is it both, and something else?
What is becoming apparent is that the group who are taking up the minutes on the 3rd and fourth lines are grinding down. Aside from the great play by Wellwood and Wright in Toronto to get the latter his first goal of the season the play has been relatively dismal from the line and there is no support below them.
Here is where the uproar comes in- why not strengthen the lines and play Burmistrov. His presence on the third line, if he is the good possession player the stats say he is, should push talent down and improve it and the 4th line.
The question then becomes: why change when there was nothing broken? And nothing was broken until yesterday in Ottawa.
When looking back at the game that caused the benching of Burmi, a Sunday game against the Devils, Burmistrov was a –4 on Fenwick until his butt was pinned to the bench beside Montoya.
Every other Jet player with a lower Fenwick score played over 100% more minutes than Burmistrov’s 9:22. Burmistrov did not see the ice in the second period until the 11:11 mark, and after a 1:24 shift he was done for the night. In the first period only 2 of his seven shifts were less than 1 minute in duration.
Another issue is that no one has singled out a particular play or series of events in that game which happened before the benching. He had no hits, no give-aways or shots. It would appear to be general poor play. An interesting point would be that he had the highest average shift time that game. In the preceding three games he was near the top or just below by a second but no Jets player was above a minute unlike the Jersey game where three were averaging one minute or more.
What it says to me is that Burmistrov was not following the plan that the coach had set out in the game against New Jersey. Not only was he not following it, he was not even being productive in the choices he was making, selfish ones or not.
Hockey is a systems game now, players have to play the system and strategy the coach lays out for team and players each and every game. It would appear to me that Burmistrov took chances and risks that were not part of the plan or system and Noel had no choice but to sit him down. More importantly that shift listing from the Devils’ game might explain why he hasn’t dressed for four games.
If he can’t play the system with line mates who rely on his play to set up scoring chances, like Kane and Jokinen how is he to help ones who have to be far more defensively cautious due to their role? It’s why he was not sent down a line or the roster juggled as it made no sense for the coach to play a player who wasn’t following the plan.
If Burmistrov wasn’t going to follow it with Kane and Jokinen was playing with Wright and Wellwood going to make him? What about playing with Thorburn and Slater?
If you look at the Jets record prior to the New Jersey game they were 7-3-0 and whatever kool aid Claude Noel was serving the team seemed to be drinking. I liken the benching to that time when the Millenium Falcon escapes the Death Star and Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are shooting the chasing Tie Fighters. Luke shoots one and yells over to Solo- the response from the veteran smuggler was “Great kid!! Don’t get cocky.”
Burmistrov had a total of 3 points in those preceding 10 games when the Jets went 7-3-0 and was a plus 4. He wasn’t necessarily a liability but he wasn’t scoring either and it appears to me that in a game when the Jets went down two goals early the young Russian wanted to take things into his own hands. You don’t do that PeeWee and you better not do it in the NHL.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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