Blizzards, Travel and Momentum for Game 3
If you have been on any form of social media you would know that half of Winnipeg’s traveling sports media is woefully ill prepared for driving in a blizzard but also the Jets and game three of the series might no be played.
Yesterday the Jets had to land in Duluth and wait out a blizzard hitting the twin cities before returning to Winnipeg. They leave this morning, and will miss a game day skate prior to the start of the game, if they can even land.
The twin cities region is expected to receive another 10 centimeters of snow today on top of the 25cm that arrived yesterday. The NHL night have to make a decision about whether it’s even feasible to have the game tonight. The challenge is about fairness yet in some regards the Jets organization is a bit culpable as this weather system caught no one by surprise. The simple question is why did they not leave with the Wild after the game instead of waiting until Saturday?
Mark Spector of Sportsnet just tweeted that they are in the air and that Minneapolis/St. Paul airport is mostly open and accepting lights.
Does this affect the team? It’s a bit of a hurry-up offence but they are used to this thing although landing and playing in the same day is extremely rare. The home-ice advantage just got a little bit better for the Wild and they will need it.
Matt Dumba was not at the skate or available yesterday and Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said he sent him home to rest as he had played 30 minutes the last two games. Actually 30 in game one and 26 in game two but who’s counting. There is belief from members of the Minnesota media that Dumba is injured and should he be out for game three or at a reduced roll Spurgeon and his hamstring is the heavyweight defender on the Wild blue line.
Speaking of blue- the graphic below shows who is dominating and who is struggling. If you see a big blue square when you go along from the name it means the home team player is taking you to the woodshed.
The Jets are making kindling out of the Wild.
And one more to hammer home the point.
So what are the Wild going to do about this? That’s the $64,000 question and as Mike Russo just tweeted this morning it’s the same line up, so what’s going to change?
The Wild need to do three things.
1. Slow down the Jets shot rate.
2. Stop Laine from getting clean looks.
3. Create some havoc in front of Hellebuyck.
How the Wild will do that is another issue but that’s the more granular tactical issue for Boudreau and his coaches. The Wild need to start a more aggressive forecheck on certain Jets defenders, particularly the Myers-Chiarot pairing and to a lesser extent Morrow-Byfuglien. Those two pairs are the ones that are more likely to take risks and make mistakes whilst under pressure. Given that Boudreau will have more control of match-ups on zone starts now it will be interesting to see how he deploys forwards.
As well, he will likely have to ride some players who are having success against anyone on the Jets, that’s if he can find anyone. The Wild have had trouble in their own zone retrieving possession and when they chase the puck/play they have been caught and scored on. The tactic so far has been to try and get the puck and get it out ASAP and while they had some success on Wednesday it was non existent on Friday. The two goals on Wednesday that the Wild had were a direct result of mistakes by the Jets and the Wild being opportunistic in transition. Poof, that was gone on Friday.
The reality here is the WIld, much like the Leafs and Devils and Avalanche are way overmatched in this series. They do not have the depth to execute the same level of play the opposition has and they have not found success in any group of players to lean on them with extra minutes. That can all change with an early lead, or a few mistakes by the Jets, and of course penalty trouble but if Winnipeg stays disciplined and focussed there’s nothing for Boudreau or the players to work with.
If you are Paul Maurice you are using your calming voice today due to the travel and simply letting the players do their thing and letting them find their rhythm before the game now that the routine has been disrupted. Keep them loose, keep them focussed but most important of all keep them aware of what’s working and how to manage the inevitable changes coming.
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