In
31 thoughts this week Elliotte Friedman had some very good information regarding the Blue Jackets. First he talked about the Blue Jackets and Matt Duchene which
I wrote about on Tuesday, and later on in his piece he had some great quotes from his conversation with Seth Jones.
25. One of my favourite interviews was with Drew Doughty in Sochi in 2014, where he admitted it bothered him he’d never won a Norris Trophy. (He got his first in 2016.) It’s something I ask from time-to-time, if awards are a goal. Columbus defenceman Seth Jones admits he also thinks about the Norris. “I do. That’s the goal. I think I have the capability to win one. I hope I’m just starting to grow into the player I’m going to be.” The Blue Jackets are all-in for 2017, and Jones said he understands the next level for him is being a difference-maker every single night. He believes the young players on the roster learned a valuable lesson in the first-round defeat to Pittsburgh. “We caught people off-guard last year. It was the tip of the iceberg for what we can do. But there’s not a Crosby stopper, there’s not a Malkin stopper. What they do is make the timely plays that are the momentum changers in a series. A lot of our guys had no playoff games. I had one series. What we saw is we have to be able to make the plays when needed under the pressure….In the big moment, that’s where the best players come out, and hopefully we find ourselves in the situation, where, in the big moment, we come out on top.”
Jones finished tied for 18th in the Norris Trophy voting last season, with four fifth place votes. He tied with teammate Zach Werenski who also had four fifth place votes. Jones certainly has the talent to win a Norris Trophy but it’s going to be difficult playing alongside Werenski. Those two are going to be splitting Norris votes, and of the two Werenski is the one that will likely be getting more media attention since he puts up the big offensive numbers.
The thing with Seth Jones is much of his impact goes unnoticed unless you watch him game in and game out. He does all the little things that don’t show up in the box score but are crucial to helping the team win. Looking at the work done by Corey Sznajder you can really see the impact Jones has on the game. His skating is ridiculous, especially when he has the puck on his stick. He's so calm and alleviates so much pressure in the defensive zone.
In 21 games that Corey has tracked (which you can find at his site
The Energy Line) Jones successfully got the puck out of the defensive zone 72.1% of the time, third among defencemen behind Werenski and Markus Nutivaara. He successfully got the puck out with possession 56.3% of the time, second behind Werenski’s 58.3%. No other defender was over 50%. His zone entry defence isn’t spectacular but this appears to be part of the system as opposed to poor performance by Jones. All the defencemen allow zone entries at a high rate, what Jones (and Werenski) do extremely well is preventing passing plays, as Corey showed in this graph.
The Jackets defence like to let the puck carrier into the zone and then try and contain him. This prevents defenders from getting blown past for breakaways and 2-on-1’s, and by containing it helps prevent dangerous royal road passes. This system works well for the Jackets as they are able to create turnovers and takeaways and with Jones’ skill he can quickly transition the puck out of the zone.
Jones doesn’t just stop once he gets to the neutral zone, he is spectacular at turning those defensive exits into offensive opportunities and it’s because he can make plays like this:
In the 21 games Jones led all defencemen with 56 zone entries, two ahead of Werenski. 50% of his entries were carry-ins, by far the most among the d-core, the next closest was Jack Johnson at 39.4%. His pass percentage was 21.4%, again higher than anyone else among defencemen, the only one even close was Nutivaara at 20.0%. Jones is incredible at starting offensive plays; it’s a wonder how his on-ice shooting percentage was just 7.33%, per
Natural Stat Trick. That was the lowest among the defencmen with the exception of Kyle Quincey who only played 20 games. Jones’ PDO was 0.994 the only defencemen to be below 1.000. With some better puck luck he should easily surpass his numbers from last season.
On percentages alone Jones should improve next season. By the sounds of it he thinks he has another level he can get too and that should be a scary thought for the rest of the Metro division. He knows he needs to be more consistent game to game. I don’t think people realize what a tough situation Jones was put into last season. It was his first full opportunity to be a top pair defencemen and he was partnered with a rookie. That is not an easy situation for any player regardless of talent. With another year of experience under his belt, and the belt of his partner Werenski we should see Jones take that next step and be more consistent game to game.
With the amount of very good defencemen in this league, it’s going to be tough for Seth Jones to win a Norris Trophy, but he is an extremely important player for the Blue Jackets organization. He may say there isn’t a “Crosby stopper” or “Malkin stopper” but if Jones improves, he has the potential to be that player and that is an exciting thought for the Blue Jackets.
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