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Jets show resilience in 2-1 win over LA

November 23, 2017, 12:10 PM ET [25 Comments]
Peter Tessier
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The ups and downs of the last two games show that the Jets are a better and more resilient team. That sentence is almost like the lead for an essay in highschool or your first year of university. Now the task in the remaining space is to prove that statement. It might not be possible.

The Jets arguably had a tough night in Nashville, at least for twenty minutes, when in the second period they simply let the game get away from them. They gave Nashville 3 straight power play opportunities and which allowed them to score twice. Last night against LA the Jets handed over penalties, some deserved and others not, to the Kings who could only manage one goal in 5 chances. While the penalty differenital is not a concern the last two games the way in which the Jets are taking penalties might be.

What stood out was in the game against Nashville they gave up 9 High Danger Scoring Chances while against LA they allowed only 2. Hat tip to Robert Cleave who pointed that out on Twitter last night.

It was also in that second period where the Jets took the penalties that the best chances came for Nashville. Running the PK unit for six minutes made the line juggling a bit rough and the Preds took advantage of it.

That was not the case last night. The Jets were a matching the Kings in terms of possession and had 8 high danger chances compared to the Kings’ 2. What stood out was how the depth of the Jets may have been their biggest asset and key aspect to the win.

Wheeler, Scheifele and Connor had a hard game having to face Kopitar, Brown, Doughty, Muzzin, Iafallo and Toffoli as their key match-ups as John Stevens designed. The Kings made life hard for the top line but it opened up room for others.

From a matchup point of view Ehlers, Laine, Little, Copp, Byfuglien and even Myers had solid games given who they played against. Even much criticized Brandon Tanev had a strong effort and did the little things to help his team, including a key lie on the ice block late in the third period on the PK.

There’s not much that can be said about Steve Mason that wasn’t said last night on Twitter. A superb effort and showed that he could simply have come back from his first two starts of the season to be a dominant goalie. His positioning was excellent, he did not overreact on plays and the lone goal he was beaten on was a deflection on the Kings’ power play that was virtually unstoppable.

The other player who had a very strong game was Andrew Copp. He was centring the ‘third’ line between Lowry and Tanev and was the one who took the pass from Mason and drove the ice, gaining the zone before Lowry was able to spin and beat a frozen Quick for the opening goal. There was plenty more from Copp too as he had more ice time than Ehler and Laine and deservedly due to how he played.

This line all had increased minutes over their time vs Nashville and those minutes came at the expense of the second line of Laine, Little and Ehlers.

The second line seems to be in a bit of an offensive rut and there’s reason to suggest that they should be split up to generate more offence. What would that look like though? The value of Perreault on the 4th line has been almost unparralleled in Jets history. He has turned that line into a dangerous threat when they get the puck low and is far less the shoot first type that Ehlers, Laine Little trio is. Even though Little is a centre he is also a scorer too and it seems his style would be more beneficial to being back with Wheeler- a fine passer.

Moving Perreault up to the second line would leave a big hole down below but is his level of play something that could kickstart some more scoring?

Ehlers, Perreault, Laine would be interesting but Perreault who can play centre prefers the left wing.

Perhaps simply swapping Scheifele and Little would be a smart temporary experiment?

Connor, Little, Wheeler
Ehlers, Scheifele, Laine
Lowry, Copp, Tanev
Perreault, Hendricks, Armia

Jacob Trouba had a rough night last night. He was fighting the puck, not reading the plays at him well and looking generally confused. In fairness Scheifele was too for much of the game. Trouba was dropped back to play with Ben Chiarot while Byfuglien was moved up to play with Morrissey. Was it a message for the young defender? That’s a good question but regardless it’s nice to see the coaching staff adjust to the game they have in front of them for success rather than to react after it gets out of reach.

Perhaps that was the biggest difference between the two games in Nashville and LA. While the Jets never pulled themselves out of the game in LA they controlled play and adapted to the situations that were in front of them both as players and coaches.

The next game is a weird one tomorrow at 3 PM in Anaheim. The Ducks played Vegas last night and after a lead the Ducks simply collapsed and Vegas tore them apart. They waterfowl are injured and playing some poor hockey. If the Jets are the team people are starting to see them as the Nashville game is a small blip and they can take it to Anaheim just as others have.

Enjoy a great Thanksgiving for all my American readers and friends and remember what makes you great.
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