Jets Come Up Short in Columbus (Jets Blue Jackets)

Jets Blue Jackets

Jets Come Up Short in Columbus

By Wesley Peters

Jan 23, 2020 • 5:43 pm

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The Set Up / Rant

So, the Jets will enter the break losers in their last four, and six of their last seven. Darn. It’s not like the nerds haven’t been saying it all year, but it sucks getting told. The weird thing is hearing all these uninformed “emoters… turn on the coach or upper management for perpetual failure. Two years ago, the team made it to the Conference Final and lost in a series that saw some unreal goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury. Last year, they had a great regular season, and then had the horrible luck of drawing the hottest team in the entire league. The team that would go on to win the Stanley Cup. The Jets lost to the Stanley Cup champs in a six-game series where every game but one was a one-goal game.

This team’s strategy relies on building to a peak year, where contracts are maximized to provide the most competitive team that can be constructed within the salary cap limits. Looking at the roster, last year was the Jets year… until it was the Blues year. Only one team wins. Now management is picking up the pieces, and the pieces aren’t cooperating. Starting with Buff, continuing with Little, and persisting with the entire blue line. This is actually a very interesting and entertaining story. The opportunity to watch a young, mostly homegrown team, battle through unending adversity. I’m no apologist, I’m an audience, and the Jets are excellent theater this year. Just as they were last, but for very different reasons.

So, why is everyone questioning the coach all of the sudden, when it’s the players that are either getting injured, or being asked to play more minutes than they should, against competition that they shouldn’t? I got all day to listen to a coach or an informed hockey person explain how a Paul Maurice directed bench isn’t working, but if all a guy is going to offer is disdain for another individual’s performance, without offering an explanation or solution, I’m out.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Jets come out of the gate following their 8-game break. And with who. But, about last night…

1st Period

…Brossoit got welcomed to the game by a snappy shot snagged with the glove, when Nick Foligno took a perfect pass at the Jets blue line, walked in and let one go. Mason Appleton would continue his solid play of late when, going to the net, he threw the rebound back at the Blue Jacket’s net for his second of the year.

Some more cycling in the Jackets zone produces a second, when after a battle won in the corner, the Jets move the puck to the point for a shot that Kyle Connor deflects in front. That’s 25 for Connor, but he couldn’t have done it without Bitetto and Sbisa. :D

2nd Period

Oops! A minute and a half into the second, Copp gets stick-checked trying to skate the puck out from behind the net. It did not end well. Unless, you’re a connasieur of clinically executed plays of the tic-tac-toe variety. It would be Bjorkstrand finishing the play and causing me to wonder what a strand of Bjorks would look like.

Remaining very much in the building, Elvis “the Merz… Merzlikins, robbed Blake Wheeler on a bull-rush up the middle. The play was reviewed and it appeared as though the puck had landed on top of the back of the Merz’s sprawled out leg. Game of inches they say.

Consistent Connor again making plays, zipped into the Jackets zone, and using Laine as a decoy, stopped up and wristed one just high and wide. This guy is creating multiple scoring chances in every game. He’s already a 25-goal scorer in just 51 games, he’s 23, and Chevy convinced him to hang around the ‘Peg for the next 7 years for 7 schmill and change. Everything about that sentence is awesome.

Jets get another powerplay, and they get another goal. This time it’s Neal Pionk with the powerplay point shot that just finds a way.

3rd Period

The Jets legs would almost entirely give out in the third, as evidenced by the nifty chart below this text.

Not as bad as Kulikov letting a slippery strand of Bjorks by him to seal the deal for Les Manteaux et Bleu.

The Wrap

Look, it’s a crap time of year, and for Winnipeggers and Winnipeg Jets alike. Maybe we should all just breathe, take eight days to see how we feel about things, and then get all pissed off again.

That’ll be Friday, the 31st, at 7:00 PM. Be there or be somewhere else.

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