If you were a hockey fan who watched the Jets and Blues play on Saturday night and then tuned in less that 24 later for the rematch in Winnipeg last night you would have sworn the second game was just a continuation of the first. The Jets came out of last night with a 4-0 win which was double the 2-0 win the Blues had the night before however the play of the game was just as lopsided as it was on Saturday night, all in favour of the Jets.
Over two games the Jets 77 plus 81 (158) shot attempts and 48 plus 46 (94) shots on net. It was total and complete domination and if this were like European soccer the Jets would win on aggregate. That being said a statement was made by the Jets to the third best team in the NHL in that they simply did not care about their standing.
It was similar to how the Blackhawks had come down on the Jets Thursday night in Winnipeg albeit the Jets still won the possession battle that night, just as the did on Monday against Vancouver. What many have wanted to see for some time from this team, was a move from luck driven results to ones guided by strong predictive underlying numbers. Guess what? It's happening.
Within the two games though were some interesting elements around player usage by Paul Maurice. With the Jets trailing in the game Saturday, Maurice went to his un-heradled 'ace' Mathieu Perreault moved him up the line up hoping to generate some offence. Perreault went from 4 shifts in the first to 5 in the second to 7 in the third period. His normal line mate Hendricks went from 6 to 3 to 3. Perreault finished with almost 14:30 in TOI in all situations in game one.
In game two he had just under 11 minutes of TOI in all situations and his shifts went 5-5-7. Not a huge amount of difference other than about 3.5 minutes. Against Chicago he had around 10:45 of ice time in all situations and shifts went 4-5-6. Why in a game that was close 1-0 and then 2-0 against the Blues is Perreault being used more but not in a game where despite a more severe deficit exists and the team playing worse from a possession standpoint?
It's these decisions on usage that has a certain section of Jets fans confused, and rightfully so. It's clear that Perreault playing on the fourth line helps Maurice in terms of his usage and roles by spreading out his talent. But does he use his other lines anymore effectively because of his usage of Perreault? That might be something worth looking at.
The prevailing logic is that Perreault gives a boost to the fourth line (obviously) but also he provides shelter to Hendricks by compensating for his deficiencies. That's not a shot at Hendricks as much as simply reality. He's not the player that his line mates are and that's fine as long as his coach and fans understand that and his positive intangible value also has negative tangible value.
Let's take the usage a step further with Perreault and consider this theory: Maurice believes he can create a mismatch with him in the bottom six and is happy to use him against the opposition's bottom six. In last night's game Perreault played mainly against Thorburn, Brodziak and Upshall but on Saturday he was using Perreault against almost every line, but that could be more to do with who had last change. However, against the Blackhawks at home on Thursday, Maurice had Perreault's line all over the place like Saturday night in St. Louis. Ignoring the Vancouver game and looking at the Tampa Bay game the same thing as Chicago and night one vs St. Louis happened- Perreault's line was all over the place. Against Florida Perreault's line saw McCann, Hunt and Vrbata for the game but again that could be the last change issue too.
There's certainly more to dive into to understand if Maurice looks for certain things to happen with his match-ups either by opposition or within the game. Sometimes he may care and others not but there is a curious use of Perreault and when it works well, such as last night there's no issue but when things go wrong as they have recently then how using a forward who would be top-six on most teams becomes very puzzling.
As the Jets finish up before the Christmas break and then emerge from it seeing how Perreault is used may be something worth following due to his relatively easy minutes and the volume of them. Perhaps there is some method to the usage but right now it seems like there's not a ton of data to suggest any real tactical direction. This might be worth visiting in the future though and certainly worth watching against Nashville tomorrow.