Let’s review what kind of scenario the Jets are in right now simply because it’s time for persepctive and a bit of a ‘breeeeeeathe’ moment…or two. Fans are moving into a blame-storming mode and trying to assign fault in hopes that identifying who leads to a fix.
You’ve read it before and you will see it again now, the words ‘who’ and ‘how’ have the same three letters but lead to far different ends. Identifying ‘who’ did something may not change future results but identifying ‘how’ something happened can lead to change. There are exceptions to this practice and those will be explained.
Last night Enstrom was burned on a goal and he took a lot of heat for it. What happened was it seemed that goal justified many fans’ believe that Enstrom is not a good defender and was culpable for the play. He was only to a certain extent though. He had to react to a broken play and cover a 2-on-1 that had little to do with anything he had done.
The puck comes around the boards and up the left side and picked up by the Preds- Enstrom is covering the ice because Buff is caught on the far right and is now hurrying back. Enstrom can’t engage because he’s either going to pinch and give up a break away or more. Did he play the goal well, no but if you watch the play he was left high and dry. To solve these kinds of events the puck has to be kept on net and contained so shooting or passing with abandon and a lack of awareness of fellow players needs to be corrected.
The more egregious error might be a pinch by Chiraot. In fact the way he played the puck was much like how Little got through a check in game one, almost in the exact same spot. Once the pinch failed Arvidsson was ready to roll and had no obstruction to the net or his shot.
Two players were cited as exampled but what’s more important is how these events happened. The corollary to the ‘who’ vs ‘how’ point is that ‘who’ may need lead to ‘how’ but ‘how’ will always lead to ‘who’. In these examples Chiarot is guilty of making a bad pinch and effort as well as those before Enstrom, who was then forced to deal with the mess.
On the final goal in double OT a similar problem happens with timing, awareness and decisions making. Enstrom is down low to pinch along the boards- Turris kicks the puck up past Copp and Esntrom and Roslovic is trying to figure out how to play defense. The linesman is along the boards so Roslvic takes the inside to make a hit, but the puck goes outside as Enstrom races to catch up and Buff looks at the looming 2-on-1. Where’s the fifth Jets forward? Oh he was making a change because he thought the puck was going to stay in the Preds offensive zone. That was the wrong call Hendricks. Game over.
One thing that happened all night for the Jets was they were beaten on the wall either coming out of their zone, trying to keep the puck in Nashville’s zone or in the neutral zone. All night, all game, and no matter who was on the ice. In game one, although a poorer effort from the Jets, they did not have this problem, in fact it was a strength and Laviolette and company seemed to adjust. The Jets did not through the game.
Should we chime on penalties now? One of the other issues was some poor offensive zone penalties and Hendricks (here you can assign blame) was guilty. Some calls are bad, others are awful and some are questionable. If a player puts himself in a position to give the officials a reason to question them, they could get called. If they do it does not matter whether the call is bad or not. Hendricks falls into that category as he took too unwarranted penalties both in the offensive zone. For the Jets though the only penalty that cost them was Little’s who was called for tripping.
There’s a lot to dissect here based on the events and swings of this game but let’s not over complicate what is obvious.
Paul Maurice needs to find ways to tweak his lines on the fly to find advantages. At times he did a bit but not enough. Maurice needs to lean on his best players in the critical times and double OT seems like one of them. Shorten the bench and the shifts and see what can be done. The Jets cannot continue to be out-skated for large stretches. Bring the legs early Tactical adjustments have to be made on zone exists and offensive zone control. The Jets may have won the shot and shot attempt battle but Nashville beat them on scoring chances and high danger attempts. It’s time to tweak the bottom lines of the roster. If no Perreault then go with 17-18-52 and 56-9-13 more skill and less grit because the grit did not help.
A word on Hendricks.
I’m not going to skewer the player for who he is. That’s not his fault but the coach needs to understand limitations and where value lies with Hendricks. Is he a good guy- yes. Is he liked- yes. Does he have experience- yes. Should he be getting regular shifts based on his speed and ability- no. That’s the problem here is that right now Hendricks while valuable in some ways diminishes his value with his on-ice results. That could be said for others too if fans were honest.
The point is that Hendricks is an expendable asset, he’s not Buff who you have to tolerate because he does so much more. Hopefully with a series tied and it now being a best of 5 with the Jets having home ice advantage Maurice looks to optimize based on what he’s seen and what the data tells him.
While Jets fans my be a bit down after an OT loss perspective is needed. The second best team in the league went into the best team’s building and did this:
Out scored them 8-6 Won game one Came back in final minute to tie game 2 Forced a double OT in game 2 Was outshot and outplayed in game 1 Outplayed and outshot them in game 2 Takes away home ice advantage and brings it into the hardest building in the league to win in.
Not a bad result after two games against a Stanley Cup finalist from last year who was built to win it all this year. Get ready Jets fans, its going to get wild in Winnipeg this week.