First off, as mentioned in the comments from the last blog, the Jets won the stats battle on Saturday night but lost the game. Pretty easy to see what happened, it's sort of what the Jets have been doing to their opposition for many of the games.
The Sharks capitalized on some special teams gaffes. They pushed the play when they had a chance and relied upon a hot goalie to keep them in the game. Eliminated two mistakes on special teams and this game is perhaps a 1-0 or 2-0 win. There was lots of to like about the Jets game on Saturday but they are not going to win every game and frankly Martin Jones has been purely sensational at time this season as he was Saturday night.
The Jets host the Wild tonight for their Hockey Fights Cancer evening. If you can get out and support something in some way if you can. There's no one who's family is not touched by cancer in this world.
Speaking of helping, it's no secret now about what local Jets supporter and somewhat controversial Twitter personally @Sadsackjetsfan did after the Anaheim game. Putting words into action after seeing a few tweets about the Ben Chiarot butt end on Corey Perry, Sadsack actually started a Go Fund Me page to raise the equivalent amount to Chiarot's fan. While many, yours truly included, joked that Chiarot did a something many fans wanted to see by injuring the noted cheap and dirty player and a collection should be made Sadsack took it further.
He started a Go Fund Me page with the money raised going to the Winnipeg Christmas Cheer Board. He's gotten a lot of press and the donations have exceeded the fine amount so finally he's put his talent for something good and it's been a fantastic showing of support.
It certainly threw a few people off but if you know Sadsack, or Kyle as he really goes by, you would know that he's not really like his twitter persona. He's actually a pretty interesting and sensitive person, but it did throw me at first.
TFW @sadsackjetsfan becomes the symbol of good for Jets twitter: pic.twitter.com/zj1F0gFEji
— Just Pete (@Teddier) November 26, 2017
If you care, you can still donate and make this a great Christmas for a few more people.
Please support my GoFundMe campaign: https://t.co/TxEvunc0i7 @gofundme@ScottOake @RonMacLeanHTH @DavidAmber @FriedgeHNIC pic.twitter.com/ZttSZCcGBT
— sack (@sadsackjetsfan) November 25, 2017
Back to the issue at hand- the Wild. The come into the Bell MTS Centre just six points back of the Jets with a 6-3-1 record in their last ten games having just lost 6-3 to the Blues. All inter-divisional games are important but right now with Nashville right behind the Jets with the same 31 points but one less ROW (regulation or OT win).
The teams have played each other twice thus far, one game in each city, with the Jets coming out of on top each time. Hellebuyck started both games and will again as Steve Mason has been placed in inured reserve with a concussion following the Saturday game in San Jose.
To replace the injured Mason the Jets have recalled Eric Comrie from the Manitoba Moose to fill the void.
Lines at the morning skate were the same as they were the past games:
27-55-26 81-18-29 17-9-13 85-15-40
44-8 7-33 5-57
The Jets were positive in their approach to the game and looking forward for a chance at redemption versus the result on Saturday. It says something about their make-up and progression when they speak in terms of knowing not that they can be netter following a 4-0 shutout but how and with confidence, not cliches.
In the player/personnel files for the team one has to wonder when Marko Dano will see the ice again. Dan's situation is one not unlike Postma and Redmond before him where he needs the opportunity of injury of another player to open a spot for him. Even then would Dano be Maurice's first choice considering the rise of Jack Roslovic?
For those who don't follow the Moose that closely the Jets' first round pick from 2015, just down below Kyle Connor by 8 spots is tearing up the AHL with 22 points in 21 games. Last year in the AHL, his first as a pro, Roslovic had 48 points 65 games. His skill and development curve is reaching a very steep trajectory and at what point is he left too long on the Moose when he could be having an impact in the NHL?
Using a nice tool called the NHLe- or NHL equivalency you can enter in Roslovic's games and point totals and it produces an estimate for a full NHL season. Right now that translates to 40 points across an NHL season. That's more than Copp, Lowry, Tanev, Hendricks, and Armia and almost matched Little's current pace.
If you want to read a bit more on what NHLe is- start with the original stats Godfather, Winnipeg's own Gabe Desjardins NHLe Primer. To get links to the tool take a look HERE
Without getting deeper into the stats that cause so many debates here there's simply a strong reason to suggest Roslovic, based on raw totals, is ready for the NHL and that his time should come soon. Where does that leave Dano in regards to his spot with the team.
Without diving into a whole bunch of rumours, (we'll save that for another day), is Dano the kind of player that is yet again packaged in another deal as part of something more significant? Letting him sit for so long doesn't help him be the player the team hoped he would be and thus waivers are a terrible thing again. That's likely why Comrie was called up and not Hutchinson as the latter would have to clear waivers to go back to the Moose and there's enough chatter about teams calling on him.
Do the fans see a bounce back game tonight? Does the team respond well or do the realities of home come back and distract from the task at hand?