Yesterday as I wrote a blog about the Jets rough road trip through Alberta and the problems the team is having. Is fatigue one of the key ingredients tot he mixed and ineffective play? The coach thinks so as he gave the team yesterday and today off, time away from the ice and rink to get ready for the next home game come Thursday. There is probably a much needed mental break for the team especially given Patrik Laine's erroneous shot and 'goal'.
However the more detail-oriented fans still continued on about other issues the Jets fave including the roster, deployment and systems. That prompted a really quick poll because of those three issues so much is focused on the defence by many in the fan base. Here are the results, they were surprising at the very least.
If the Jets were to make a trade what do you want back?
— Peter Tessier (@Teddier) December 12, 2016
While the answers are limited in a Twitter poll 56% of 90 voters wanted a 'stay at home' type defence man. What does this say.
There's not analytics to decipher this response but my intuition and year of experience suggest that the fan base is restless with what they see. That's understandable but is adding a stay at home defence man the best solution?
I think some fans may want that because in theory it offer some stability in their minds. They might see a player who can help stabilize the play, bring a level of calm and stop the amazing series of mistakes the Jets make night after night.
Some rest might be of help too, as would a healthy roster and oh yeah the penalties along with player usage. But right now I'm curious about a stay at home defence man.
In theory this kind of player is a some one who does not do much other than help in the defensive zone but what kind of help do they actually bring? The puck needs to get out of that end and into the other end for any defensemen to be deemed effective. Is a less mobile and play oriented player going to achieve that better? I'm not sure that's the right way of thinking.
The other possible answers were 'scoring winger', 'depth forward' and 'anything'. Anything received the second most votes which is oddly curious because 23% respondents felt that option was better than the other three. Anything is a pretty broad response and that is why I put it there. It means enough people felt that the other three options were not a solution but something else was better, then you have the old-school type defence man.
I believe the anything option is the best one because the Jets don't have the option of brining in a defence man right now with Myers likely to be back by January. Why would they? They also don't need a depth forward as they have those now, finally. Nor do they need a scoring winger, they need Stafford to start scoring again.
The solution to what ails the Jets is far more complicated than a player additions or subtraction. That may happen, but it won't be the only thing that can fix what we see night in and out. This is an offence that regularly gets disrupted in the zone exits and neutral zone. It needs system that all players can adhere to each game- this was mentioned yesterday.
The lines need to be arranged for efficiency in gaining offensive position as much as generating offence. It's hard to shoot let alone score when you cannot get set up in the offensive zone. It's even harder when you are on the penalty kill so much too.
The Jets have played the most even strength minutes at 1471.29 so far. They've played the 4th most 4 vs 5 minutes at 181.66 so far. 2nd most 3 vs 5 minutes at 6.85 so far. 9th most 3 vs 4 minutes at 5.02 so far.
They simply play themselves out of games by taking penalties while having the most condensed schedule so far. When you have a young team, need to teach and train during the season it really makes you wonder how they ended up in such a state. The schedule was well known before the season and they could have prepared. That's on the coach and the next topic.