By the numbers it was ugly for the first game of the Jets depth forward signing this past summer, that being Matt Hendricks. In 4:46 of 5v5 ice time he was a -27.22 in Relative CF%. In PK time with 4:10 of ice he was caved in again at -8.33 with line mate Tanev.
In all situations his cumulative total of Relative CF% was -35.65% It was ugly for Matt, yet there he was in the first intermission giving a great interview. Once that made him almost sound like Reggie Dunlop, a future coach in waiting. He was articulate and honest and a viewer could almost feel his ernest qualities seeping through the screen, right past Paul Maurice holding the cue cards beside the camera.
But looking into Hendricks' time on ice something curious starts to happen.
Hendricks and company (Armia and Lemieux) come on against Cole, Kuhnhacki, Reaves, McKegg and Ruhwedel. His next shift comes on to finish off against Rust, Malkin, and Kessel with Cole and Trotman. Then he gets another quick shift against the same players again. Then it happens again. And again. Then his next shift is back to the McKegg line.
The next one Hendricks comes on the PK but this time with Tanev. That's the same with next shift as well, a PK one. His next even strength matchup is not for awhile when he comes on against Hagelin, Kessel, Rust and then Malkin as Hagelin leaves. Then he gets two more PK shifts agains the top guys too the next time the Jets take a penalty. After that he has three more 5V5 shifts agains the same usual suspects.
In fairness to Hendricks it's not him but the entire line and at 5v5 he and his line mates only had 3 shots attempts against but it was 11-1 against during the PK unit of him and Tanev.
That's playing with fire in both cases. Also not that he only had 4:46 of 5v5 ice time over 9 shifts throughout the game. And guess what, those probably came in 2 neutral zone starts and 4 defensive sone starts. So basically Maurice not having last change threw out Hendricks and company and the Pens loaded up against the line with Malkin and Kessel. Then Maurice got them the hell out of Dodge.
This is the curious part. They weren't sheltered and Maurice clearly had enough faith in the them after seeing Kessel and Malkin roll out each time to keep letting it happen. Again this is not Hendricks fault, he's doing what the coach wants but this is the exact reason that Paul Maurice is being questioned by so many. That's a dangerous game to play with Malkin and Kessel on the ice.
Obviously home ice gives an advantage for changes but there are ways to deal with it and it appears Maurice might not care, or notice. It's certainly something worth watching tonight against Columbus and then at home vs the Penguins on Sunday.
That being said if the Jets are going to use role players in certain situations perhaps looking at the situations in a bit more detail might help. Going forward it will be interesting to see what kind of usage trend happens because anecdotally Maurice loves his role players so now its time to analyze what roles they play.
All numbers courtesy of natural stattrick- thanks!