Balancing Act- the defence
I touched on the defence a fair bit yesterday with the issue of Jacob Trouba being too valuable to trade for the Jets…unless another defence player comes back. Well that’s part of the bigger balancing act the Jets coach and management has to do with the defence corps.
Here is your Jets defence right now.
Byfuglien- right shot Enstrom- left shot Myers- right shot Trouba- right shot Postma- right shot Stuart- left shot Strait- left shot Chiarot- left shot
The Jets are heavy on two things, aging top defence players and defence players with skill who are all right shots. While some will argue the validity of playing the side of your handedness some players have a preference and no matter what, being on the off-side can affect them.
One argument that I agree with is that while the numbers say most players can play either side no matter their handedness, psychologically they may have to adapt or at least need time. It’s the simple aspect of it feeling odd and unfamilliar and adapting to the way the play comes at you and moves around.
In some ways the Jets are not that poor when looking at the structure of the defence if they can overcome the handedness issue. One point I’ve seen made from Rob Cleave is that why worry about where Byfuglien plays as he is usually all over the ice in his own end. While that works for Buff does it work for who he plays with?
While Enstrom and Byfuglien were a solid pairing for the first few years of the Jets, it appears that to find balance the Jets need to ensure that it’s not a Chiarot or Strait type who sits with Buff. It’s Trouba’s turn and if he wants the right side why not let him take it? That’s not to say Buff shouldn’t have it but Buff’s game is suited to some unorthodox moves and we see that a lot. Aside from that, both those two play so well together and make each other better that’s the number one pair or should be.
What about number 2? That’s where the Enstrom Myers combo comes in and that’s okay. While not ideal in the aspect of how Myers reads the play it works simply because the two sizes and skill sets offset the weaknesses. There is such a negligible difference in the positive possession when Enstrom and Myers are apart that neither are benefitted much when away from each other. Unless…It’s with Byfuglien. Interestingly Enstrom and Trouba together are a hot mess.
What about number 3? Here is were the most perilous part of the balancing act comes into play. The choices come down to Stuart, Strait, Chairot and Postma with an outside chance of Melchiori. Most fans would say that Paul Postma is a funny enigma and perhaps one that coach Paul Maurice does not look favourably on when opportunity presents itself.
In the past two season Postma has had 809 minutes of 5 v 5 play here’s the corsi for of his partners when on the ice together.
Pardy- 57.4 Chiarot- 54.7 Byfuglien- 55.1 Clitsome 54.1 Trouba 57.1 Enstrom 61.5 Stuart- 48.5
Now here is the same list when apart from Postma
Pardy- 48.0 Chiarot- 50.5 Byfuglien- 53.4 Clitsome- 52.1 Trouba- 52.9 Enstrom- 51.4 Stuart- 50.1
Only Stuart improves and that might simply be he gets bumped up by having Trouba and that is who Stuart played the most 5 v 5 minutes with in the same time period. What Postma does that seems to be overlooked is he gets the puck out of his end and pushed the play away from his goalie. It’s not flashy, it’s not dynamic but he’s effective. He should be given more opportunity and basically with Chiarot with Stuart being the first to come out of the press box unless a better options arrives.
Byfuglien Trouba
Enstrom Myers
Chiarot Postma
Unfortunately I just don’t expect it to happen but basically looking at WOWYS one can see there’s merit to figuring out how to make this work or studying in deeper detail.