Welcome home Cody Eakin. How could you not enjoy this addition? Especially when considering the cost. A conditional 4th? I do have my hopes it’s a third, because I believe he would be a great fit for this team going forward. The caveat being his willingness to resign in the ‘Peg.
Would he accept that he’s a bottom of the lineup player and take a deal for a lower per-year cost and longer term? Say 4 years at 2.5 schmill, or 5 years for 2? Keep in mind, the Jets are losing a forward to the Kraken in a year, so an extra one signed might not be so bad.
I can also say he has purchased a property at Lake of the Woods near Kenora, but that’s a summer getaway; could we get him to stay?
We got another instant classic from Maurice on Thursday with his coach’s porn comment about Dylan DeMelo. Still, I find getting hot about breaking up cycles and clearing pucks a little weird. Of course, I’m not a coach.
I have to make an admission. Internally, I wondered if Paul Maurice was being too lenient giving the ol’ “burn the tape” routine after some tough losses before the break. Were the Jets, with the number of young players in long-term contracts, fostering a country club type atmosphere? Hmm.
Well, Maurice got the extension and the team gave him the results coming out of the break, and things were looking a lot better. However, both teams today had great afternoon records, both were on playoff bubbles, and both needed every victory they could get.
1st Period
Things got started when Provorov, racing through the neutral ice, rather easily I might add, passed to Laughton in flight, who let it go and gave the Flyers the early lead.
Not a super sexy scene of DeMelo for Maurice to break down later, but not as bad as the Jet forwards Provorov blew past.
Laughton was hot in this one, but man, what a soft defensive play by Scheifele on his goal. Sure, he dropped the shoulder, and he was a little lucky on the finish. Still, Laughton in the slot got it to go.
Laine hit another post, he’s good at that. He’d then make a rare power move and get a shot off on Carter Fart, but hit him in the logo. Ehlers gave us a nifty deflection through the legs, with Scheifele almost tucking in the rebound on the backhand, still nothing was clicking.
2nd Period
Harkins was hustling early in the second and it was good to see on a night where most of the team looked lackadaisical. The kid goes hard and takes nothing for granted.
It was a bit of a boring second, until with 5 minutes remaining some more lackluster Jets’ play, resulted in Couturier finding a loose puck and roofing it.
Wheeler would throw a floater through a screen and off the bar. But it was Scheifele finding Morrissey, sneaking in from the point and slapping it home to get the Jets on the board.
Poolman made a nice play to negate Laughton’s attempt at three. It was nice to witness some defence.
Couturier was good throughout this one. As far as the Couturier versus Scheifele draft pick thing that people talk about, they have different skillsets but are equal as players overall. We would have won either way. Or do you have a preference?
3rd Period
Despite the jets lackluster play, they were up 9 shots on the Flyers to start the period. Were they playing better than it seemed?
All the sudden I’m asking, “what the heck was that”? Replays are good for things like Laine’s 26th of the year. The bomb from his spot on the PP was a surprise to whoever announced this game joylessly. Laine was almost equally as joyless in his celebration. So, perhaps it was fitting, however, somehow the goal excited me immensely.
Thinking about the guys with the call, how did TSN get all the talent? Taking Ray Ferraro and Mike Johnson, while finding Kevin Sawyer. Sportsnet needs to up their game. Well, actually they don’t. Since they own everything except for the last remaining Jets’ games under the TSN contract.
Couturier putting one off the post was pure luck for the Jets, after an onslaught of opportunities should have produced a goal for the Flyers. It was so sad, how after such a long, hard fight to get the puck out of the zone, Connor took a tripping penalty.
The Jets were doing a good job killing Connor’s penalty, it’s too bad a point shot got deflected, going in off Tyler Pitlick.
Pitlick almost had another shortly after, but Hellebuyck was able to make another difficult save. He had to make a number of tough one’s on the night. Or does that go without saying at this point?
Then Van Riemsdyk went end to end and absolutely undressed Kulikov. Too bad for him, he’d wrist it wide. Yikes though Dimitri! If DeMelo’s video is coach’s porn, what is Kulikov’s tape called?
I like that Laughton kid, and have ever since watching him in the World Juniors years ago. But still, like an idiot, he misses the open net and getting a hattrick.
The Wrap
Well that was a game. Were they saving themselves for Buffalo? Ha! When I looked at the schedule initially, I thought this would be the preferred set up. Knowing that a weaker team waited tomorrow, and was also on back to back games. We just didn’t see the urgency and that seemed to be the difference.
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