Strong power play, poor PK

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/09/2011 (5445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s perhaps the biggest question surrounding the Winnipeg Jets for their NHL action-starved fans: Will the Jets make the playoffs?

Any answer at this stage would be a total guess and the road to the post-season will be hard for the Jets as they finished a full 13 points out of the Stanley Cup tournament. That’s a big jump in one season.

The Atlanta Thrashers broke out of the gate last season and opened eyes all over the NHL until a second-half collapse.

Here’s a look at their strengths and weaknesses on the eve of training camp:

Strengths

— Power play: This unit finished 12th in the NHL last season with an 18.3 per cent success rate. Point shots from Dustin Byfuglien and Zach Bogosian and the deft passing of Tobias Enstrom were key. The unit had a hot start before slumping and then finishing strong.

— Goaltending: Ondrej Pavelec was the team’s best player on many nights last season and seemed to have a knack for big nights against teams with firepower, like the Washington Capitals.

The Thrashers were rarely out of games and tied for second in the NHL in one-goal overtime/shootout losses, had six one-goal losses and 14 two-goal losses. They also had 22 one-goal wins of their own.

Weaknesses

— The Thrashers gave up too many shots on goal and that’s never a good thing. Atlanta finished 26th in the NHL last season, allowing 32.2 shots per game. It contributed to a goals-against average of 3.20, 29th in the NHL.

— Special teams are key in the NHL and if a team can’t kill penalties it will lose a lot of games. The Thrashers finished 27th in the league with a 77.5 per cent success rate. A lack of experience in the bottom end of the roster resulted in top-end players like Andrew Ladd expending a lot of energy on the penalty kill.

— Slumps cost the Thrashers a lot of games last year, including a 30-game stretch that saw them go 7-17-6 and fall out of the playoff race.

In the 2009-10 season the club had slumps of 4-11-3 and 4-8-3. They must break this habit if they want to move into the playoffs.

— Defensive lapses or shutdowns. The Thrashers gave up back-to-back goals in less than two minutes on 24 occasions in 19 games last season. It’s one thing to give up a goal but a team must respond and not allow another. That’s a sign of maturity and this is a young team looking to gain the stability that comes with experience.

The Thrashers were 4-13-2 in those 19 games, representing nearly one-quarter of the season. Ten of those games came during the 30-game stretch when they went 7-17-6 from Dec. 21 to March 3.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca