Extra pass may not always be the best says Jets’ Little

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/10/2015 (3611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets are still working to find that just-right blend of mixing their skill and speed with some of the basics of life in the NHL’s Western Conference and Central Division.

And that means not every play has to build through their own zone and the neutral zone with a series of highlight-of-the-night passes. Sometimes — as the Los Angeles Kings proved in Tuesday’s 4-1 win over the Jets that included two empty-net goals — the simple play is the most effective.

“We can get better through the neutral zone and not try to make that extra pass, especially try to limit turnovers,” said Jets centre Bryan Little after an off-ice workout at the MTS Iceplex. “I feel like right now we might be trying to make that extra pass getting into the zone and turning pucks over, resulting in less time in their end and more time for us chasing the puck around.

“That’s what happened to us in the third period (Tuesday) night. We’ve just got to simplify our game and do what made us successful last year: get pucks in and not try to do anything over the top. I wouldn’t say we had a let-up in the third, but they were just a little quicker than us, a little sharper than us and that’s all they needed. It was a tight hockey game for almost the entire game and they got that last goal with four minutes left. Up until then it was a pretty tight-checking game.”

The Jets have come up empty against two of the heaviest teams in the West in the Kings and St. Louis Blues as tight games unravelled late. Now the issue is finding that right mix of offensive creativity with the basics of gaining and keeping possession in the offensive zone.

“I don’t think anyone is questioning that we can score goals right now,” said Little. “We’ve got a lot of good players that can put the puck in the net. We’ve got good depth in our scoring. I don’t think that’s the problem. We’ve got to get back to that tight defensive game we got good at playing last year. The goals will always come. We need to tighten things up a bit.”

Jets coach Paul Maurice spoke Wednesday of structure and style to the Jets game and how the style part — structure is a team’s basic system — has to be malleable.

“That has to change at times. You keep the foundation of it, but opponents will defend differently,” he said. “They’ll give you pieces of the ice to play on and then take other pieces away. In the third period, especially, (the Kings) won the zone war. They spent more time in our end than we did in theirs and some of the reason is how we tried to move the puck.

“It wasn’t a soft game by any means. The turnovers weren’t casual or high-risk turnovers. They were just things… we didn’t try to take what they gave us, we tried to manufacture. It’s not all bad, either.”

And therein lies part of Maurice’s challenge: the Jets have 29 goals in nine games, right up there with the NHL’s leaders. But the fancy play isn’t always the smartest play.

“You want that confidence,” he said. “We’re not showing video of turnovers of pucks that didn’t get deep with the idea of ‘Hey, we’ve got to dump pucks here.’ We want get pucks deep, we want to spend time in their end of the ice. But we have some skilled players and we want them to make plays as well.”

FYI: The Jets are 4-0-1 when out-shooting their opponents… Thursday’s matchup with the Blackhawks ends a six-game homestand for the Jets. They are 2-2-1 through the first five… The Jets have 65 takeaways this season, fifth-best in the NHL. Mark Scheifele leads with nine… Adam Lowry leads the Jets with 37 hits, second-most in the league to the Islanders’ Matt Martin, who has 47… Nikolaj Ehlers and Chicago’s Patrick Kane were teammates during the NHL lockout of 2012-13, both suiting up for EHC Biel in Switzerland.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait