Plenty of blame to go around in Jetsville

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/12/2016 (3193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets just can’t seem to take a step forward without then shooting themselves in the foot.

Following two wins against the Florida Panthers and the Colorado Avalanche, they dominated the Vancouver Canucks in the first period Tuesday and then the wheels fell off in the second and third periods. Here we go again.

While it’s important never to put too much emphasis on one game, the same problems have been ongoing for most of the year.

How can a team be so dominant in the first period and look so pathetic for the next 30 minutes or so? The second period has been a constant sore spot. Why does it happen?

The trouble started when the Canucks switched tactics — clogging up the neutral zone and taking away the middle of the ice in their own zone. The Jets had difficulty making a clean pass to break through it.

I mentioned the Jets’ lack of passing skills in a previous column, but it bears further examination. Often it’s not the guy passing the puck who is at fault, it’s a system failure. If the players aren’t coming up the ice at varying degrees of speed and located in their proper support positions (as per the system) the player with the puck is forced to just try and miss opposition sticks or ends up giving it away. Good neutral zone play requires some thinking of course, and they need to quickly pluck off one defender at a time by having their defencemen engaged in the rush.

The Jets seemed lost at that on Tuesday, and you can point to some other bad second periods and know that they weren’t able to adjust system wise in those either. To be fair, some of the Jets readjustments made in third periods on other nights worked.

So what goes on at the end of the first period when the Jets have played well? Often the message from a coach will naturally be to keep doing what they are doing. I’ve known some coaches that would guess that the opponent will make a system adjustment and proceed with an explanation of how he expects his players to counter that (should it happen) to keep their flow going. If head coach Paul Maurice is prepping them as such then they’re either not listening or are not capable of making the system change. If he’s saying “keep it up”, then they’re not a team that can adjust on the bench (if he’s trying this). It’ll be interesting to see what the coaches came up with for Thursday night’s rematch with the Canucks.

Maurice said the drop-off in play during the last half of the game happened because their intensity faded. This is a tough one to figure out at times — players can be giving it their best but when frustration sets in, their straight-ahead, “react, don’t think” approach suffers as they start to second-guess themselves and what their teammates are doing. They are still trying hard but in a hesitating way.

I believe that’s what happened when the Canucks redistributed their player alignment and started shutting off the Jets. If Maurice wants to see a 60-minute, high-intensity game he’ll need to have his players buying into systems and adjustments during the game — this has to happen as the games heat up in the last half of the schedule, and coaches become more comfortable with their lineups.

One can also wonder whether the second-period collapses happen because the Jets don’t have that killer instinct and get a little cocky and take their foot off the gas pedal. I’m not so sure about that — there are many momentum swings in a game, often in a period. We naturally break them down to that, but in an age of parity in the NHL you’ll see many games with these types of ups and downs. With the Jets’ record, overconfidence should be the last thing setting in. Playing good, familiar teams such as the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues seem to bring out their best games — they know what to expect and are ready.

As you know, I’m not one for excuses, as too often they turn into unwarranted reasons. Some are legit; many are not if you look around the NHL.

My new pet peeve is the reliance by some to say almost everything that goes wrong with the Jets is because of their youth. This is ridiculous — the young guys weren’t the ones taking a stupid penalty late game against the New York Rangers (Drew Stafford) or the many other veteran mental mistakes that have cost goals and games. Stafford’s play has been dismal — one goal in 20 games for a sniper doesn’t help.

Even veterans I enjoy watching have had their moments lately — Tobi Enstrom lucked out when the Jets won after watching three goals go in while he sat in the penalty box and Dustin Byfuglien has had some bad moments, but he’s slowly recovering from far too much ice-time earlier this season. Mathieu Perreault has two goals in 21 games, a long way from what’s expected from both his talent and salary. I expect his production will increase as we go forward.

If that isn’t enough, on defence you have veteran Ben Chariot seemingly unaware of how to play in his own zone — compare that to the excellence of young Josh Morrissey. Do I need to go on?

If you mention Patrik Laine’s and Nikolaj Ehler’s own goals I’ll throw my 100-pound typewriter at you. Take away what they’ve done for this team and the Jets would be in oblivion.

There’s plenty of blame to go around, but please be careful before you dive head-first into a shaky narrative.

Merry Christmas everyone — enjoy the holiday season in whatever way you’ve chosen.

Selected ninth overall by the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and first overall by the WHA’s Houston Aeros in 1977, Scott Campbell has now been drafted by the Winnipeg Free Press to play a new style of game.

Twitter: @NHL_Campbell