Maurice needs to solve Jets’ defensive deficiencies

Opinion

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This article was published 19/10/2017 (2886 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t leave it to chance on Tuesday, totally dismantling the Winnipeg Jets in every area of the game, winning 5-2 and ending the Jets’ three-game win streak.

After being blown out in the first two games because of atrocious defensive-zone work, Jets head coach Paul Maurice restored order by having his players collapse to the middle of the ice in the defensive zone. Considering what we had watched, I didn’t blame him.

Attempting to establish positioning they could hold — and keep the play to the outside as much as possible — made sense to me, even though it’s not a favourite of mine. Sometimes, drastic measures are needed.

Backboned by stellar play from goalie Connor Hellebuyck, three wins followed.

Let’s throw out the Columbus game and look at those wins and the system.

The problem moving forward is that while certain types of chances against are lessened, it also traumatizes the Jets’ ability to transition and go on the attack, taking advantage of their quick-strike power and high-end talent.

That talent still holds in these low-event games Maurice wants them to play, but to alesser extent as you’re also producing fewer chances to score.

We saw that during their winning streak — the wins over the Vancouver Canucks and Carolina Hurricanes were tight games. The Jets won 4-2 against Vancouver (with an empty-netter) but were outshot 32-20. They followed that with a 2-1 win over the Hurricanes but were outshot 29-21.

Two wins with a grand total of 41 shots (and being outplayed in both games) seems like a tough recipe to equate with consistent future success.

The win in Edmonton to start the streak off was better, outshooting the Oilers 43-39 and outplaying them.

Still, being the better team in only one out of six games has many fans concerned.

If you’ve been reading my column for a while you know I’ve had a problem with Maurice’s systems in the past.

The Jets scored the seventh-most goals in the league in the 2016-17 season while riding a nifty shot percentage (fifth overall).

With their group of young snipers it’s too early to tell if that’s repeatable.

So while I said that collapsing to the middle was a good place to start for the reeling Jets, they need to push that to fuller zone coverage.

This allows players who are battling for a puck to know approximately where their teammates are at all times (they’re each covering an assigned area of the ice). In today’s fast, high-pressured game, it’s a big advantage when you need to move the puck quickly.

It’s also one of the reasons to forget man-on-man coverage ever existed — a pressured defenceman can recover a puck and not realize his partner is covering “his” designated opponent at the point, negating him as an option. Who knows where his other teammates have been led by their checks?

Zone is a preference of mine from playing and coaching when my team had high-end talent and some defencemen on it that didn’t have quick feet in tight, like the Jets.

There are many different tweaks that teams make using it, triggers that cause a reaction from the players. You don’t quit playing defence, but you do need to make good reads.

Coaches choose a system, gambling they’re right. I’d prefer to bet on the Jets’ talented snipers getting more chances rather than depending on the odd break, hoping for the puck to land on the stick of one of the Jets’ gunners in a tight game.

However, I’m watching with great interest to see how this unfolds. We’re watching a coach go against a few things that seem to be necessities to win in today’s NHL.

His player deployment came under question again when he promoted Brandon Tanev from a questionable third-line role to the second line (for the rest of the game) after Mathieu Perreault got hurt in the Carolina contest. This reminded many fans of Maurice’s usage of Chris Thorburn in the past.

While Tanev had a decent game overall, he had a few last year, too, where he landed his blazing speed in the right spots yet accomplished very little overall.

Maurice’s post-game comment about Tanev was priceless when he said his forechecking was comparable to Perreault’s.

Perreault always reads the play extremely well, gets there fast and has a great stick — he’s one of the best in the league at it. Every once in a while, Tanev gets to a good spot.

It’s things like that, his glowing appraisal of Matt Hendricks and seemingly refusing to acknowledge that successful teams run three scoring lines that leave some concerned about his thought process.

There’s obviously a chance his fascination with having defensive guys in the lineup is driven by the unsteady goaltending and poor defensive play over the past couple of seasons.

While understanding the latter part of that, his solutions over that time period have been suspect at the very least. It almost seems like he’s playing not to lose (defence, defence, defence), rather than playing to win.

The problem with defence-only type players is that they spend too much time in their own zone defending, when the best defence is controlling the puck in the other team’s end.

We’ll see what Maurice has up his sleeve as some of his cherished defenders get back in the lineup.

Chosen 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