Random Thoughts From Motown Mitch: Mar. 25

Mitch Kasprick is the “Motown Curmudgeon” aka “Motown Mitch”

Odds and Ends, Thoughts and Questions, from this past week in sports – 

Just so there’s no confusion when I’m spewing my bias, I am a fan of the Winnipeg Jets, Arizona Coyotes, Manitoba Moose, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Arizona Diamondbacks, Winnipeg Goldeyes, Toronto Raptors, all curlers from Manitoba, and all Canadian athletes competing on the international stage. 

I am NOT a fan of Gary Bettman or as I call him, Count Chocula.  I am a big believer in the 7Ps.  You’ve been warned.

1.  Jets:  The Winnipeg Jets had a great week going  3-1 and increasing their lead on Nashville by FOUR points.  The key game was their 5-0 win over the Preds on Saturday night.  Their record is 45-26-4.  

2.  Moose:  The Manitoba Moose continued their winning ways this past week with three more wins and more importantly they sit in a playoff position.  This was a pipe dream around Christmas time when they were in last place but the Moose are in the final playoff position with ten games left and have a very respectable record of 33-27-4-2.  

3.  Jets:  After years of not enough wins and missing the playoffs five times, Jets fans on twitter are now complaining about the quality of wins.  How times have changed.

4.  Jets:  Connor Hellebuyck had a terrific week and posted his first two shutouts of the season AND the 5-0 goose egg over Nashville was the sweetest of all.   

5.  Jets:  There are a handful of veteran coaches out there looking for work but I can’t help wonder when NHL teams start knocking on Pascal Vincent’s door.  He has done a terrific job with the Manitoba Moose.  (see #2)      

6.  Women’s Curling:  Chelsea Carey’s Canada rink did the unthinkable and missed the playoff round.  This is the first time in TWENTY years Canada has not been in the playoffs.  What’s even more incredible is that SIX teams actually qualified.  Canada finished with a record of 6-6.  Blasphemy!        

7.  NHL:  With no “free spaces” on the bingo card anymore in the Western Conference the point totals are down across the board.  With Arizona and Vancouver being greatly improved the west is going to be fun in the years to come.    

8.  NHL:  Wouldn’t Jonathon Marchessault and Reilly Smith look good right now on the Florida Panthers.  What were they thinking?  I doubt the new Seattle franchise gets that lucky.     

9.  NHL:  This is an interesting FYI.  As per the NHL CBA, the current playoff format will expire this year but it will probably be extended for another year.  I guess it’s not enough of a hot-button topic yet.     

10.  Jets:  Congrats to Kyle Connor on his first NHL hat-trick.  After having eight two-goal games in his brief NHL career he cashed in on his ninth chance for a hatty.

UPDATE:

Kyle Connor named NHL’s First Star of the Week

11.  NCAA Hoops:  I love March Madness and seeing all the Canadians making major contributions to big college programs makes it even more interesting.  Canada is developing more and more top-flight basketball players, much like the United States is developing more and more top-flight hockey players. 

12:  Curling:  There is absolutely no reason for blank ends nowadays with the 5 rock rule.  In my opinion, if an end is blanked you should lose the hammer.    

13:  Jets:  I’ve always said that the Jets will go as far as Connor Hellebuyck will take them.  I think his two shutouts last week bodes well for “Jets Nation.”      

14:  NHL:  It really irritates me when they call one-handed deke the “Forsberg Goal”.  Jets 1.0 center, Alexei Zhamnov did it long before Forsberg AND he did it on a breakaway, not a penalty shot!

15:  Golf:  Has anybody noticed that when the Golf Channel is broadcasting events on tv they have this annoying habit of never showing the leaderboard?   

16:  Jets:  The Jets have a chance to finish the year with 10 players scoring 10 goals and that includes 3 players with 30 or more.  Not bad. 

17:  Jets:  This is just me thinking out loud so please bear with me but … how would a Jets blueline consisting of Trouba/Beaulieu … Buff/Niku … Josh/Myers (in no particular order) look when all are healthy?  Ben Chiarot/Poolman in the bullpen?    

18:  Jets:  I’d like to see Paul Maurice somehow work Bryan Little into the first unit PP so we could occasionally start with the puck.  I think Scheif wins about one out ten faceoffs in the offensive end on the PP.    

19:  Goaltending:

• Conner Hellebuyck:  32-20-2 … 2.87 GAA … .913 SV% with 2 shutouts.            
• Laurent Brossoit:  13-6-2 … 2.52 GAA … .925 SV%

20:  Special Teams:  Rule of thumb.  Have the two red numbers total at least 100% when added.  (as your minimum) 

• PP:  4th at 25.30% down from 25.60% last week.    
• PK: 20th at 79.70% up from 23rd at 79.30 last week.

If you have any questions for Darryl or myself (Mitch) please give us a shout.  You can use the comment section or use the #ASKWHTPOD hashtag on Twitter.  

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Thanks, Mitch