Odds and Ends on the Winnipeg Jets and the NHL –
Some random facts and a few thoughts about the Winnipeg Jets, the Manitoba Moose, and the National Hockey League.
1. Next mission accomplished. The Winnipeg Jets got their split in Nashville after Connor Hellebuyck backstopped the team to a 4-1 victory in the first game. Based on the overplay in both games, this was probably a just result BUT the Jets had a golden opportunity to grab both games.
2. The Manitoba Moose are tied 2-2 in their first-round series with the Grand Rapids Griffins with the final game being played tonight in Grand Rapids.
UPDATE:
The Manitoba Moose are moving on to the second round after beating the Grand Rapids Griffins 5-1 Monday night. The Moose took two out of three games in Grand Rapids after splitting the first two games in Winnipeg. The Moose now move on and play the Rockford IceHogs in a best of seven series. The seven-game series is a 2-3-2 format with the Moose having home-ice advantage.
Round Two Schedule:
3. Congrats to Blake Wheeler on being nominated for the 2017-18 Mark Messier Leadership Award. The award is presented “to the NHL player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team on and off the ice during the regular season and who plays a leading role in his community growing the game of hockey” as selected by six-time Stanley Cup champion and Hall of Famer Mark Messier. The other finalists are Deryk Engelland of the Vegas Golden Knights and Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers.
4. Since the NHL doesn’t re-seed after each round, why did we have to wait a week for the Nashville series to start? This is why the Stanley Cup goes on until June!
5. I was quite amused by the comments I saw on Twitter about how thin-skinned Toronto Maple Leaf fans are. Every team and/or fanbase thinks they have the best fans in the league and I do think the Jets fanbase is right up there BUT if there is a more sensitive or needy fanbase than ours in the NHL, please let me know.
6. I didn’t comment on Brad Marchand last week because I didn’t want to waste my breath on him but what kind of degenerate licks another hockey players face? Leo Komarov showed great restraint or maybe he was just too mortified to cold-cock him.
7. I dare someone in the NHL offices to tell us again that the standard for officiating doesn’t change much from the regular season to the playoffs! How gullible do they think we are?
8. Priceless moment: The look on Blake Wheelers face when he was called for “goalie interference” in the first game of the series.
9. I think Toby Enstrom has struggled so far in the Nashville series but he was not the reason the Winnipeg Jets lost game 2 in OT Sunday night. There were multiple mistakes on that goal and I understand the need to find a scapegoat but Toby’s pinch was not the problem. That was a standard play by our defencemen. A poor read by the forwards and a bad line-change contributed to the game winner. Buff didn’t play the two-on-one particularly well, Helle got caught moving the wrong way, AND to boot it happened very quickly. Games are decided by great plays and mistakes. We were on the wrong end of that one. Time to move on.
10. It is okay if your goaltender is the best player on the ice and steals a game here and there. PoMo said it best. “Our goaltender gets paid too”
11. Connor Hellebuyck was excellent in game 1 but I thought he was very average in game 2. He still gave the Winnipeg Jets a chance to win and that is all you can ask for. Now its “brick wall” time again back on home-ice!
12. Pet Peeve: I’m amazed how everybody in this town walks on eggshells when talking about Jacob Trouba. Jacob Trouba has been pretty good defensively in the playoffs BUT his decisions with the puck and his lack of physical play have been sub-standard in my opinion. When did he become immune to criticism? I wish observers would watch him with the same set of eyes that constantly critique Tyler Myers and Ben Chiarot.
13. Matt Hendricks caught a lot of criticism after game 2 and rightfully so. Hendricks did a decent job when called upon during the regular season but what I can’t understand is why Paul Maurice has him playing in this current lineup? With the addition of Paul Stastny and the rest of his centers healthy, there is no reason for Hendricks to be in the lineup now. He is too slow for this series and playing Bryan Little on the wing to accommodate him makes no sense to me. When Mathieu Perreault and/or Joel Armia return, this becomes a moot point but in the meantime isn’t Marko Dano a better skater and a better option?
14. PK Subban has become the NHL’s version of the “Teflon Don”. It seems PK can do no wrong in the official’s eyes. I’m okay with NHL officials giving Subban carte blanche as long as they afford Dustin Byfuglien the same courtesy. I’ll take that trade-off any time.
15. I was very impressed with how Kyle Connor stepped up his physical play in the first game of the Nashville series but I was surprised how invisible he was in the second game. I think he will be better back on home ice. I’m not overly concerned because we see this quite often with younger players.
16. I wish the analytics guys would let us know when it’s okay to use Corsi and when it’s not okay when talking about a player. When defending a player his Corsi numbers are often one of the first tools used to make their case BUT when the same player craps the bed the sample size is too small. I understand Corsi and I understand its value but you can’t have it both ways. Can’t we just agree that the player didn’t play well?
17. FYI: Is there such a thing as the Presidents’ Trophy Curse? I sure hope so this year! The first Presidents’ Trophy was awarded in the 1995-96 season and in the following thirty-one seasons the winner has gone on to play in the Stanley Cup Finals eleven times and won the Cup eight times. The Presidents’ Trophy winner has only been eliminated in the first round six times. In the other fifteen seasons, the winner has lost in the second or third round. I would have to say there is no curse but there isn’t an advantage either.
18. Since there is almost no fighting anymore in today’s NHL, it seems cross-checking has suddenly become acceptable. The cross-checking is escalating in every series and it’s getting more and more vicious. Ben Chiarot’s love tap in the Minny series wouldn’t even get a second look right now. Somebody is going to get hurt and Gary Bettman and his minions are to blame.
19. Goaltending:
- Conner Hellebuyck: 5-2 … 2.12 GAA … .928 SV%
- Steve Mason: 0-0 … 0.00 GAA … 1.000 SV%
20. Special Teams after three games: Rule of thumb. Have the two red numbers total at least 100% when added. (as your minimum)
- PP: 6th at 23.50% … up from 6th at 23.10%
- PK: 9th at 80.00% … up from 10th at 76.90%
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Thanks, Mitch
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Corsi for me is a complete joke. Each game is a clean slate. The fact the analytic community thinks this is some miracle stat is laughable. Everyone and their dog knows from taking a statistics class you can make it mean whatever you want. Besides video is way more useful than a stat. They’re always referring to sample size. Teams who use it but don’t use it like the analytic lovers want it used doesn’t mean its terrible coaching. The only time I would accept corsi is if a guy was 33 or 34 years old and you were looking at giving him a new contract so you could use his corsi from his career to help figure that out. Would that be a large enough sample size? Even then I wouldn’t look that hard at it. Each game is a clean slate statistic wise and any players who are checking their corsi to see how they did are kidding themselves. There are WAY too many variables for those statistics to mean anything. I won’t go into the variables. Same goes for save percentage and GAA. No team makes roster moves on stats alone.
Hockey is a tough sport for any type of stat … too many moving parts with multiple situations and different player combos … it makes for fun debate but some take it too seriously
That’s what I’ve said all long. Too many variables to be worth anything. Who you’re playing with, bad goals, good chances, your linemate or d partner screwing up, the list goes on. They always talk about sample size so to me when a player is reaching 30 I think it could be useful for contract negotiations for both sides but that’s about it. To me each game is a clean slate. I had to hear how bad the jets pk was until January when the percentage finally started looking respectable but the issue for the bad pk was the first 2 games. They were pretty good most of the year. Analytics is good radio talk. Sorry Scott! Lol