Big Ups And Let Downs: Jets 1.0 Still Can’t Win In Winnipeg

For as much fun nostalgia as the Winnipeg Jets 1.0 era brings up when you mention it to a Winnipeg hockey fan, it’s maybe important to remember that there wasn’t a whole lot of winning back then. Sure, we can fool ourselves into thinking there would have been more winning had it not been for Gretzky and his Edmonton Oilers, but the fact remains that in 17 seasons, the team made the playoffs (sometimes barely) in 11 of those seasons and advanced past the first round just once.

So it goes, the old Jets now Coyotes still struggle in Winnipeg.

In fact in ten games played in Winnipeg, the Coyotes have yet to win a game against the old Atlanta Thrashers rechristened new Jets.

So while you may long to remember the old Jets of the 80’s and 90’s, lets be thankful it’s the new Jets we have.

Josh Morrissey, Mathieu Perreault and Tyler Myers all got their first goals of the season against the Coyotes. Perreault’s goal came a day after he made some interesting comments about playing time as it regarded his fourth line with Jack Roslovic and Brendan Lemieux (and before that Kristian Vesalainen) and is hopefully the kick start of a nice run for him and his line. Josh Morrissey’s goal came on the power play and it looks like he’ll be kept on that first power play unit for a while now. Tyler Myers’ goal was a pleasant surprise and a very nice shot that went top corner. Myers once he’s in the offensive zone is capable enough, it’s just other parts of the game that are super frustrating as I’ll get into in a moment…

That early Dustin Byfuglien injury may have been a blessing in disguise. With Buff out for two games, it forced Maurice to put either Trouba or Morrissey into Buff’s spot in the top PP unit and he settled on Morrissey and got some pretty decent results, enough so that with Dustin’s return, he was put on the second power play unit and suddenly we had a bunch of eureka moments.

Josh Morrissey was outstanding as a power play quarterback for the Prince Albert Raiders in the WHL and even did some work for Canada’s team at the 2014 and 2015 World Juniors. In short Morrissey is an outstanding puck mover and can distribute things well. If Blake Wheeler is going to be the “point” guy on the right side, Morrissey will make for a nice second option to handle and control the puck in case things get a little two crazy down low. And as we saw, he can also hammer a puck with the best of them.

In Byfuglien, the second power play unit – which had an embarrassment of riches in terms of puck movement but no real shooters – gets it’s big shot that teams have to respect, in turn giving players down low a bit more room to Nic Ehlers and Bryan Little who aren’t the greatest finishers on the team, but can at least benefit from the extra space.

It really is one of those “why didn’t they do this sooner” type deals for the Jets when you think about it, and then see it in action on the ice where the second unit now with Byfuglien looked especially deadly and had all kinds of shots on Coyotes goalie Antti Raanta.

I feel by themselves, Joe Morrow and Tyler Myers are fine, serviceable defensemen. Yes they have short comings, but when paired with the right partner, they should look very capable on the ice.

Together though? Together they’ve been awful.

The last three games Myers and Morrow have been paired together have been very telling in terms of the scoring chances they’ve given up together and yesterday was especially bad. According to NaturalStatTrick.com Myers and Morrow played 12:28 together and gave up 10 scoring chances against, seven of those listed as high danger scoring chances. For a simple comparison, Trouba and Morrissey were on the ice for an extra six minutes and gave up only eight scoring chances with just three listed as high danger.

I don’t know what the solution is, but at this point Maurice has to consider splitting these two up. Morrow with Byfuglien and Chiarot with Myers if you need to. Whatever you do, do something because Morrow with Myers isn’t working out.

Another 40+ save performance and like the Carolina game, the Jets maybe don’t get out of the first period alive if not for Brossoit’s play.

Again – as you can see in the heat map above, the Jets gave up way too much up the middle and again the Jets needed Brossoit to be big, and he was with 15 saves in the first period, and another 16 in the third, but it was all the scoring chances in the first period that were stopped that was the difference.

As always, feel free to chime in with your players (or plays) that you think deserved some big ups or was a let down. Have your say in the comments below, or let us know on our Twitter or Facebook pages.