Game 1: Pavelec and Entries

10 years ago

Let’s just all pause and remember that James Wright didn’t put this puck in the net. Now he’s on the fourth line.

Following every Jets game this season we will be providing you with information on the zone entries from the game, as well as an evaluation on how Ondrej Pavelec performed. They may be a little late, but here are the results from Tuesday’s game in Edmonton.

Zone Entry Data

5v5	Player	# of successful entries	Shots	Shots/ entry	# of controlled entries	Shots (controlled entries)	Percent that fail
4	Bogosian	2	0	0.00	1	0	50.0%
5	Stuart	2	0	0.00	0	0	N/A
8	Trouba	7	3	0.43	3	2	25.0%
9	Kane	6	2	0.33	4	1	0.0%
12	Jokinen	4	2	0.50	2	2	0.0%
16	Ladd	6	1	0.17	3	1	25.0%
17	Wright	3	1	0.33	1	0	0.0%
18	Little	2	1	0.50	1	1	0.0%
19	Slater	1	2	2.00	1	2	0.0%
22	Thorburn	0	0	0	0	0	100.0%
26	Wheeler	6	2	0.33	1	0	66.7%
27	Tangradi	3	1	0.33	1	1	66.7%
33	Byfuglien	3	1	0.33	0	0	N/A
39	Enstrom	1	0	0.00	0	0	N/A
40	Setoguchi	4	2	0.50	1	1	66.7%
44	Bogosian	2	0	0.00	0	0	N/A
55	Scheifele	4	8	2.00	1	3	50.0%
67	Frolik	4	1	0.25	0	0	N/A
Team		60	27	0.45	20	14	35.5%
Opp		60	24	0.40	34	19	29.2%

Observations

As solid as Trouba was defensively he was clearly very active and quite successful at moving the puck into, and more importantly carrying the puck into the zone. He likely won’t have that kind of space and such a high success rate against better defensive teams, but it was nice to see him take advantage of the opportunity.
The Kane – Scheif – Seto line, as was plainly obvious from watching the game, really made things happen. Kane was able to take great advantage of defensive breakdowns, and Scheifele’s high shots/entry totals tell us about his ability to create chances and keep the pressure on.
The Little Ladd with Wheels grouping was able to get the puck down the ice, but seemed unable to really generate anything once they got down there. It’s early, but in this game the fact that the Jets were able to still generate 5 goals without their input speaks to a possibility of depth that this team has severely lacked.
Thorburn was very much a spectator in this game. I’m going to continue preaching this until it happens, but Peluso should be in this lineup (if they want a fighter so badly). Although the sample size has been extremely limited, he has shown himself as a decently effective player and actually has much better showings in his fights. Overall, I’d rather see Halischuk though.

Pavelec Performance Tracker

There has always been a lingering doubt that Pavelec might look better on a team with better defence, or a team that controlled play away from their own end more successfully. So this season, we’re going to pay special attention to Pavelec’s performance. It’s subjective in some sense – like scoring chances in that way – so we’re showing our work.

Goal	Situation	Reason It Went In	Where It Went
1	DZ Faceoff Loss	Out of Position	Blocker
2	Penalty Kill	Bad Break (Deflection)	Blocker
3	Controlled Zone Entry	Beat Clean (Pavelec at fault)	Glove
4	Penalty Kill	No Chance	Open Net

Quick Explanations

Yes, I know the first goal was a weird deflection. In my opinion though, Pavelec shouldn’t have been in the position he was. Instead of simply backing up and hugging the post as a complete non-threat of a player moved towards the corner, he remained almost completely out of his blue paint and vulnerable to get scored on. Therefore, that one goes on Pav.

The Oilers third goal was created by a nice play from Hemsky, but also due to some equally questionable defense from the Jets. The being said, Pavelec decided to go above the traffic in front to watch the play (rather than sink lower and cover more ground), and by the time Hemsky released the puck he had a very clear sightline. It was a nice shot, but I’m not convinced it was something that could have been prevented. I’m putting that one on Pavelec as well.

The Oilers final goal was scored on a wide-open net. It’s hard to blame that one on Pavelec though, as the Jets did a very poor job of clearing traffic and removing the threat. You can see in the video that Frolik, Stuart and Slater all stand by while Joensuu waits patiently for the puck to arrive on his stick. Combined with the fact that Pav made a couple great saves right before has the fault squarely on the Jets’ penalty killers.

Things to Watch For

The Jets next suit up tomorrow night at home against the Kings. It’ll be a much tougher test than the Oilers provided, and they won’t be able to spot a 2 goal lead if they want any chance at winning. Here are a few things I’ll be looking for:

Can Trouba repeat his performance against a bigger team?
Will the KSS line continue to be productive?
Will LLW get it together and be able to create a little more?

Let me know in the comment section if anything stands out to you, or what you thought about Pavlec’s performance in the first game of the year.