Game 22 @ Minnesota: Pavelec and Entries

10 years ago

The Jets lost a game Sunday night that saw them get into a few old habits, repeat some typical mistakes, but manage to do something they usually don’t do in losses: compete quite evenly in the neutral zone. Pavelec was excellent once again and gave the Jets the chance to fight back after the first, and the team responded well. Unfortunately though, a couple bad decisions by Coach Noel ultimately cost them at least one, if not two points.

Zone Entries

5 vs 5	Player	# of successful entries	Shots (From Entries)	Shots/Entry	Controlled Entries	Shots (Controlled Entries)	% With Control	Failed entries
2	Pardy	0	0	N/A	0	0	N/A	0
7	Ellerby	1	0	0.00	0	0	0%	0
9	Kane	9	2	0.22	5	1	56%	2
12	Jokinen	6	3	0.50	4	2	67%	0
15	Halischuk	4	3	0.75	1	1	25%	0
16	Ladd	4	0	0.00	2	0	50%	2
17	Wright	4	1	0.25	2	1	50%	1
18	Little	9	5	0.56	4	2	44%	0
22	Thorburn	0	0	N/A	0	0	N/A	0
24	Clitsome	2	1	0.50	1	1	50%	0
25	Redmond	0	0	N/A	0	0	N/A	0
26	Wheeler	6	3	0.50	2	2	33%	2
27	Tangradi	9	2	0.22	2	1	22%	2
33	Byfuglien	3	0	0.00	0	0	0%	0
39	Enstrom	3	1	0.33	2	0	67%	1
40	Setoguchi	6	2	0.33	4	1	67%	1
55	Scheifele	5	1	0.20	1	1	20%	1
67	Frolik	3	0	0.00	1	0	33%	0
	TEAM	74	24	0.32	31	13	42%	12
	OPP	79	28	0.35	38	23	48%	7
	OZF	18	3	0.17
	DZF	14	5	0.36

Observations

After being dominated in the first, the Jets responded well and managed to almost even up the neutral zone game by the time things were finished. They held the Wild to less than 50% of their entries with control, but their biggest problem came from generating shots off of their own controlled entries.
The Jets inability to win face-offs cost them a lot of opportunities once again. As I said in my twenty game review, the Jets have been terrible at generated shots off of offensive zone face-offs and actually had more shots off of face-offs that occurred in their own end. That’s not good. At all.
Eric Tangradi did everything he possibly could to get the fourth and third lines going. He pushed the puck deep on a regular basis, and was ultimately rewarded with some time on the third line. To that Matt Halischuk responded by doing the same, clearly just not wanting to be stuck playing with shlubs James Wright and Chris Thorburn. The battle between those two might be something to watch going forwards.
It’s nice to see that Toby Enstrom was trying to jump into the play a bit more, I just wish he would have selected a better time. I get he usually is stuck with the sitting back opportunity, but Keaton Ellerby isn’t exactly a guy you want to leave hanging back with a forward.
As usual, you saw a huge divide between the top two and bottom two lines. Bryan Little played like a top line center. He may not have officially been credited with a goal, but he did deserve one. He has played fantastic throughout this season, and has really lived up to the contract he was afforded this offseason. Blake Wheeler played well too, and utilized his speed quite well.
The second line was ultimately led by Olli Jokinen, who controlled 67% of his entries and led to five shots. Evander Kane had the higher quantity of entries and controlled 56% of them. Even Devin Setoguchi had a load of entries and controlled 67% of his, as once again the Jets second line was fantastic in the neutral zone.

Pavelec Performance

Ondrej was once again fantastic on the night. As much as I don’t like the guy and don’t think he is the long term answer, it makes me happy when the Jets win so I am more than willing to accept this recent streak. If not for his work in the first period, this game likely gets out of hand early and he held his own against a strong Josh Harding throughout the matchup.

Goal	Situation	Reason It Went In	Where It Went
1	Average Play (Controlled ZE)	Beat Clean	Blocker
2	Average Play (OZF Loss)	Beat Clean	Blocker

Quick Explanations

Despite holding on for the better part of the period, a Jets defensive lapse finally ended up in the back of the net. Sure, Pavelec probably should have covered the puck up when it was at the side of his net, but you can’t let a player like Mikko Koivu walk right down the middle of the ice unattended.

I’m not sure what Claude Noel’s thought process on this goal was. His third line, centered by rookie Mark Scheifele was caught on the ice following an icing with less than five minutes left in the game. Rather than using his timeout to get his guys a rest, maybe discuss a good defensive strategy, or even tell the guys to let Frolik attempt the faceoff, he let them fend for themselves. This resulted in a faceoff loss, guys caught scrambling, Mark Scheifele making a poor decision and leaving Mikko Koivu unattended once again. Might want to stop doing that, boys.

Things to Watch For

The Jets come right back tonight as they match up against the Calgary Flames, the first team to transfer itself out of Atlanta. Here are a few things to watch for as the Jets play another back to back:

Will Montoya start? The starting goaltender for the night is yet to be announced, but if Claude Noel has any brains at all Monty will start. It doesn’t matter how well Pavelec has been playing, he is horrible in back-to-backs and the Jets need to win this game.
Will Peluso finally get back in? Claude has been hesitant to change things up on this win streak, but now that the team has lost he should feel more comfortable with changing things up. First act? Get Chris Thorburn back to the press box.
Can the team bounce back? The Jets have a tough week ahead of them with a game against Chicago and another one against the Wild, so it is important that they get a positive out of tonight.

Final Thought

The Jets’ record against the Central Division now sits at 3-8-1. Eight regulation defeats are huge with this new playoff format, and a poor Divisional record will likely be the difference between playoffs and a third straight year of watching the good stuff from the couch. If they want a shot, this needs to turn around now.