Game 31 at Tampa: Montoya Performance Tracker and Neutral Zone Play

10 years ago

The Jets finished off their six game road trip Saturday night with a match-up against the Stamkos-less Tampa Bay Lightning. Even if Stamkos was healthy, the Lightning are battered and bruised right now, so expectations were heavy on a Jets win. They came through, yet I was still less than impressed.

Zone Entries

5 vs 5	Player	# of successful entries	Shots (From Entries)	Shots/Entry	Controlled Entries	Shots (Controlled Entries)	% With Control	Failed entries
5	Stuart	2	1	0.50	0	0	0%	0
7	Ellerby	2	1	0.50	2	1	100%	0
8	Trouba	2	0	0.00	1	0	50%	0
12	Jokinen	5	3	0.60	2	2	40%	0
14	Peluso	1	1	1.00	0	0	0%	0
15	Halischuk	1	0	0.00	1	0	100%	0
16	Ladd	3	2	0.67	1	1	33%	0
17	Wright	3	1	0.33	1	1	33%	0
18	Little	0	0	N/A	0	0	N/A	0
22	Thorburn	4	2	0.50	2	2	50%	0
24	Clitsome	2	0	0.00	0	0	0%	0
26	Wheeler	7	4	0.57	5	4	71%	0
33	Byfuglien	3	5	1.67	1	2	33%	1
39	Enstrom	1	0	0.00	0	0	0%	0
40	Setoguchi	8	6	0.75	6	5	75%	1
55	Scheifele	2	0	0.00	0	0	0%	1
67	Frolik	2	1	0.50	1	0	50%	1
70	Albert	1	0	0.00	0	0	0%	0
	JETS	49	27	0.55	23	18	47%	4
	OPP	70	36	0.51	40	21	57%	8
	OZF	16	5	0.31
	DZF	17	1	0.06

Observations

The Jets were utterly dominated in the neutral zone in this game. They did manage to control things once they got the puck into the Lightning zone, but getting it there was a struggle in itself. Tampa had not only the edge in quantity of entries but also the quality, which usually spells disaster for an opponent. Judging from the third period the Jets played, it’s hard to argue that it shouldn’t have ended that way.
Scouts from Hockey USA were at the game, which not very shockingly led to some increased offensive play from both Blake Wheeler and Dustin Byfuglien. Realistically, both have engaged a lot more of late, but it was nice to see it again Saturday night. I thought Wheeler was the best player on a top line that wasn’t really effective for the second game in a row, and he earned a goal on the night.
I think it’s hard to argue with the fact that the Jets second line was probably one of the better ones Saturday. Led primarily by Devin Setoguchi, they moved a little bit away from the mandatory dump and chase style they had been playing for the last couple days. I’m not going to allow much credit to go to Thorburn though, as we saw a decent amount of Blake Wheeler on that line periodically throughout the game.
The third line was once again rather ineffective. You could possibly chalk that up to Frolik coming off of the flu, but they need to get back to being productive in some capacity. I don’t think they necessarily played poorly, but they didn’t spend much time at all in the offensive end. I mean, Keaton Ellerby had more controlled entries that Scheifele did on the night.

Montoya Performance

Al Montoya put on a strong performance against the Lightning. He bounced back very strongly following the goal late in the second, and managed to hold the Jets in things throughout the third. He got the benefit of a post in the overtime period, but earned the win.

Goal	Situation	Why It Went In	Where It Went
1	Average Play (OZ Faceoff)	No Chance	Left Pad

Quick Explanations

I’ve said it each time I have made this determination (this will only be my third on the year): I don’t deem a goalie to have “no chance” on a goal very often. The way I see it, if you’re in the net, you USUALLY have a chance. This is one of those rare cases that I really did not think Montoya had a realistic chance. With mere seconds left, a scrambled draw originally slid away from Monty. Somehow, the puck was quickly moved right into the slot to a place where nobody but Nate Thompson was able to detect and rapidly fire past an unsuspecting Al Montoya.

Things to Watch For

The Jets can finally return home after a two-week trip and prepare to face the St. Louis Blues once again. Hopefully the cold doesn’t provide too much of a shock to the team, and they are able to put together a better effort than we saw during many games on this trip. If not, the Jets could be in for a rude reminder of what the Western Conference is like. Here are a few things to watch for going into Tuesday’s game:

Will Evander be back? A few more days rest will likely do the guy some good. I’m absolutely terrified of what will happen if Chris Thorburn is still on the second line against the Blues, so I am really hoping he is ready to go by then.
Did they build any confidence? Despite the way they won, the Jets did manage a decent 4-2-0 record on this road trip. Maybe they were able to gather some confidence? As long as the style of play changes, confidence is a good thing to have.
Can the Jets stay out of the box? The Blues currently sit with the 3rd best power play in the league. The Jets penalty kill has slipped down to 12th. It’s not horrid, but it is vulnerable to exploitation. We all know that it’ll take a miracle for the Jets power play to do anything, so a huge key to this game will be the Jets ability to stay out of the box.

Final Thought

I’m curious to see what kind of condition the ice will be in on Tuesday night. For the last week the MTS Centre has been home to the Roar of the Rings, meaning various strips have been altered quite drastically to account for curling while others have been covered up. I know absolutely nothing about ice maintenance, but could it have an effect?