If only the first game for a new head coach (who had yet to run a practice for his team) was always a sign for things to come! I would be so much more optimistic about this team, the direction they are headed, and their plans for the future. Unfortunately, that is not the case. This was one game. That being said it was a good one, and the Jets do deserve praise for their effort in front of the new bench boss.

As impressive as the Jets were on Monday night, the Coyotes were just terrible. They couldn’t get anything going, and took some horrid penalties. I’d go as far as to say that if the Jets didn’t win this game, it would have been a huge indicator of how much trouble they are really in as an organization. They came out strong, though, and truly dominated this game, and deserve to be praised for it.

I’ll be the first to say it, I am still not a huge fan of having Byfuglien move to forward. This is not because of his effectiveness at the position. He clearly can be one heck of a player as a forward, but I fear for the Jets blue line without him on it. He played the toughest minutes back there, and despite his lapses is a great defenseman. Things worked against the Coyotes, but I question the sustainability going forward.

On the positive side, moving Buff to forward does give the Jets some pretty interesting, dare I say threatening, lines. The fourth line is what it is (and on Monday they were actually pretty good thanks to Eric O’Dell), but the other three lines actually look pretty damn intimidating. I still don’t like Thorburn in the lineup though, never mind the position he was in Monday.

Just throwing this out there, but can you imagine a line of Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler and Evander Kane? Scheifele and Wheeler were able to produce well with a plug named Chris Thorburn on their line, so imagine what they could do with Evander. It’s hard not to get excited for that.

Despite being out-chanced at even strength, I like the idea of a Ladd-Little-Frolik line. Only time will tell if they will mesh properly, but that could be a pretty solid “shut down” line for the Jets.

Who would have guessed that both Jokinen and Setoguchi would see their numbers improve when Chris Thorburn was removed from their line? Surprising, right?

Guess who the worst possession player (by far) was on Monday night? Mark Stuart. Again. And in a game where the Jets wildly out-possessed the puck.

Meanwhile, Pardy and Ellerby have been great (again) against easy opponents. Which, by the way, is a task that Mark Stuart couldn’t manage early in the year when Claude actually had his head on somewhat properly. Stuart is a huge reason why several defensemen have been criticized this year, yet because he has a ridiculous jaw line and hits people, many overwhelmingly ignore his mistakes. It doesn’t make sense.

In all honesty, I’ve liked the approach that Paul Maurice has taken to this opportunity. He’s said the right things, seemed to communicate well with the players throughout the game, and wasn’t afraid to mix things up a bit in his first game. Obviously there will be a larger sample size to judge moving forward and I would be silly to draw any conclusions from what has happened to this point, but I’ve liked the start. Hopefully this is a first step to overall improvement.