Game 6 vs. New Jersey: Zone Entries

10 years ago

The Jets were back at it Sunday night as ex-Manitoba Moose Cory Schneider and the New Jersey Devils came into the MTS Centre. Backup goaltender Al Montoya got his first start of the season as the Jets came out with a much better effort than we’ve seen thus far this year, shutting out the Devils 3-0.

Zone Entry Data

5 vs 5	Player	# of successful entries	Shots (From Entries)	Shots/Entry	Controlled Entries	Shots (Controlled Entries)	% With Control	% That Fail
4	Postma	0	0	N/A	0	0	N/A	N/A
5	Stuart	1	0	0.00	0	0	N/A	N/A
8	Trouba	2	0	0.00	0	0	N/A	100.0%
9	Kane	9	5	0.56	8	5	0.63	11.1%
12	Jokinen	3	0	0.00	0	0	N/A	N/A
15	Halischuk	2	0	0.00	0	0	N/A	N/A
16	Ladd	2	0	0.00	0	0	N/A	100.0%
17	Wright	1	1	1.00	1	1	1.00	50.0%
18	Little	2	1	0.50	2	1	0.50	0.0%
19	Slater	1	1	1.00	1	1	1.00	0.0%
26	Wheeler	14	4	0.29	5	2	0.40	0.0%
27	Tangradi	7	3	0.43	5	3	0.60	0.0%
33	Byfuglien	1	3	3.00	0	0	N/A	100.0%
39	Enstrom	1	1	1.00	1	1	1.00	0.0%
40	Setoguchi	4	3	0.75	2	3	1.50	33.3%
44	Bogosian	2	1	0.50	0	0	N/A	100.0%
55	Scheifele	4	1	0.25	2	1	0.50	0.0%
67	Frolik	5	4	0.80	3	1	0.33	25.0%
	TEAM	61	28	0.46	30	19	0.63	21.1%
	OPP	62	28	0.45	29	20	0.69	31.0%
	OZF	16	4	0.25
	DZF	12	0	0.00

Observations

Wheeler has got to stop dumping the puck in. He was only able to control 5 on 14 entries on this night, as he consistently decided to simply dump the puck down rather than rush in with it. It resulted in minimal shot attempts, and very little sustained pressure.
Evander Kane on the other hand, showed that he belongs on the Jets top line. He controlled 8 of his 9 entries, scoring a goal (reminder this chart is from 5 on 5 play) and generating 5 shots. He was once again excellent in this game.
Eric Tangradi and Devin Setoguchi both looked good last night, and were able to effectively move the puck into the Devils zone to generate shots.
As a whole, the line changes by Coach Noel worked out very well. Each line had someone who was effective and it resulted in an overall increase in offense.
The Jets penalty kill was spectacular on the night. Montoya was very solid during the Devils 5-on-3 early in the second, but the team’s aggressive penalty kill helped for sure. A perfect example of this can be seen in their kill early in the third, where the combined entries looked like this:

17:41	C	19
17:22	F	OPP
17:09	F	OPP
16:58	D	OPP
16:50	C	9
16:37	F	OPP
16:30	C	8
16:21	D	OPP

Let me explain this a little bit. Throughout this penalty kill, the only controlled/carried zone entries managed were by Jets. This means that the team was able to get control, see gaps and aggressively move the puck into the Devil’s zone, rather than just dumping it down the ice. It also means that throughout the whole two minutes, New Jersey wasn’t able to actively attack and freely cross the blue line. When they tried to, they failed (as noted by the 3 F’s) meaning that the Jets were being very aggressive and standing up the Devils at the line. This resulted in the Devils only being able to dump the puck in (D) and attempt to chase it down in order to get possession in the Jets zone. A method that wasn’t exactly successful either. On the night, many of the Jets penalty kills looked somewhat similar.

Montoya Performance

Well, I guess this is easy today. Montoya played a strong game and earned his second shut out as a Winnipeg Jet. He wasn’t necessarily spectacular, but made the big saves when he needed to. In particular the 5 on 3 penalty kill around the start of the second period stood out to me, and the Jets penalty kill as a whole seemed to have a lot more confidence.

Things to Watch For

The Jets next play Tuesday night against Montreal. As they look to move above .500 once again, here are some things to watch for:

Will Montoya get another start? Sure, Ondrej Pavelec is this teams starting goaltender and will get a lot of starts this year. It’s how Claude Noel works. That being said, it is hard to argue with a shutout and Al Montoya likely deserves another go at it.
How long will these new lines last? This isn’t the first time that Claude Noel has swapped lines. He has broken up Little-Ladd-Wheeler before, but always seems to go back to them rather quickly. Will he stay with this same lineup for a couple games? Or a couple weeks?
Will the Jets penalty kill turn a corner? Not that the Devils are exactly an offensive powerhouse, but I thought the Jets penalty kill looked strong and aggressive Sunday night. Be it having more confidence in their goaltender or a more focused approach, if the Jets can maintain that level of play more consistently it would go a long way towards long-term success.

Final Thought

This was one of the Jets best games this year. Although it may have come against a winless team in New Jersey, it was definitely a win this team needed. The boys have a tough week coming up, as they have matchups against the Habs and new rival St. Louis Blues. Personally I would like to see Montoya start against Montreal, then likely go back to Pavelec against the Blues. Here’s hoping for a turnaround week from the Winnipeg Jets.