Game 63 vs. NY Islanders: Pavelec Performance & Neutral Zone Play

10 years ago

This loss was a hard one to swallow. Against an Islander team that has been
decimated by injuries and trades came limping into the MTS Center, only to snag
a win and leave the Jets sitting point behind Dallas for the final playoff
spot.

Zone Entries

5 vs 5	Player	# of successful entries	Shots (From Entries)	Shots/Entry	Controlled Entries	Shots (From Control)	Shots/ Controlled	% With Control
2	Pardy	4	0	0.00	0	0	N/A	0%
5	Stuart	1	0	0.00	1	0	0.00	100%
7	Ellerby	2	1	0.50	2	1	0.50	100%
8	Trouba	5	1	0.20	4	1	0.25	80%
9	Kane	4	2	0.50	2	1	0.50	50%
12	Jokinen	7	3	0.43	5	2	0.40	71%
15	Halischuk	0	0	N/A	0	0	N/A	N/A
16	Ladd	5	1	0.20	3	1	0.33	60%
18	Wright	1	3	3.00	1	3	3.00	100%
19	Slater	0	0	N/A	0	0	N/A	N/A
22	Thorburn	0	0	N/A	0	0	N/A	N/A
26	Wheeler	7	3	0.43	5	3	0.60	71%
33	Byfuglien	3	2	0.67	2	2	1.00	67%
39	Enstrom	4	1	0.25	1	1	1.00	25%
40	Setoguchi	4	3	0.75	3	3	1.00	75%
44	Bogosian	3	2	0.67	1	1	1.00	33%
55	Scheifele	3	1	0.33	1	0	0.00	33%
67	Frolik	6	5	0.83	3	3	1.00	50%
	JETS	59	28	0.47	34	22	0.65	58%
	OPP	55	29	0.53	27	20	0.74	49%
	OZF	14	6	0.43
	DZF	9	1	0.11

Observations

The Jets strong neutral zone play has been a constant since
Maurice took over behind the bench, and maintained itself despite a rocky start
to this game. The problems in this game
arose in two areas. First was their
inability to do anything after dumping the puck in. I honestly do not understand how anyone still
thinks that is an effective method after watching this team play. The difference is just staggering. The second problem was how effective the
Islanders were when they carried the puck in.
On no less than 3 occasions those carries were breakaways, but even
outside of those they were pretty efficient at getting shots on net. That needs to get cleaned up.
Michael Frolik is such a rock for this squad in the neutral
zone. His hockey IQ is through the roof,
and he almost always makes the right decision when it comes to getting into the
offensive zone. He was one of the few
Jets who really transitioned smoothly once the lines started flipping around.
I thought Stuart had a decent game overall, and that likely
contributed to Trouba’s willingness to jump into the play. Trouba wasn’t as effective at it as he has
been in the past, but the kid has talent.
Him jumping into the rush is fun to watch.
I’m a little concerned about what these numbers are going to
look like moving forward. Chevy hinted
today that they don’t plan on calling anybody up following Scheifele’s injury,
meaning the Jets are going to look pretty terrible at the center position for a
while. Inexperienced and weaker centers
are a lot less likely to have the confidence to carry a puck by defenders and
into the offensive zone, meaning we might see a lot more of the horrid dump and
chase play that kills this squad. It’s
not a certainty, but it’s something to look out for.

Pavelec Performance

I thought Pavelec had a decent game against the
Islanders. I have a hard time really
pinning any of the goals directly on him, but his rebound control continues to
scare the living daylights out of me.

Goal	Situation	Why It Went In	Where It Went
1	Sustained Pressure	Bad Bounce	Left Pad
2	Break Away	Rebound	Blocker
3	Break Away	Beat Clean	Blocker

Quick Explanations

Pavelec was a little slow recovering to this bounce off of
the end boards, but I’m not going to hate on him for actually challenging a
shot. Or for McDonald being wide open in
front of the net.

It’s a breakaway. Pavelec faced far too many of these
against a pretty bad Islanders team, and this one bit the Jets in the
butt. It would have been nice if he
managed to hold on to the initial shot, and I feel like elite goaltenders would
have, but it was also a pretty nice play by Lee to tap it in.

Hey look! Another breakaway.
Those of you who watched the Moose back in the day will surely remember
how fast Michael Grabner is.
Unfortunately, I think Bogosian forgot who it was he had bearing down on
him.

Things to Watch For

The Jets take on the Kings Thursday night in their first
match up following a silent trade deadline day.
Here are a few things to watch for heading into that game:

Who’s playing where?
With Scheifele out for 6-8 weeks, and no call-ups being made, the lines
as we know them are getting thrown into the blender. I’d love to give you a guess as to what might
happen, but there were minimal guys at the skate this morning and I honestly
have no idea. I’m really curious as to
what Maurice has in mind.
When will Monty get a game? The Jets have a very heavy
schedule coming up, and it would be a very, very bad idea to ride Pavelec too
hard through it all. Montoya has to get
a start sometime soon, so why not against the Kings?
Is the power play going to wake up? The Jets power play against the Islanders was
just terrible. It was honestly
horrid. They couldn’t create anything,
and gave up way too many chances. If the
Jets want to seriously take a run at that final playoff spot without Scheifele,
they need the power play to get going. Now.

Final Thought

Scheifele getting out was certainly a huge factor
contributing to the lack of movement from the Jets on trade deadline day. With him out, the Jets really couldn’t afford
any other drastic changes to the lineup, nor could they trade a center or
anyone with the capability of scoring goals.
It really does hurt this team that the kid is out for so long. On the positive side, it’s pretty impressive
that he already has such an impact. It’s a good sign for things moving forward.