JetsNation Recap – Jets Drag Out A 3-2 Win In Glendale

They aren’t going to be all instant classics, but given that it was a fairly efficient road win that saw the Jets continue to press the issue even up by scores of 2-1 and 3-1, fans should be almost as happy with tonight’s 3-2 win in Arizona as they were with the 8-2 drubbing of Dallas earlier this week.

As the great Jim Ross would put it, this game was “bowling shoe ugly” .. That of course had a lot to do with the fact that the ice surface at *random casino name* Arena was brutal and the Jets – who did show some signs of wanting to open the game up with their speed – were playing a typical Dave Tippet coached tight checking team.

If feels strange to type this out because we really haven’t had a Jets team yet that we could say it about, but there was a somewhat obvious gap in terms of talent level between the Jets and the Coyotes. The Jets look deeper, they are faster, they have guys who you know can change things with a single shot. The reason I point this out is because for the first two periods the Coyotes out-shot the Jets and the reason I believe is simply because the Coyotes did a great job playing a mucky / grinding type game that didn’t give the Jets much space to continue their free wheeling ways they had displayed on Tuesday.

It wasn’t until the third period when the Jets hunkered down and won some battles along the boards and in the corners that they started to open the game up a little more and get the two goals to give them the lead and keep them there by the end of the game.

Hence why Jets fans should maybe take as much pride in this game as they did in Stars beatdown. it’s one thing for a team like the Jets to jump out to a big lead and ride out that win – which they did even though they got a little loose in the 3rd versus Dallas. It’s another to be tied midway through the game, adapt and grind out a goal to get the lead and then keep attacking through the third and ‘earn’ a win instead of merely ‘escaping’ with one.

The Coyotes found out tonight – you can’t stop the Laine / Ehlers / Scheifele line, you can only hope to contain them long enough.

All the talk from fans on the social medias after the game was just what exactly are the Jets going to do once players start getting healthy. Can they just send Dano and Tanev and Copp back down to the AHL the way they are playing? I don’t think you can, but at the same time do you risk moving veterans down or away and go forward with a bunch of rookies and 2nd year players? I think the Jets need to think long and hard becase Copp and Tanev have shown they should stay with the big club. Dano was a bit on the invisable side tonight  but his linemates *were* Thorburn and Burmistrov which by the way would be my first two picks in terms of players you’d move on from.

Hellebuyck picked up another start and is looking to get into a groove now. There is still a question if he goes down into the butterfly a bit early and his glove hand isn’t as high up as one would probably like to see, but those are mechanics that can be fixed. He looked particularily good on a Tobias Rieder breakaway that he made look like a casual routene save instead of a potential back breaking 2-2 game tying goal. Hutch probably gets the start in Denver tomorrow, but Helle has made a strong pitch that he should start getting more and more starts.

I keep having to remind myself Josh Morrissey is a rookie and not 5 year vet – especially when he’s calmly breaking up 4 on 1 plays going against him. The kid seems unflappable at this point. He doesn’t seem to get rattled, he isn’t always fading out of position and then scrambling to make up for a mistake…A pointed out on Twitter:

Exactly!

(Courtesy HockeyStats.ca)