JetsNation’s Hot Takery: Middle Six Forward Takes And Paul Maurice Speculation

I asked for your hottest Jets (or hockey) related takes and while you didn’t send any scorching comments our way, there were a couple that caused a raised eyebrow or two… So here we’ll share a some of the takes you hit us with and then I’ll share my thoughts and hit you with a score of just how hot your take is…

My take: @Jack Roslovic has been helped a bit by having some decent teammates. Over the last four games he’s been on a line with @Adam Lowry and either @Mathieu Perreault or @Andrew Copp and that’s a pretty good group of players who aren’t going to be really out-worked and it shows early on this season with high CF% numbers – Copp, Perreault and Roslovic are all over 50% with Lowry being just a bit behind at 49.1% although I think we can pin some of that number on Lowry’s linemates early on in the season being @Mark Letestu and @Gabriel Bourque.

But that said about his teammates, it should be noted that Roslovic is holding his own. When he’s on the ice the Jets are getting more shots than they are giving up and early on has improved in that area compared to last season when the amount of shots taken and given up were a lot more even. He’s also on pace for a career year in goals and points and if he’s kept with Lowry and Copp there is no reason why he couldn’t hit double digits in goals this season.

My take: Andrew Copp was quite good in second line duty with @Nikolaj Ehlers and @Kyle Connor early on in the season and it was a little disappointing to see him dropped back down to the third line while @Bryan Little took back the 2C spot. The silver lining in Copp being dropped down is it’s with Lowry and Roslovic and as we outlines above, that’s a pretty good line that matches up well against other team’s middle six forwards.

But taking this suggestion, that would mean your top three lines are @Mark Scheifele centering Laine and Ehlers, Copp centering Connor and Wheeler and a third line of Little, Lowry and Roslovic. The only issue I could see with that is that you take that third line that can generate offense with Copp and make it more of a slower, defensive focused unit. If you keep Little with say Wheeler and Connor on a second line, that may work out a bit better, but with Wheeler fully admitting to struggling early on this season, if Bryan Little really going to be the type that can help get him out of that funk?

Again, I feel sorry for Bryan Little. There just really isn’t an ideal fit for him on the Jets right now and he needs to be with good players to help him out and it it’s very possible that as we move on in the season he does indeed see time on the third line.

My take: Is this suggesting that Maurice has “lost the room” so to speak and players are simply trying to get him fired? I don’t know if that’s quite the case yet, but you have a strong argument based on how they came out at the start of the game against Los Angeles on on Tuesday.

That said, I’ve seen teams “quit” on their coach before and I don’t get that feeling from these Jets. At least not yet. Still, consider this discontent we had this past summer with @Patrik Laine and Roslovic both stating they wanted bigger roles on the team and the rumors of a fractured dressing room that have cooled a bit with the new season but won’t take long to heat up again if the team goes on a prolonged slump.

Also, curse the St. Louis Blues for going on that run and giving pretty much every bottom feeding team some sort of unrealistic hope. The mantra of every team that’s below 20th place come December is going to be “well if the Blues did it…” and it’s going to be annoying as hell.

My take: Back at the start of the season a lot of us felt that barring a really bad start to the season, Paul Maurice was going to get through the season but that all bets might be off if the Jets again falter early in the playoffs or even worse miss the post-season altogether.

It’s no secret that True North and Kevin Chveldayoff are big on loyalty and not hitting the panic button on anything, but at the same time pro sports is still a “what have you done lately” world and if Dave Dombrowski can be fired as general manager of the Boston Red Sox less than a year after his team winning the 2018 World Series, then truly no one may be safe.

Conventional wisdom suggests that even with the excuse of a poor defense (which then should be putting Kevin Cheveldayoff in the hot seat as it was the defense he built) a change should happen in the event of a second disappointing season, but given TNSE’s history it’s not crazy to think that even with all that Maurice could still remain the head coach.