WPG-OTT Jan. 19 Artisan Style Corsi

               

 

Yesterday’s putrid affair at MTS wasn’t exactly the start  the Jets would have hoped for, as they were beaten 4-1 by the Senators. Winnipeg’s defensive zone coverage and goaltending looked about as they left things last April, and Craig Anderson was never really stressed after the first period. 

As a matter of course, I’ve gotten into the habit of checking the Corsi and Fenwick numbers after games, along with the distribution of offensive and defensive zone starts to assist me in filtering out a bit of the noise at EV. Unfortunately, Vic hasn’t updated his apps as of yet, so after the jump, I’ve compiled Winnipeg’s Corsi, Fenwick and FO ratios via our old friend Excel.

Read ’em and weep, especially if you’re a friend of Mark Scheifele:

 

 

The Jets were pushed back in their own end a fair bit, which the shot and Fenwick totals indicate in a bit more precise fashion than the raw Corsi.

 

As for the individuals, Scheifele, Thorburn and Slater spent entirely too much time starting in their own end, and although some of that was via circumstance, Claude Noel basically gave his 4th line exactly the same treatment as he did last season. Scheifele actually had the easiest ZS ratio at 1/6, which is still crazy for a 19 year barely ready for the show under ideal circumstances.

 

-16 Corsi and Fenwick would be lousy even after massaging the figures for the handicap, though, and if your team only gets 2 shots on goal when you’re on-ice in 10 minutes of EV ice time, that’s just not good enough, no matter who you play against. If the Jets are going to spend another 4 games on their prize rookie, they might want to give him a little easier row to hoe.

 

Kane, Jokinen and Wellwood appeared to be the one line with any jump at, although those solid outshooting numbers mostly happened in the first 30 minutes or thereabouts. One thing that was again evident was that Jokinen and Kane have strengths as players, but neither one is a smooth passer. In basketball terminology, they’d be known as ball-stoppers, in that ball movement stops when they gets possession, and there was a bit of that on display yesterday afternoon. They certainly played OK relative to the rest of the team, though.

 

The other thing that really stood out to me was that the Jets only have one defence pair that has a chance, and the manner in which Claude Noel’s hand has been forced by the Bogosian injury was readily apparent. Byfuglien and Enstrom are the one set that can be trusted and also help drive play north, and in order to aid them in doing so, Noel buried Stuart and Hainsey. I’m not sure that’s a winning formula, but absent a trade for another defender or Bogo making a miracle return, this looks like the way things will go for at least another month. 

 

Postma and Clitsome also had a tough go, and the duo looked more like a pair of 7th D than full time NHLers. The giveaway on the first Ottawa goal by Postma was particularly egregious, but they made entirely too many soft plays all around. They didn’t get much help from their forwards, of course, and the Ladd-Little-Wheeler line was entirely too quiet. Wheeler looked a bit off the pace, not ever resembling at any juncture the speedster that finished last year on such a high, and if Winnipeg doesn’t want to finish in the last few spots in the conference, that can’t last another minute.

 

At any rate, the game was pretty disappointing in almost every respect, and things don’t get any easier with games in Boston and Washington Monday and Tuesday, although the Caps looked as much a shambles in their own end last night in Tampa as the Jets did. Still, unless the Jets’ team D takes a sharp turn for the better, yesterday’s performance might end up being the rule and not an unfortunate exception.