SB Nation Jets vs Wild coverage

Behind Enemy Lines Hockey Wilderness

Jets vs Wild preview

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Hey all! Here is our feature running Monday through Friday that will bring you up to date on what's going on in the media pertaining to the Winnipeg Jets.

Here is what's in the news for Thursday, February 16, 2012:

Previewing tonight's game vs. the Minnesota Wild. [NHL.com]

Our SB Nation pals at Hockey Wilderness provide more from a Wild perspective. [Hockey Wilderness]

Winnipeg hopes that hitting the road will get them back on track. [WFP]

A handful of Jets fans will make the trek down to Minnesota to watch their team in action. [Globe and Mail]

Robert Cleave addresses the Jets anemic power play: "Since the Carolina game on January 23rd, the Jets have played 44:30 at 5 v 4, managing 1 goal on 16 shots, with the goal being the Byfuglien bouncer against the Capitals last Thursday evening. 16 shots in that time frame converts to 21.6 shots/60. That rate is astonishingly bad. The worst full season team for shots/60 5 v 4 is Phoenix, who average 37.7/60. An average team would amass about 48 shots/60, and a top ten team would be over 50 shots/60. The Jets are roughly 20 shots on goal behind an average rate in the last ten games, which would normally be worth about 2 goals over that segment." [Jets Nation]

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The other night was an atrocious display at the MTS Centre. From section 325, my Valentine's Day date and I witnessed another demoralizing loss where the Jets again only scored one goal, and despite putting forth a valiant effort where we 'tried real hard' we lost to the New York Islanders 3-1 in a must-win game. What makes me so angry about the game is not that we lost, but instead how we lost. The GST-line did what they needed to do as Chris Thorburn opened the scoring in the first, but after the Islanders tied the game and then took the lead, our 'offensive' players put on an abysmal display as they attempted to even the score. Our power-play could barely get into the Islanders zone, let alone set-up, and only a few of the 38 shots we fired at Evgeni Nabokov were any threat at all. Give credit to the Isles for playing a nice road game, but let's be honest here. This was a very winnable game that will likely prove to be two points we will regret not picking up.

We went into the evening only four points back of the Toronto Maple Leafs for 8th-spot in the East and had a chance to get to within two if we won after the Calgary Flames did us a favor and beat the Buds, but it was all for naught. Add the fact that the Flames beat the Edmonton Oilers in overtime yesterday evening, and it looks even bleaker. At 26-26-6 and 58 points, we are now six points out of 8th and seven points out of the Southeast Division lead, but we are also only five points out of the Eastern Conference cellar. And the Carolina Hurricanes have a game in hand. In fact, every team behind us (other than Montreal) have at least one game in hand.

So with the trade deadline less than two weeks away, and all sorts of fun trade rumors floating around, it appears that it is now decision time for Kevin Cheveldayoff and our Winnipeg Jets. Are we buyers or are we sellers? Do the Jets blow it up or do they stay the course? Does Chevy keep the core that he inherited from Atlanta, or does he put his own stamp on this team and change it up on the fly? Today I present to you 'Why the Jets Should Mortgage Some of the Future for Jeff Carter'. Look for TJCAPS on Friday to present the opposing view about 'Why the Winnipeg Jets Should Stand Pat at the Trade Deadline'.

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Stu Hackel wonders: "Hit posts. The stats now include shots on goal, blocked shots and shots that miss the net. But what about the ones that hit the post? They are noted in the real time play-by-play, but aren’t compiled anywhere. Wouldn’t it be informative to learn which players hit the post most often, or which team leads the league in that unfortunate category?"

As ridiculous as it sounds, the NHL stopped recording missed shots for several years because of a labor dispute. But that's water under the bridge - since the lockout, we've been getting this data. As with many NHL stats, there's general disagreement on what constitutes hitting the post or the crossbar. Madison Square Garden, as usual, has no clue:

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Hello boys and girls!

Before I start the preview of tonight's game I'd like to do a little back tracking. The scene is December 13, 2011. The Minnesota Wild are surprisingly the best team in the NHL, having rattled off 7 straight wins. Everything was looking great for the boys from just south of the border.

When suddenly....disaster WINNIPEG struck!

Sure, a 2-1 win for the local boys may not have seemed to be a cataclysmic event. Once again the goaltending of the Wild kept them in a close game, but ultimately they fell short on the scoreboard. Not bad for an away game.

But consider this: since rolling into Winnipeg on that fateful December day those same Minnesota Wild that were on top of the league have amassed a record of 5-16-5. That's 5 wins in a 2 month span, which has seen them drop to 12th in the Western Conference and 21st overall.

And I bet you'll never guess who's 22nd overall...

THAT'S RIGHT! WINNIPEG!

While the Wild have two games in hand, our neighbours to the south are tied with us even at 58 points in the standings as both our squads are on the outside looking in at the playoffs.

This will be the 4th straight home game for the Wild, having last played on Tuesday against Anaheim. They have yet to get a point out of this home-stand, losing in regulation to Vancouver and Columbus as well as the Ducks. The Jets will look to keep that trend alive as road points are always nice, and when you play Boston tomorrow it's always good to try and make the most of opportunities such as beating up on your natural rivals!

Now the Jets aren't exactly a threatening team either, having just lost to the Islanders in an effort that can be deemed as punchless, despite having 38 shots on net. The effort is there, the offense isn't.

Here's hoping the Jets are the right type of offensive in Saint Paul tonight!

Keys to the Game, Player Numbers, Lineups and FUN(!) coming up after THE JUMP

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Hey all! Here is our feature running Monday through Friday that will bring you up to date on what's going on in the media pertaining to the Winnipeg Jets.

Here is what's in the news for Wednesday, February 15, 2012:

Recapping last night's loss to the New York Islanders: "It doesn't take a mathematician to come up with some sort of statistical formula to decipher what ails the Winnipeg Jets as they begin to tumble out of the playoff picture. The numbers, after all, are as black-and-white as the standings -- a team isn't going to win a whole lot of games scoring one goal." [WFP]

Our SB Nation pals at Lighthouse Hockey offer their perspective on the game. [Lighthouse Hockey]

More on a tough loss from the Winnipeg Sun. They also cover the likelihood of Rick Nash donning a Jets jersey: "Fans hoping the Jets will get in on the Rick Nash sweepstakes, probably should realize this team isn’t about to mortgage the future for one player, no matter how enticing his stats and skill set may be." [Winnipeg Sun]

Are the Jets calling for a dramatic change to their line-up? [Canoe]

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Most of us know the story now - Edmonton Oilers stick boy dreams big, stays small, forges an incredible WHL career (even better than then and future teammate Pat Faloon's!), and breaks into the San Jose Sharks roster at the tender age of 19. After slogging through some horrific teams in San Jose (and after a brief stop with the Edmonton Oilers), he emerges as a legit NHL forward with the Florida Panthers, doing yeoman's work on some marginal teams on his way to where he is now, 23 points away from 1,000. A stats-inclined person should know better than to be so interested in milestones, but things like 1,000 points and 500 goals seem to have the shared respect of many - we know it is difficult to play, and play well enough, to reach those milestones.

We tend to notice the meteors, the players who get to 1,000 in 9 to 12 seasons - certainly I do, because I was quite surprised to look at Whitney's career numbers and realize that he could potentially get to 1,000. Part of my confusion was the result of the way that a lot of fans will look at his numbers:

The players in the category of having neither 50-goal, 60-assist,, nor 100-point seasons, yet still accomplishing a 1,000-point career, are few and far between. I think they depict an interesting split - Hall of Famers from an era of average scoring but shorter seasons, and non-Hall of Famers considerably aided by the high-scoring 1980s. Whitney, on the other hand, comes from an era of low scoring in the NHL; does that make him a Hall of Famer? I don't know. But I do know that we can look deeper into Ray Whitney's career to see just how likely his career has been.

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Stu asks: "Improved shooting accuracy. We only have a stat for shots on goal. Play-by-play sheets note which players had shots blocked and who missed the net, but the totals are not compiled anywhere. Every shot blocker must have a blockee, right? And if, say, Dion Phaneuf is always firing pucks into his opponents’ shin pads, that’s a measure of his shooting accuracy as well. So how about breaking down shots by those on net, ones that miss the net, and those that never reach it?"

First of all, of course these totals are compiled somewhere - we've got missed shots for the last five seasons:

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