Game Preview: Jets Looking For Road Points Against The Leafs
by canadian texan on Jan 5, 2012 7:01 AM EST
in Game Previews
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For the second time this season the Winnipeg Jets were embarrassed by the Montreal Canadiens, this time it occurred on the Habs home ice. The Jets must look to put that one behind them quickly as they face the Toronto Maple Leafs in T.O. tonight.
In case you missed it the Jets fell by a 7-3 margin last night. It was not pretty. Scoring 3 goals is all well and good. Allowing 7 is terrible. That better not happen again tonight. Because as much as I dislike the Habs, I hate the Leafs. I blame Mats Sundin...and the fact that they haven't won a Cup since 67 but still maintain a fanbase that always thinks "this is the year". I'd love it if the Jets won the Cup, but I don't expect it. But every year when the Leafs get a nice 3-0-0 start people and pundits start saying "this is the year". Talk to me in May. We'll see if you're right.
Something to stoke the egos of the Leafs faithful was a 7-3 drubbing of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday...3 days after losing 3-2 to Winnipeg.
These guys are beatable, even if this is a back to back. But the Jets sure as hell have to play a better game than last night.
Keys to the Game, player Numbers and Lineups after THE JUMP
Keys to the Game:
- Play better than yesterday
- Seriously
- Bryan Little might very well make his return to the lineup tonight, which should add some offensive spark.
- Eric Fehr seemingly had a fire under his but for some reason yesterday...didn't produce anything but he seemed to be trying
- Speaking of trying...Nik Antropov...what the hell happened? Where'd you go? Why aren't you skating?
- Pavelec was shaky last night...nobody's perfect
- I know Flood had a bad game against Toronto...but I don't know how Hainsey can repeatedly escape the press box. Oh wait yeah I do...he makes way more money than Flood.
- I'd like to see GST get back together to see what Mittens can do with Steam Punk and Fehr. If Fehr is going to get going, maybe put him with people more dangerous offensively than Thorburn?
- Wouldn't mind Boogie with Stu either. That likely requires buff to come back, which might not happen for a few days.
Jets
Forwards
#9 Evander Kane - #18 Bryan Little - #26 Blake Wheeler
#16 Andrew Ladd - #80 Nik Antropov - #13 Kyle Wellwood
#15 Tanner Glass - #8 Alexander Burmistrov - #20 Antti Miettinen
#17 Eric Fehr - #14 Tim Stapleton - #22 Chris Thorburn
Defencemen
#39 Tobias Enstrom - #6 Ron Hainsey
#29 Johnny Oduya - #4 Zach Bogosian
#5 Mark Stuart - #12 Randy Jones
Goaltender
#50 Chris Mason
I don't really feel like seeing Pavs get creamed again, so Mason gets my start. We'll see
Leafs (GP 39 19-15-5 43 PTS)
Forwards
#19 Joffrey Lupul -- #12 Tim Connolly -- #81 Phil Kessel
#46 Joey Crabb -- #84 Mikhail Grabovski -- #41 Nikolai Kulemin
#16 Clarke MacArthur -- #15 Matthew Lombardi -- #43 Nazem Kadri
#47 Darryl Boyce -- #20 David Steckel -- #39 Matt Frattin
Defencemen
#3 Dion Phaneuf -- #59 Keith Aulie
#2 Luke Schenn -- #36 Carl Gunnarsson
#51 Jake Gardiner -- #4 Cody Franson
Goaltender
#34 James Reimer
Player to boo without mercy: Same as last week, I'm going with Kessel. He's easy to dislike (in a hockey sense, i'm sure he's a very nice young man in the real world)
Predicition: Winnipeg 3-2 Toronto (OT)
Going out on a limb because that's how I live. Crunch.
GO JETS GO!
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Hainsey is a better player than Flood.
I also like the current lines far better than GST. The less Thorburn the better IMO.
Where did Slater go? Is he hurt? I don’t think he’s the one Little sends to the press box…
I think it will be Stapleton, Thorburn or Fehr.
I think Flood's value is being way overstated around here
Let him play one night where he isn’t facing the other teams worst lines and this would become apparent.
I agree.
Flood scored twice on his first 4 shots and that built some major hype. I like Flood. He is a nice story and he has done an admirable job filling in for our injured starters. I would even go so far as saying he is a decent 6th or 7th D man, but if you have him slotted anywhere higher than that, then your team has issues.
by truck on Jan 5, 2012 10:33 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
Hainsey plays against top lines and doesn't do well either.
I’d rather have a 6th defenseman who makes 500 k than 5 million
In Canada our balls are bigger
Writer for Arctic Ice Hockey
by canadian texan on Jan 5, 2012 3:17 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Putting Hainsey in the press box doesn't lower his salary.
I believe Hainsey is a better player than Flood, Oduya, Jones and Stuart.
I love Stuart and the toughness he brings, but I think Haisey is the 4th best D man on the roster. Hainsey is more versatile and more consistent, at least he has been over his career. A couple bad games don’t change that.
Not saying he is miles better and I would welcome dumping his salary.
I also know he isn’t part of the long term plan, but he isn’t a bum.
Trading him lowers it quite nicely
If he didn’t make as much as he did I wouldn’t rag on him nearly as much
In Canada our balls are bigger
Writer for Arctic Ice Hockey
by canadian texan on Jan 5, 2012 4:12 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
If they can find a buyer for either him or Oduya, they have to pounce.
It will be interesting to see what happens around the deadline.
Hainsey carries a big cap number, but his actual salary for next year is only 3 million. Obviously, teams near the cap ceiling will have hard time with his cap number, but a team like the Avs, Stars or the Pred might make sense.
Maybe I am dreaming…
You want to take advantage of soft competition
Just as much as you want to match or best tough competition. I never confuse him with Nicklas Lidstrom, but he does what we need him to do.
Co-Manager at Arctic Ice Hockey
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by Bettman's Nightmare on Jan 5, 2012 4:43 PM EST up reply actions
Woops missed that. Uhmmm....well I'd prefer if Thor sat
Don’t see it happening though
In Canada our balls are bigger
Writer for Arctic Ice Hockey
by canadian texan on Jan 5, 2012 11:39 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
I would choose Thorburn too, but his PK minutes do add some value.
Apparently the Jets have recalled Cormier again.
I hope this doesn’t mean Wheeler is banged up. No Wheeler and Little would be bad news.
I learned that Stapleton has he Flu.
If he is out, I imagine the lines look like this:
Kane / Burmi / Wheeler
Ladd / Antropov / Wellwood
Glass / Slater / Mittens
Thorburn / Cormier / Fehr
I was wrong.
According to this guy the lines will be the same as they were last night.
I wonder why they bother calling up Cormier?
re: Slater
He got sliced with a skate after his goal against COL.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos! Follow me on Twitter @TJCAPS.
by TJCAPS on Jan 5, 2012 1:59 PM EST via iPhone app up reply actions
Gustavsson will be starting tonight for the Leafs
"We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct."
- Niels Bohr
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what a horrible game last night!!!
the Jets looked like they were all hung over from New Years… Even Hal Gill looked like he had average speed against the Jets. Between Evander Kane blindly passing the puck towards the front of the net, to Hainsey letting anyone around him free to Stapleton completely missing his check on one of the goals, it had to be one of the worst performances by the Jets this year.
They’d better get that fixed tonight. I hate the Leafs.
Players not earning their keep so far
Fehr – sure he’s a local but if the boy can’t skate, can’t shoot, and can’t fight, then why is he on this team again???
Hainsey – ugh. How he ever got that fat contract I’ll never know. He’s at best a top 4 AHL defenseman. I said it… AHL
Miettenin – last night was the first game I noticed him and it was for all the wrong reasons. Out of position, a step too slow, and no impact on the game whatsoever.
Fehr needs to pick it up but to be fair...
Wheeler went 18 games without a goal.
Little went 14 games without a goal.
Fehr is at 15 and is only playing 8 minutes / gm.
Also, the team has a 1.52 shooting percentage while Fehr is on the ice. That number is unsustainably low. Even if he continues to play exactly the same, probability owes him a couple goals and a handful of assists.
by truck on Jan 5, 2012 6:31 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
You hate Leafs fans because their fans have hope?
…k.
LSU Tigers: 13-0, 2011 SEC Champions
Beat Bama (again)!
I’d love it if the Jets won the Cup, but I don’t expect it.
I really hate to break it to you but neither do the vast majority of Leafs fans. I know it’s fun to create straw men and pretend that Leafs fans are all moronic, arrogant and completely incapable of rational thought but there is no more true than if somebody were to say those things about the entire Winnipeg fanbase. The truth of the matter is there are a significant amount of morons in every fanbase, and honestly for every Leafs fan who is overly optimistic about the team’s chances you could probably find at least one Leafs fan who is overly pessimistic.
If you want to hate the Leafs that is perfectly fine, but at least try to find a legitimate reason to do so instead of simply using the dumb, played out “Leafs fans are all delusional” meme.
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