The Jets managed to come away with a 5-2 victory Monday night against the New York Rangers. Claude Noel deployed some “unconventional” lines that appear to have paid dividends in the very, very short term.
Quick thoughts:
- Jacob Trouba had a great game. He blocked eight shots, started the rush several times, and made a lot of good plays on both ends of the ice. He obviously is very far from being a finished product, but this kind of production out of a player this young makes you live with the bumps along the way. His development (while stalled for a period of time due to injury) has been one of the few bright spots in an overall bleak season for the Winnipeg Jets. He even had a very unselfish play gift wrapping an empty net goal for Blake Wheeler. Speaking of Wheels…
- He was terrible again. He’s not strong on his feet and watching him play screams “apathy” in my mind. He stumbles his way into production due to his natural abilities. I just don’t see any growth in his game from year to year. His empty net goal made me more angry than happy. Speaking of being bitter over good things happening to my favourite team…
- John Albert scored a gorgeous goal. I cannot repeat what I said after the goal, but it drove me nuts. Overall he didn’t have a horrible game, some of the blame has to be put on him for the first goal allowed. But it was still a questionable call up in my mind. That being said, he shouldn’t take abuse for my frustration over him being called up. He showed resilience coming back from an early mistake and scoring a beautiful goal. Nice to see someone score their first NHL goal, congrats John Albert.
I'll just leave this here…
From the Canadian Tire commercials? RT @BrownScottTN: #NHLJets recall John Albert from IceCaps
— Darrin Bauming (@DarrinBauming) December 1, 2013
- Ondrej Pavelec was solid tonight. His rebound control looked good, I didn’t feel like either goal was his fault. It’s nice to see him continue his improved play this season. I’m not his biggest fan, but credit where credit is due. Pavy has been another relative bright spot for this years team.
- Mark Scheifele had a solid game, he showed a lot of creativity with the puck and gave a great effort. There was two shifts late in the game that stood out in my eyes where he stuck with the play, managed to survive contact without falling down and made something out of nothing. While his point streak is dead, the confidence he’s gained recently is not. An encouraging sign for the rookies moving forward.
- Chris Thorburn did stuff.
- Olli Jokinen loves burning his old teams. He scored the game winner as well as provided the Jets with some insurance shortly later. He’s quietly having a good contract year for the Jets.
- FINE! I’ll talk about Thorburn. While the decision to put him on the second line was questionable. It did help to have someone that is going to battle along the boards paired with two skill guys in Jokinen and the Gooch. If you are going to play the dump and chase style that Claude Noel has in mind for this team. It makes sense to have at least one player on each line that can play that style, and get the puck to the more skilled player. He is NOT a solution moving forward for our top six. But it was nice to see him come in and contribute today.
Arctic Ice Hockey, where being bitter after a win happens.
