Score one for the good guys.
Then score about four more. The Jets got into a shootout last night with the Edmonton Oilers that ended in a 5-4 win thanks to the new king of the city, Jacob Trouba. As I said earlier I will be tracking how Ondrej Pavelec performs this season in relation to the opposing netminder. While I’m likely going to be doing these in weekly recaps, I figured I might as well get the ball rolling with a game 1 recap. Because everyone is a keener to start the year. So let’s dive into it with Pavelec’s goals allowed first:
First Goal
Is there any disputing that this goal is solely the fault of the Jets netminder? A soft backhand that bounced off a Jets defender that he allows to float on by him. This should be a routine save, but it ended up horrifically botched. The Jets barely had a chance to get going before falling behind.
Goal Against in a gif:
via forgifs.com
Second Goal
The second goal felt expected. It seems the Jets have a gift for giving up a goal immediately after going up and killing their momentum. The team was applying absolutely no pressure on the penalty kill and were standing around allowing a great shot from the point to get by a screened Pavelec. While Pavs should have fought to track the puck through traffic, his teammates displayed a poor enough effort that I'll give him a pass on this one.
Gif summary:
Third Goal
There was some traffic in front of Pavelec as Hemsky skated up. However, by the time the shot was released he had a pretty clear view of the release point. That, in addition to his lack of effort to see around the screen compounds in Pavelec's second bad goal allowed.
Gif summary:
Fourth Goal
Pavelec made two pretty nice saves on this play. The first with his pads, the second he knocked out of the air with his paddle. Unfortunately the puck went over top of him and eventually was poked in from behind. While rebound control is something Pavelec needs to improve on, I don’t think this is one example that you would highlight. It’s tough to control where a rebound goes when making a desperation paddle save. Mark Stuart needed to do a better job putting a body on the man in front, and in failing to do so, allowed for the puck to be poked in. Some blame has to be put on Pavelec for not falling back on the puck, a fair amount of the blame should go to Stuart, and some credit must be given to the Oilers for sticking with it and getting a greasy goal. It was a tough decision but I’m putting the blame for this one on Mark Stuart.
Gif summary:
So if you’re scoring at home. That’s 2 on Pavs, 1 on the team, and 1 that was just part of the game. How did Devan Dubnyk fair? (Don’t worry I won’t go as in depth on each goal for the Jets)
Goal 1
Mark Snipely amirite? No fault for Dubnyk
Goal 2
Nice shot by Little but really should have been saved. 1 on Dubnyk
Goal 3
Great effort by the Jets results in Frolik's first. Tough rebound for Dubnyk to give up, however, he was screened and never really had a chance on the play. I'll chalk this up as a great effort by the Jets. Still only 1 on Dubnyk
Goal 4
If you haven't done so already, go back, and watch this play again. Trouba jumps the passing lane, takes a couple strides and fires an absolute rocket past Dubnyk. He could see it the whole way but can you really blame him for not making the save? It was just a fantastic shot.
Goal 5
The Greg Jennings award for putting the team on his back goes to Frolik. Two goals while playing next to Olli Jokinen. Luckily Noel didn't make the Wright decision on this play and had Tangradi out there who set him up beautifully. Dubnyk was awful on this play giving up multiple juicy rebounds. I have to put the blame on him here.
Final Analysis:
Both goalies cost their team 2 goals on the night. Dubnyk got a slightly easier game as his team never truly burned him on a goal. However I don't know if Devan Dubnyk is the standard Pavelec should be held to, considering that the Jets brass has already identified him as the franchise goalie with the contract he signed. The fact of the matter is he is going to need to be a lot better than he was tonight. We aren't going to play Edmonton every game, so we can't expect to be able to score 5 goals to bail out Pavelec consistently.
Disagree with any of my analysis? Let me know. As always you can weigh in during the game about goals for or against the jets by tweeting with the hashtag #PavWatch
