Comments / New

Jets Grounded

Well that was ugly.

It was more of the same as the Winnipeg Jets got absolutely throttled Saturday in 5-1 loss at the hands of the Blackhawks. After taking a 1-0 lead on a Tobias Enstrom shot from the point, Nicklas Hjalmarsson scored on what seemed a pretty stopable slapshot.  Despite playing what seemed like a reasonably competitive game on the ice, it was all Blackhawks on the scoredboard from there.

Ondrej Pavelec let in a 2-on-1 goal to Brandon Bollig, a partial break by Patrick Sharp, and a long shot by Nick Leddy all in a span of five minutes before being chased from the net.  A cheeky deflection goal by Ben Smith made it 5-1 in the third, and that was all she wrote.

After their third loss in a row, the Jets now sit 5-8-2 on the season, last in the division, and second last in the conference.  The loss also drops the Jets to 3-5-1 at home on the season.

Ten Thoughts:

  • I didn't actually think the Jets, as a team, were so bad tonight.  They got beat on a lot of shots from the outside.
  • Ondrej Pavelec was pretty brutal.  Four goals on just 14 shots, and he should have had a couple of them.
  • Al Montoya, on the other hand, looked pretty good.  10 saves on 11 shots, including a partial break from Toews, and a penalty shot by Patrick Kane.  The one goal, scored by Ben Smith, was a pretty neat deflection.
  • Not that I want to stoke the fire, but I'm curious when Claude Noel's on the hot seat.  The Hockey Night in Canada guys made it out to be a pretty big deal.
  • I'd actually prefer that they keep Noel around at least until the end of the season.  The way I see it, either they turn things around and good things happen, or they stink and get to draft in the top 5 of an exciting draft year.  Either way, good things happen.  Plus I don't see this team going anywhere until they solve their issues in net.
  • Michael Frolik looked to be having a pretty good game tonight.  Great pickup, that one was.
  • I really dislike the defensive pairings.  Byfuglien-Clitsome and Enstrom-Bogosian both seem like a mess.  Byfuglien and Enstrom were dynamite together; I don't know why Claude Noel/Charlie Huddy tried to fix something that wasn't broken.
  • Zach Bogosian was nothing special again tonight. After signing a giant, long-term contract in the off-season, Bogosian has yet to show me that he's worthy of it.  How long until this becomes the Jets' new Hainsey contract?  One season?  Two? 
    I think Bogosian's a decent player and could even be a good one, but there are now expectations of him that I'm not sure he's capable of reaching.
    The coaches used the third and fourth lines a lot more than I'd have liked to see.  Only one Jets' forward even topped 18 minutes.  You'd think that especially with last change at home, Claude Noel would get his best players on the ice a bit more.  And you'd expect that, playing from behind, Claude Noel would put his scorers out there a bit more to, you know, score a goal.  Not so, young grasshopper.  Not so.  I'm not sure if it's because Noel doesn't realize that might be a good strategy, or because he's genuinely unsure about who his best players are, but neither one is good.
Looking for an easy way to support Arctic Ice Hockey?
Use our Affiliate Link when shopping hockey merch this holiday season!

Talking Points