WPGChief
Registered User
- It was more a mixed game today, but I guess it's better to be playing for 60 minutes rather than a slow start and being outplayed for a significant portion of the game.
- Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler had a much, much stronger game today at 5v5, though it was Wheeler's / Chiarot's / Myers' error on the PK that got the Jets into a hole. That being said, they were great in terms of possession and led the way when the rest of the Jets were mostly struggling, especially...
- Laine-Little-Roslovic. Even Maurice thought that switching Tanev and Roslovic (and putting Laine back on the right-side) had to do something to that second line, as they just were in a hole - granted, it was then Little's heroics below the line to get it to Connor for a quick catch and release, but really that's what we should expect from a Little-Laine connection, right? Anyways, the rest of the time they struggled pretty hard in terms of generating shots and did pretty even with the rest of the team in the amount they gave up. I dunno if it's a different tape job on Laine's stick, but he seems to be a losing a lot more of them these days. He's in some slump, just when we thought he was getting better.
- Perreault-Lowry-Tanev nearly had another goal with Perreault sitting in front and had it go off his stick weird, but otherwise they were pretty even tonight. It's not quite the dominance we've usually expected, but it's still pretty okay.
- Appleton-Copp-Lemieux - Appleton came through on a mishandled save by Bobrovsky that some would have crucified Hellebuyck for if he did the same thing. Granted, other than that, it was pretty low-event hockey from the 4th line, but hey, they played close to 10 minutes! An improvement by Maurice's standards I guess.
- Morrissey-Trouba had a great return to form tonight in terms of generating offense. Columbus was pouring on the forecheck and both of them made crisp clean passes to get out of the zone and kept a lot of pucks in at the blue line as well, with Trouba contributing 6 shots towards the net himself. Looks like they've gotten out of the post-break mood they were in.
- Chiarot-Myers had a bit tougher time at 5v5 tonight with a lot of the offense from Columbus coming against them tonight, but I do want to shoutout Myers for his slick assist to Roslovic on the power play - it was Wheeler-like. Take a look at the replay again, once he got that puck from Trouba, he knew he was going to Roslovic all the way and no-looked that pass right to his stick while everyone else bit on him jumping up. Nice job there - still some work to do 5v5.
- Kulikov-Morrow... honestly, they were pretty forgettable? There was some higher quality chances for and against when they were on, but I can't quite recall them in memory. A good sign, I would assume most of the time - a bit of a high xGA though that is somewhat worrisome. I still think Niku would do much better in this lineup than Morrow, however.
- Hellebuyck was a bit rougher tonight and didn't have his confidence that he showed in Boston. That being said, he still kept the Jets in the game when Columbus came knocking close a couple of times to closing it out or tying it back up near the end. It was enough to win, but not Vezina quality, I will admit.
