I think one truth that has come to light over this season is that if Mark Scheifele is not playing his best the Jets are not competitive.
As a fan who has been along for the ride for 12 years now, it's become more evident to me that players are not machines...they don't always operate the way they should. This season we've seen rough patches out of just about every player, except Josh Morrissey, some more prolonged than others. That's the very nature of hockey, it's ebb and flow. Playoffs require another level of competing.
Vegas will be a tough test for Scheifele because they possess the kind of defense that can lean on him a lot, wear him down, so he's going to need that extra desire to score. If Brossoit gets the net, I think Scheifele might be able to pick him apart...But this team needs Mark Scheifele's goals. Take his stats out of the lineup and it's a lottery team.
The negative goal differential the past couple of seasons is concerning. Moving him into a more hybrid centre position hopefully pays dividends. Mark Scheifele's prime years may be numbered, and he's going to have to learn to adapt other skills to remain competitive in the league. Converting to the wing may help him career wise.
Maybe the most surprising stat to me is how few assists he has for how many grade A scoring chances he has set up. That would be a ratio of conversion I'd be interested to know. His passing game is underrated.
I missed this post and like it.
I think with Mark it was a bit easier sledding for him to look great when he was playing with a prime Blake Wheeler who was dominant in his day. Mark was more than complimentary back then but he wasn’t the main driver on his line. I have often wondered, did an entire fan base (me included) get mesmerized by two really good playoff series in the 2017-18 when it comes to evaluating Mark?
I look at Mark now and on his good nights he is still fun to watch, he is highly skilled offensively, and more of player that will eat you alive if you make mistakes. I wouldn’t call him dominant on good nights. I don’t think he is ideally suited to being ”the man” on his line nor do I think he is suited for playing centre for power on power match ups vs the top 10 lines in the NHL. His defensive game is not good enough and allot of that is driven by his lack of passion for that part of the game. I am not singling him out by any means. There is a line up of NHL players starting at the NHL of high end skilled forwards who have no interest in defending. Guys like 20 something Ovi, Kovy, P Kane, Draisait, McDavid, the list goes on………the line up is out the door and around the block.
Against Vegas Mark has to be patient, not force it, keep his shifts short, keep his pace up, and he has to not cheat the game trying to force points. He needs to work hard for his chances but mostly he needs to fully engage and buy in to the plan. This series should continue to go back and forth and one path for us to get beat is if Mark over does it and Vegas counter attacks off his mistakes.
I like him more on the wing in this series. Let PLD be the physical centre that can take on the defensive responsibilities.
Mark is off to a bit of a slow start but we will need him to average a PPG as things go along because if he isn’t bringing offense we are in trouble because we know he usually struggles to defend and we need him to at least fight to a draw.
To be clear I am glad Mark is currently on the team, glad we have him in this playoff series, we need him to make an impact, my issues are are heavily weighted to what we do with him in the future. For now we are in a dog fight against f*** Vegas and I am all aboard. Heres to finding a way to win today!! As long and Mark shows up and competes his ass off today that is all I want and expect!!
GJG
