Yesterday wasn’t a great game for him and a microcosm of some of the not-so desirable parts of his game, with some good mixed in.
He was sub par in the face off dot, most of his wins coming from wing support, but getting beat cleanly a lot. To be fair though, since he’s been relied on more heavily to take draws against top opposition, he’s been struggling. Someone here at some point said he wins more draws then not, he did his draft - 1 year, but not since.
His positioning is usually pretty solid, but against teams that offensively rotate low high and throw in diagonal and short lateral passes, like most that aren’t elite, he gets caught chasing and out of position. He was caught a good amount last night against a skilled and somewhat unconventional offensive Saginaw team.
Against teams with good structure and D, he can tend to keep to the outside and not take the puck to the “hard areas”, instead trying to hammer pucks through the slot or on net for not so great angle shots and sometimes coughing up pressure.
The good is that I’ve watched about 15 Moose Jaw games bored at work this year and this is probably one of the two worst games I’ve seen him play, but also that his team had played. I don’t know if Saginaw surprised them as just a host team, but the Spirit could have easily won the OHL and are every bit as good as London on most nights, and maybe MJ didn’t quite realize that enough.
His ability to find the net was on display. His finishing was actually pretty good. There have been nights this season where his finishing left some to be desired. He is great at loading a shot with time, off either foot, from any angle or position, but is only above average at quick releasing with little time and a lot of pressure, this will improve with strength and experience.
He has good vision and when he has a lane to make a great pass/play, far more often than not he makes it.
Didn’t get to see it much last night, but he is 1a/B on any night as the go to guy on the powerplay that was the #1 unit in the W, and apparently 2nd in the CHL, and with good reason. He couldn’t pick apart Saginaw like he usually does to teams with playmaking and creating chances off his high wall, but only had a few opportunities and they were against a top PK unit in major junior.
At the end of the day, 2+1 against probably the 2nd best team in all of junior on an “off” night after not playing for 8 days is pretty good in my books. Looked better than almost all his OA teammates (although that is admittedly by far the worst I’ve ever seen Firkus play, and not just because Saginaw was on him)
Don’t let this game shape all of your opinion on him, hopefully the jitters are gone and MJ makes a run so we can watch another 3 or 4 Yager games.
