- It isn't the sea of red we saw in Montreal a few days before, but a number of these would be if Ottawa weren't content with the lead they already had (they only had 10CF in the third as they focused on defense), as the Jets clearly played not-strong 5v5 hockey, the weakest Jet being the netminder, Brossoit.
- But not everything falls wholly on Brossoit, as Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler were lackadaisical yet again in their d-zone. While they clawed their way back to evens in both CF and xG as them and the rest of the team struggled to get anything past Nilsson, they certainly weren't doing themselves any favours by hoping extending their sticks defensively is a good enough coverage. As many observers have pointed out already, nearly half of their shifts today were coming over the 0:50 mark as they drag themselves to the bench after extended play. Maurice is relying on his top line too much, or he isn't holding them to the same standard as his others.
- Laine-Little-Roslovic were slightly better again today but are still on the wrong end of your xG chart. Laine has played better recently and has showed some offensive flair again with his turn into the neutral zone to give him room and speed to saucer his pass to Little for an easy one-timer, but he's still losing a lot of pucks in the neutral zone and along the boards and is certainly a skill he needs to work on developing. The line in general is still not a dangerous line, but a refusal to try anything else has made it even more lackluster. Again, a knock on Maurice.
- Perreault-Lowry-Tanev were on the wrong end of the xG mark and have struggled way too much lately. There are games where they absolutely dominate and I think they are getting back to form, only for them to put up another slate of games of them below their expected threshold. If there is a tell, my only guess is that they struggle when there's no clear top line to match up against as they struggle against the opponent's mix of talent spread throughout the lineup (because of a lack of star talent (Ottawa, Montreal) or they have the ability to spread it (San Jose)). Yet again, this is another knock against Maurice because you now have your top 9 lines not putting up great chances to score, as your third is dedicated solely to defense or breakaways from Tanev.
- Appleton-Copp-Lemieux didn't have time to make an impact on the game as they normally would as Lemieux sat in the box as Ottawa did their damage in the first. Lemieux is great at padding his stats, though.
- Morrissey-Trouba is clearly the top pairing of the Jets and without one or the other, the team as a whole struggles mightily. Morrissey stepped back in without missing a beat and the pairing was back up to even, though they had nothing to show for it offensively (though nothing given up either, albeit the one on the power play which Brossoit clearly should have stopped).
- I'll mix the next two together, because Byfuglien and Myers bring an element of offense that many other teams would die for. While Byfuglien is clearly not up to game speed as he fumbled the puck on his stick many a times in his own zone, many people applauded Myers for giving a **** in the third period as he was rapid firing them. So, many people would think that Myers > Byfuglien this game, especially considering the stats, correct? Defensively, they have up about the same marker. Offensively, each of themselves generated the same amount of ixG, but Morrow-Myers were on for a higher xG in general. However, I'm still remiss to give this victory to Myers, when we actually look at the event maps for each today:
- Myers only got between the dots once, compared to Buff who got there 3 maybe 4 times (depending on how much leeway you give the actual trackers in the arena) but had all his shots blocked. Myers, as we've come to see many a times, likes to skate it up along his side of the ice and tries to fire it, where as Buff keeps his feet moving and has his more spread out across the offensive zone. Myers is predictable; Buff is not, whether you take that as a positive or negative.
- Brossoit sucked tonight, and he admitted it himself with little excuses. Incredibly tough showing for him he craters back down to Earth with that performance.
Chief's final eyetest says: Ottawa put on a good performance for the scouts in attendance today. Mark Stone is as valuable as advertised - even more so, in my perspective. I would rather have him on my team than Duchene for an optimal lineup through 4 lines, especially as he clearly excels defensively. Ottawa are very, very dumb that they aren't likely to keep either.
EDIT: Oh, and both power play units were abysmal. Final knock on Maurice today, but he's deserving of some lately. You don't get to 1500 games having this to show for it...
