Post-Game Talk: Unbeatable....on the road

[Joe Hallenback]

Imagine what a difference it would make if you could swap out Kulikov for a healthy Buff. That was the lineup we thought we would have this season, Buff taking 22-25 mins a night, not Kulikov.

Pionk just continues to impress me. He is getting more and more confident with the puck, and its allowing him to move pucks out of our end fast and flawlessly under high pressure.

He as of today has outplayed and performed Trouba this season, and I see no reason he will not continue this level of play. It could be argued with his limited NHL experience including 300+ less games than Trouba, that he will continue to improve his game at this level and his best days are ahead.

At a cheaper cost, and not having the narrative of not wanting to be here, Pionk has been a complete breath of fresh air this season. Add in Heinola next year, and it am starting to lean towards us winning this trade.

Pionk has really exceeded my expectations. Even his physical play has been surprising to me. He has shown a willingness to engage players with the body that I didn't think he had in his game. You partner him with a year older Samberg next year and Heinloa comes back bigger and stronger and the defense isn't as bad as we thought.

 

[Whileee]

Th

And if Helly and Brossoit were sieves and we were losing a bunch of games Maurice would absolutely be a horrible coach and need to be fired immediately . Helly playing like he can and all of these wins don't count because Helly is the only reason we are winning , tough crowd . Could be worse though we could be the Leafs .

Maurice's bad coaching was the reason he had bad goalies in Carolina and Toronto, remember.

 

[MrBoJangelz71]

Pionk has really exceeded my expectations. Even his physical play has been surprising to me. He has shown a willingness to engage players with the body that I didn't think he had in his game. You partner him with a year older Samberg next year and Heinloa comes back bigger and stronger and the defense isn't as bad as we thought.

Its actually becoming something to get excited about. Niku and Heinola, Samburg are vast improvements over Kulikov, Sbiza, Bitetto and Beaulieu. And if lets say Buff does return, next year our back end could look like this:

Morrissey/Samburg
Pionk/ Buff
Niku/Heinola
Poolman
Stanley

And we would still have some $$ to add to that if needed.

 

[Deedog99]

Imagine what a difference it would make if you could swap out Kulikov for a healthy Buff. That was the lineup we thought we would have this season, Buff taking 22-25 mins a night, not Kulikov.

Pionk just continues to impress me. He is getting more and more confident with the puck, and its allowing him to move pucks out of our end fast and flawlessly under high pressure.

He as of today has outplayed and performed Trouba this season, and I see no reason he will not continue this level of play. It could be argued with his limited NHL experience including 300+ less games than Trouba, that he will continue to improve his game at this level and his best days are ahead.

At a cheaper cost, and not having the narrative of not wanting to be here, Pionk has been a complete breath of fresh air this season. Add in Heinola next year, and it am starting to lean towards us winning this trade.

Hope they resign him to a reasonable contract.

 

[Ducky10]

Sadly that's true.

Goal against was all on Connor. His sole responsibility in that kind of situation is to contain that blueliner on his side. He was so far away from that D that he had no idea what happened when that D left the blue line, and then it was too late.

It's very hard to track a tricky blueliner, but it's impossible when you are on the wrong position in the first place.

Bonino scored, he's the centre. Not defending Connor's defensive play but anyone care to tell me what 55 was doing on that shift? That goal was on both of them but the breakdown started with Scheifele.

 

[Howard Chuck]

Jets held their own through 2 periods considering the score. They went into a bit of a shell in the third but played reasonably well defensively.

Anyone who wonders why I keep slagging Connor for poor zone exits, please watch a replay of the Preds' goal.

KC has some amazing qualities, but also some glaring weaknesses. Zone exits and giving up the puck if there is any physicality. He is pretty awesome at other things, but he needs to continue to round out his game.

 

[Howard Chuck]

I think having Wheeler at centre is really helping.

I think moving Laine into Wheeler's old spot and moving Wheeler down has helped a lot, more that the effect of Wheeler playing C. I still think that if we had a real 2C to play with Ehlers and Roslovic it would light that second line on fire. Maybe even switching Wheeler and Roslovic?

Having said this, I'm very happy with the current lineup if we continue to win

 

[Ducky10]

Connor's strength is never going to be board work in the D zone, it's his positional awareness that is the problem anyway, as well some careless giveaways. He's not alone in that respect. His speed is what makes him dangerous on the breakout and when he has room and gets the puck in a good spot he has game breaking ability. Ehlers could replace him there and would help a bit defensively but it's one or the other and it's not even close. I don't think it's that big a deal.

 

[GeorgeJETson]

Does that mean they'll have a cardboard cutout of Chipman in the locker room? Maybe removing pieces when they lose?

 

[ffh]

Did anybody see ehlers get walked around by Josi when he had good defensive position like he wasn't even there and only to get robbed by helle late in the game. Let's not pretend that ehlers is this huge jump up in defensive ability over connor. Connor ehlers roslovic and laine all make tons of mistakes in their zone.

 

[Zhamnov5GoalGame]

Super happy with the current winning ways.
I still expect to see an up and down season.

Lost in all of this is our improvement in PIM's.
Last I heard we had taken the fewest penalties in the league.
That's insane for a team that routinely kept a standing reservation in the sin bin.

Dallas is just the team Laine needs to get the multi goal games rolling!

 

[Positive]

Glad no one scored an empty-net goal, because then there would be complaints about who was on-ice at the time.

 

[Ducky10]

Jets D didn't get run over last night, their lack of physicality continues to be an irrelevant talking point. Thought they were really good in front of their net and did a great job staying between the puck and the net. The cycle didn't accomplish much, they just let the Preds run around the perimeter and play low to high. Connor and Scheifele got caught on the switch for the goal but otherwise Nashville didn't do anything the Jets couldn't handle.
Funny, the Preds got caught doing what Maurice seems to be trying to have the Jets avoid and gets roundly criticized for. For the most part Nashville was adopting the volume shot approach, quality being irrelevant. In the process they got caught out more than a few times and gave up a number of odd man rushes and lots in transition. I thought the score flattered them to a degree. The Jets did a great job limiting the Preds D creating things in transition, strong F3 play through the middle and the D gapped well.

Good win, never felt they were going to lose that game at 2-0.

 

[Eyeseeing]

Did anybody see ehlers get walked around by Josi when he had good defensive position like he wasn't even there and only to get robbed by helle late in the game. Let's not pretend that ehlers is this huge jump up in defensive ability over connor. Connor ehlers roslovic and laine all make tons of mistakes in their zone.

I’d venture to say Ehlers is quite a bit further ahead than Connor defending and Ehlers doesn’t shy away from playing physical and neither does Laine for that matter.

 

[Jet]

Helly making the JETS great again!

Ehlers best forward, Roslo and Schief with good games

Copp/Lowry solid defensively, clueless offensively

On TSN Button said Laine had a good game, aside from the early goal what game was he watching?

D all pretty solid, liking Boo-loo's game, Pionk continues to impress and Morrissey seems to have rounded back into form

Copp on the PP, really Maurice?

For me that defensive play Laine made in his zone where he reverse hit whatshisface and then skated the puck out was an example of good very sold overall game. We need more of that from our forwards.

What turned the game in the Preds favor was the Jets forwards suddenly starting to turn the puck over in our half of the rink, especially inside our blueline. Connor and Roslovic the worst offenders with Schiefele not far behind.

 

[DashingDane]

Ehlers and Roslo were out together 4vs4 for a shift.

thanks for correcting me. I didn’t notice and found it strange considering he was having a good game.

 

[Jet]

Jets D didn't get run over last night, their lack of physicality continues to be an irrelevant talking point. Thought they were really good in front of their net and did a great job staying between the puck and the net. The cycle didn't accomplish much, they just let the Preds run around the perimeter and play low to high. Connor and Scheifele got caught on the switch for the goal but otherwise Nashville didn't do anything the Jets couldn't handle.
Funny, the Preds got caught doing what Maurice seems to be trying to have the Jets avoid and gets roundly criticized for. For the most part Nashville was adopting the volume shot approach, quality being irrelevant. In the process they got caught out more than a few times and gave up a number of odd man rushes and lots in transition. I thought the score flattered them to a degree. The Jets did a great job limiting the Preds D creating things in transition, strong F3 play through the middle and the D gapped well.

Good win, never felt they were going to lose that game at 2-0.

I disagree with the irrelevant comment. When you get pounded the entire game and don't answer, you are going to get worn down, rushed and make mistakes.

If you are a bigger guy and you are the aggressor you mitigate some of that. Poolman and Beaulieu need to incorporate more of that into their game.

 

[tbcwpg]

Jets D didn't get run over last night, their lack of physicality continues to be an irrelevant talking point. Thought they were really good in front of their net and did a great job staying between the puck and the net. The cycle didn't accomplish much, they just let the Preds run around the perimeter and play low to high. Connor and Scheifele got caught on the switch for the goal but otherwise Nashville didn't do anything the Jets couldn't handle.
Funny, the Preds got caught doing what Maurice seems to be trying to have the Jets avoid and gets roundly criticized for. For the most part Nashville was adopting the volume shot approach, quality being irrelevant. In the process they got caught out more than a few times and gave up a number of odd man rushes and lots in transition. I thought the score flattered them to a degree. The Jets did a great job limiting the Preds D creating things in transition, strong F3 play through the middle and the D gapped well.

Good win, never felt they were going to lose that game at 2-0.

On the physicality front, the Preds changed their lineup to be "heavier" with Olivier over Turris and were throwing hits around all night, they still lost. There were a couple of times where they lost possession because they lost a physical battle but the team covered well for it.

 

[LowLefty]

I disagree with the irrelevant comment. When you get pounded the entire game and don't answer, you are going to get worn down, rushed and make mistakes.

If you are a bigger guy and you are the aggressor you mitigate some of that. Poolman and Beaulieu need to incorporate more of that into their game.

Couldn't agree more -
We were mowed over in our own end and we were outshot badly - Helle saves the day.
The Pred's pretty much had their way with us in our own end - we did keep a lot of it to the outside but we spend a lot of time in our D zone chasing, taking shots and wasting energy.
Any way you look at it, this is not irrelevant and will catch up with us eventually.
Our presence in the front of the net is also an issue - they were hacking away at Helle on a number of occasions and other than BooLeeOOO, we watched this take place.

 

[Howard Chuck]

Connor's strength is never going to be board work in the D zone, it's his positional awareness that is the problem anyway, as well some careless giveaways. He's not alone in that respect. His speed is what makes him dangerous on the breakout and when he has room and gets the puck in a good spot he has game breaking ability. Ehlers could replace him there and would help a bit defensively but it's one or the other and it's not even close. I don't think it's that big a deal.

I agree that he won't ever be great at boardwork because he's a pretty small guy, and I certainly don't want to rag on the guy because he's a very good player. It's just hard to watch him and an opponent go to the boards to retrieve a puck, and he doesn't even try to get it. He simply gives up.

Come playoff time, that's going to be a very real issue as other teams recognize this.

 

[Duke749]

Teams can run around and hit us all day. Won’t matter. We won’t go out of the way to throw pointless hits and if we take a hit we get back up and keep playing like it doesn’t matter. Seems like a mature way to play.

 

[Joe Hallenback]

Teams can run around and hit us all day. Won’t matter. We won’t go out of the way to throw pointless hits and if we take a hit we get back up and keep playing like it doesn’t matter. Seems like a mature way to play.

I don't know if it is pointless but I think they are actually playing defenders that they think can handle that as opposed to those that can't. What I would like to see is more guys that are real good at moving the puck and handling a physical forecheck like Samberg in our lineup in the future

 

[Duke749]

Couldn't agree more -
We were mowed over in our own end and we were outshot badly - Helle saves the day.
The Pred's pretty much had their way with us in our own end - we did keep a lot of it to the outside but we spend a lot of time in our D zone chasing, taking shots and wasting energy.
Any way you look at it, this is not irrelevant and will catch up with us eventually.
Our presence in the front of the net is also an issue - they were hacking away at Helle on a number of occasions and other than BooLeeOOO, we watched this take place.

Think you’re severely upset overstating the shots and chasing part. Nashville threw everything at the net. Of course their shots were high. And people seem to forget if we’re “chasing” someone else is trying to keep away. Sometimes containing a guy instead of using the extra effort is the smart play while the other u guy wears himself down.

 

[Jet]

Teams can run around and hit us all day. Won’t matter. We won’t go out of the way to throw pointless hits and if we take a hit we get back up and keep playing like it doesn’t matter. Seems like a mature way to play.

Who said pointless hits? Anyone who plays hockey will say when you are under a lot of heavy forecheck pressure it disrupts your breakout, your zone exits and tires your defenders. Additionally, knowing a hit is coming will rush decisions and force mistakes.

I don't advocate for the Jets to start running around, taking themselves out of position for hits a la Mark Stuart. However, doing something simple like delaying slightly on puck retrieval to be the hitter and not the hittee is one of the small things you can do to weaken this approach from your opponent.

 

[ecolad]

Couldn't agree more -
We were mowed over in our own end and we were outshot badly - Helle saves the day.
The Pred's pretty much had their way with us in our own end - we did keep a lot of it to the outside but we spend a lot of time in our D zone chasing, taking shots and wasting energy.
Any way you look at it, this is not irrelevant and will catch up with us eventually.
Our presence in the front of the net is also an issue - they were hacking away at Helle on a number of occasions and other than BooLeeOOO, we watched this take place.

What we see here is not so much related to "physicality, or lack thereof" but rather is a direct result of the defensive zone system we play. You are going to see a lot of chasing, and apparent running around with this system, like it or not,(and I don`t). I believe the system also makes it much more difficult to stop cycling, which is why we see so much cycle work both down low and low/high, with a lot of shots generated. I would love to see a system which emphasized more positional play and "controlled pressure" rather than chasing.