With the Winnipeg Jets sitting outside of the playoff picture in December, some New Year’s resolutions are in-store. The team is stacked with talent, but hasn’t been able to put it together. Now that the lineup is near full-strength and their schedule is softer, the Jets have achievable ground to make up provided they make some systematic tune ups.
Winnipeg Jets New Year’s Resolutions
Penalty Kill
Paul Maurice’s number one New Year’s resolution should be concocting a stronger penalty kill scheme. The passive nature of their current unit has been doing a better job of killing the Jets than the penalties. The lack of pressure allows the opposition to skate into the Jets’ end at ease and isn’t boding well. Winnipeg currently sits third worst in penalty kill efficiency.
Adding insult to injury, Winnipeg is second to only Calgary in minor penalties. This is all too familiar for Jets fans who have watched their team finish top five in this category in each of the past three seasons. Staying out of the box is an obvious key to winning games, but even more so when your team is among the worst in the league when down a man.
Switching to something more aggressive, with more pressure – or any mid-season adjustment, really, is worth consideration. What is there to lose?
Power Play
Jets fans got an early Christmas present when Nic Petan was activated off the IR last Tuesday. He has the potential to be an absolute wizard on the half wall of their otherwise ailing power play. The unit ranks 23rd right now, however they finally caught a glimpse of a quality quintet against the Vancouver Canucks consisting of Petan, Nikolaj Ehlers, Mark Scheifele, Patrik Laine, and Toby Enstrom. Though the sample size is small, the unit gives fans something to be optimistic about heading into 2017. Petan appears to have the vision Maurice hoped for in a left hand shot to feed Laine’s cannon on the team’s first unit.
Keeping these five intact should be a plan if the Jets wish to leap out of the bottom ten in power play efficiency.
Offense
The Jets are third last in even strength CF60, something they have finished in the top half of the league in since the Atlanta Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg in 2011. Though injuries to key players is at least a partial explanation for the dip in CF60, the team is a lot healthier now. Even without Tyler Myers, a lack of pucks to the net is inexcusable moving forward. This needs to be fixed if the Jets want any chance of cracking a spot in the post-season.
Maurice has said that he tells Laine “to shoot all the time”, which is promising. Shot volume has proven to be a key ingredient to success in the post-lockout era. What he should focus on is implementing a system that allows him to shoot more; Laine’s shooting percentage of 19.8% exceeds sustainability. Even his two common comparisons Alex Ovechkin and Ilya Kovalchuk never had a season where they scored on over 19% of their shots. Steven Stamkos the NHL’s most efficient shooter has only done so once over 82 games.
Winnipeg Free Press writer Scott Campbell noted that the second period is where the Jets look the worse, and could be due to mid-game adjustments failures; either a lack of or an inability to execute. Too much neutral zone play is stalling their shot generation, not to mention excessive and ineffective dump and chases.
Once again, Nic Petan has the potential to help said issue. The speedy youngster will improve the team’s zone entries moving forward, but he can only do so much. Some serious systematic improvements are imperative.
Goaltending
Goaltending in Winnipeg has been very average. Connor Hellebuyck‘s .914 career save percentage is two points shy of the NHL starter mean of .916. This doesn’t mean the Jets should look elsewhere for a goaltender. The team still has bright futures in youthful netminders Hellebuyck and Eric Comrie. Heck, the Jets gave the keys to Ondrej Pavelec for five years, the least they can do is give Hellebuyck a little more than five months.
Given Hellebuyck’s decorative track record as an amateur goalie, it’s natural to point a finger or two at Jets goaltending coach Wade Flaherty. Since it’s unlikely that the Jets would can Flaherty while he’s under contract, not extending him should be the number one New Year’s resolution of 2018. Flaherty’s resume as a goaltender coach is incredibly bare.
Developmental goaltending coach Rick St. Croix on the other hand has had success. Not only has he churned quality seasons out of Hellebuyck and Comrie with the Manitoba Moose, netminders Cory Schneider, Eddie Lack, and Eddie Pasquale were AHL All-Rookies under his assistance.
Success doesn’t stop at the AHL level for St. Croix either. He coached Manitoba native Ed Belfour during the three highest save percentage seasons of his career. The outcome included a Stanley Cup for the Dallas Stars and a William M. Jennings Trophy for Belfour.
A promotion would be delightful to say the least.
The future
35 points in 36 games is far from ideal, but all is not lost just yet. The Jets have run into some luck this year with a struggling Western Conference. Only three teams in the Central Division have more points; the Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild, and St. Louis Blues. This gives the Jets an improbable but reasonable shot at making the post-season.
The talent is there, a systematic improvement could end up being all the doctor ordered.
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