Game 29 : Little Caesars @ Santa Lucia

[The Unknown Poster]

Armia was very good when he got hurt.  Best player on the team?  He wasn't scoring.  He was excelling at playing defensively on a line that was very good at puck possession.  But it was a short sample size also.  I like Armia.  When the trade happened and no one was talking about him, I posted some stuff about him from Finland calling him Selanne with less of a scoring touch.  So we know he can be good.  But lets not get crazy.

But all things being equal, I'd rather see him in the top six than Stafford because even if he doesnt score (which Staff isnt doing either), his other facets are better.

I think the LLE line was split up to spread speed and scoring over two lines.  Probably the Wings were loading up against Little's line and Maurice was trying to juice Wheeler's line a bit.  Had they scored and won, we'd be talking about the genius of splitting them up.  So let's take some deep breaths.

[Ducky]

Armia hasn't been given the chance to play with more offensive-minded players on the Jets. He was playing with Lowry and Matthias and he was dominating shifts before he got hurt. He was killer on the PK. You should go back and read some of the posts you made about him. This guy is the real deal but I don't see him beating anyone out of the top 6 in the future if it is Ehlers Laine Connor Wheeler Little and Scheif....MP Roslo and Armia might not be a bad 3rd line in the future though. The kick against him has always been that he takes shifts and whole games off but I haven't see any of that and I look for it because of his reviews when he came here.

But Maurice will put him on the 4th line or 3rd if he is lucky. Laine is the only youngster that he put with O players from the start, not saying that is wrong but don't you think you would try Armia or Connor with some high end talent? Wheeler played with some youngsters but that was more out of necessity.

It is what it is though and I think the Jets have done well this season considering how many youngsters are on the team and the injuries they have had. I think they are on the right track and will be very good soon. If you look at the future how Chevy has laid out the contracts, he has done an excellent job of it especially considering we don't spend close to the cap limit yet.

[Rich]

I think part of the reason Maurice is reluctant to put the younger players in the top 6 is those lines often get the tougher defensive minutes and he tries to shelter players until they can prove they are responsible.   This applying to Connor more so then Armia at this point.

People are often trying to put lines together based on pure skill, but there are defensive responsibilities and how the coach wants to play his matchups against the other team that are hard to take into account because while a lot of us will track Jet lines during a game, I don't really track / pay attention to who Maurice is trying to match them up against.  

As to the blender of lines last game, not a big fan of it either, but Maurice said in post game comments that he thought the team basically just ran out of juice as the game went along.  I think he was trying to find people who still had legs.   Jets still at the top of the league with 29 games played (tied with Calgary).  Teams with the least amount of games played are at 24.  Fatigue still a factor with this team I think.

 

[Brandon]

I caught the 3rd period and OT last night....  is Wheeler playing hurt?  Something looks off on him. 

Also Stafford looks as disinterested as Buff...  I assume he gets moved at the deadline when a desperate team will pay a bit higher of a price for him.

[Goalie]

Nobody gonna pay a high price for stafford. 

Wheeler has been playing with stafford and Perreault... 2 players who look like they lost whatever they had last year.  

Edited December 7, 2016 by Goalie

[Ducky]

Why wait until the TD????

DO IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mark F]

6 hours ago, Rich said:

he tries to shelter players until they can prove they are responsible.  

I wonder if he also feels a responsibility to individual players to do what he thinks will give them the best chance to have good careers in the NHL, with the Jets, or elsewhere.

In other words, part of what he does is out of concern for the players, as well as the team.

(admittedly, I know nothing about these things)

[kelownabomberfan]

I have not been impressed by Perrault this year at all.  Not sure what's going on with him, seems to have lost a step.

[Goalie]

1 hour ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I have not been impressed by Perrault this year at all.  Not sure what's going on with him, seems to have lost a step.

What might have happened is he threw trouba and in a way every one of his union brothers under the bus and perhaps that's playing a role In his struggles 

[The Unknown Poster]

12 hours ago, Goalie said:

What might have happened is he threw trouba and in a way every one of his union brothers under the bus and perhaps that's playing a role In his struggles 

I doubt it.  Would be pretty hypocritical of Wheeler and the rest if they said how the locker room is united and they'd welcome back Trouba...and then shun Perreault.  Would say a lot (in a very bad way) about the leadership in the locker room.

[Goalie]

In reality, I think MP's struggles are more due to the fact that he's a better winger than a center and they wanted him to be a center to start the year and now he's back on the wing, where he is much better, i also think he's an ok top 6 guy, he's not a guy you ideally want in your top 6 tho,( like Armia really) He's more suited to a checking line type of role, hard on the puck, good defensively, really good forechecker, ideally? 3rd line actually. 

 

Perreault Lowry Armia 3rd line? Sign me up. That would be a very very good checking line. 

[The Unknown Poster]

1 hour ago, Goalie said:

In reality, I think MP's struggles are more due to the fact that he's a better winger than a center and they wanted him to be a center to start the year and now he's back on the wing, where he is much better, i also think he's an ok top 6 guy, he's not a guy you ideally want in your top 6 tho,( like Armia really) He's more suited to a checking line type of role, hard on the puck, good defensively, really good forechecker, ideally? 3rd line actually. 

 

Perreault Lowry Armia 3rd line? Sign me up. That would be a very very good checking line. 

Yes, a very good third line.  I agree.  His added value is he's good enough to move up to the top six due to injury.  So he's not a low end third liner.  He's a top end third liner.  He's a third liner on a Championship team.  And I think thats the intention.  If Connor was better (or developed better) he'd be taking Stafford's place on the second line.  And will eventually.

[Ducky]

Staf is horrible as a RWer so let's play him on the left side where he is worse?