Youth Movement Continues in Winnipeg

Jets youngsters Mark Scheifele, Nik Ehlers, and Nic Petan celebrate a goal during preseason action. Photo courtesy of pinterest.com.

The Winnipeg Jets started their season with a considerable amount of new youth to insert. Nik Ehlers, the headliner of the group has looked dangerous on many shifts playing with an offensive unit in Mathieu Perreault and Mark Scheifele. Ehlers has shown he’s consistently looking to be a threat, whether it be through a quick snapshot or his unique ability of cutting inside on defenders and getting a quick shot off. Paul Maurice has also mentioned no concern of his defensive game, saying the effort has been there since day one.

Nic Petan, although in a much different role than Ehlers, has looked like looked like the rare case where a highly skilled offensive player actually benefits from playing on the fourth line. His linemates, Andrew Copp and Chris Thorburn, don’t play a particularly skilled game, but Petan is benefitting from being afforded time to learn to adjust his 5’9 frame to the rigors of the NHL. Maurice has also shown trust in him and a willingness to help him develop, since he is also getting plenty of time on the second power play unit. In most cases your fourth liner’s only special teams contribution is on the penalty kill, but the Jets have been afforded the rare opportunity where a power play man is stored in the bottom of your lineup.

Should any top 9 Jet go down with an injury, look for Petan to seamlessly slide to the left of Scheifele, and move the defensively responsible Mathieu Perreault off of his line to play with Adam Lowry and Alex Burmistrov.

Youngsters in Vancouver

Canucks sophomore Bo Horvat celebrates a goal while a fan yells into his ear behind the glass. Photo courtesy of www.vancouversun.com.

Vancouver has iced a much different look than in recent years, having 5 players under the age of 23 in their starting lineup for the first time since the 2001 season where they used both Sedins, Matt Cooke, Harold Druken, and Artem Chubarov. It remains to be seen what the fate of 2014 first round picks Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann will be, but the Canucks don’t have a particularly deep group of forwards, so there is roles to be carved out for them.

Speaking of McCann, he has definitely caught my eye in the couple of games I’ve seen him play. He looks strong on his skates, uses his reach well, and overall shows signs of belonging in the NHL. Anyone who saw his first career goal surely noted the velocity and accuracy he’s capable of, too. Once he adjusts more to the pace of the big leagues, he does have serviceable playmaking abilities that he’ll be looking to showcase.

Should McCann and Virtanen both pan out, the 2014 draft could be a massive follow-up to what is already looking like an excellent 2013 draft, where they nabbed Bo Horvat, Hunter Shinkaruk, and Cole Cassels. According to hockeysfuture.com, 5 of their top 6 prospects are from the 2013 or 2014 draft, so it could possibly be a pivotal starting point for the next generation of Canucks.

Florida exceeding expectations, but…

Panthers forward Jaromir Jagr playing hockey while simultaneously growing a mullet. Photo courtesy of www.nj.com.

The Florida Panthers caught some by surprise, starting the season with 3 wins in the first 4 games. Currently, they’re 3-2-1, but if you take one glance at their schedule you’ll notice that maybe their first 3 wins have been a little deceiving. Comparing their wins to their losses, they’ve beaten Philadelphia, Carolina, and Buffalo. However, with losses to Dallas, Pittsburgh, and the aforementioned Flyers, they’ve yet to beat a team that made the playoffs last year, or is currently in a position now, which dilutes their 3 wins a little.

That’s not to say I don’t believe in the Panthers – I love what Jagr has been able to do, helping to lead their younger players. Considering the impact he’s had, I’ve always wondered how impactful the acquisition of some recent players who’ve been traded would have been for a team like the Panthers. Patrick Sharp, Jason Spezza, Brandon Saad, and T.J. Oshie all come to mind as recently traded guys they could have used. Sometimes the younger players just need a player who’s been ‘the guy’ before to take the room and show them what it looks like to be the best, or one of the best, players on a team.

It’ll be interesting to see if they can rack up some wins against better competition here. They’re playing Chicago this evening, so maybe we’ll see it sooner than later.

Fancy stats supporters salivating at Calgary’s sluggish start

Calgary Flames Captain Mark Giordano looking intense. Photo courtesy of www.post-gazette.com.

When the Colorado Avalanche fell flat on their face last after year making the playoffs in 2013-2014, every “fancystats” writer had a blast writing an “I told you so” article. The Avs were 3rd in the NHL with 112 points, but only garnered 47% of shot attempts, 25th in the league. Those writers stated that they were destined to regress back to league averages, and sure enough, the Avalanche followed up their playoff berth with a 90 point season, 21st in the league.

It seems Calgary may suffer a similar fate.

Deemed as a team that had officially arrived with young stars Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan leading the way, the Flames only had one cause for concern. They finished with 45.25% of the shot attempts per game, third worst in the league. All of the fancy stats writers proclaimed, “Surely they’ll regress back to league averages!”

Well, for now, it appears to be true. Calgary has an intriguing young core and a mix of defenders that figures to be among the best in the league, yet they’ve gotten off to a pitiful start, sporting a 1-5 record and only 45% of the shot attempts, 26th in the league.

Goaltender Kari Ramo recently cleared waivers, so hopefully the Flames have figured out their goaltending situation and can string together a series of encouraging performances.

Three in a row for the Oilers

There wasn’t many photos of him, so here’s the jersey of Edmonton Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot, who may end up becoming the offseason acquisition of the year. Image courtesy of www.twitter.com.

As I’m sure you’ve heard, the Edmonton Oilers have now won 3 hockey games in a row. They haven’t achieved this very often in recent years, and when they have, it’s certainly looked different than it does now.

The Oilers appear to have taken a step systematically, as the overall consistency of their game has improved under new head coach Todd McLellan. By consistency, I’m mainly referring to how often they look scrambled and out of control. A mark of an improving team is always shown by a reduction of being caught running around and chasing the game. As it starts to happen less, it means they’re tightly following the systems, regardless of the situation. Whether they’re up by 2, down by 1, or if the ref’s just blown a call, they still play and look the same way. The breakout and defensive coverage seems vastly improved, and overall the team is demonstrating more poise and consistency in their game.

I saw a similar evolution with Winnipeg last year under Maurice, and the combination of a disciplined system with capable goaltending can sometimes be more valuable than the overall talent of your roster, which obviously, Edmonton doesn’t lack anyways.

look like this after 15 or 20 games, maintaining their systematical consistency, watch out. We just might have a playoff run in the cards.