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Game Time: 7:00PM CDT
TV/Radio: NBC Sports Chicago, WGN-AM 720
Frosty Peters: Jets Nation, Arctic Ice Hockey
After splitting a home-and-home with a decent if injury-depleted Bruins team, the Hawks take another step towards ending this miserable ass season tonight in Winnipeg, where they’ll face a Jets team that might have finally gotten its shit together, but probably hasn’t.
As someone pointed out on Twitter, sadly we can’t find who, Patrik Laine looks like he would stand and ask you three questions before you could cross his bridge. We all do stupid things as teenagers, and growing really bad facial hair is one of them. It’s like a new toy you have to try out. Clearly, Laine is in this phase. It also doesn’t help that Finnish people are just weird to begin with, and gives him a truly creepy, this guy plays with toys at home vibe.
Something Laine is also doing that’s incredibly stupid as a teenager is the rate at which he scores.
Off the top, Laine has 77 goals before his 20th birthday. No one’s bested that in 29 years, which was Jimmy Carson. The only other better mark as a teenager since 1980 is Dale Hawerchuk’s 85, also in Winnipeg, in 1983. No one else in 38 years has scored more goals at 18 and 19 than Laine. His two-season mark is better than Crosby, Stamkos, Jagr, Kovalchuk, everyone else. And Hawerchuk and Jimmy Carson played in an era when goalies were essentially just inflatable flappy-arm guys you see at car dealerships (and the Half Acre brewery, for some reason. Trust us).
Laine also converts at an extraordinary rate. His career 18.7 shooting-percentage is second since the Great Bettman 2005 Lockout, behind only Anson Carter. And you’ll recall Carter racked most of that up playing with the Sedins, so it didn’t involve much more than standing near the crease and letting the Children of The Corn ping pucks off of him (The Nuno Gomes Policy, for you soccer fans). This is amongst players who have played 100 games. It blows the greatest scorer of the generation, or possibly any generation, Alex Ovechkin’s career mark of 12.7 out of the water.
What’s really frightening is that Laine doesn’t shoot nearly as often as some of the other premier goal scorers in the league. He ranks 27th in total shots. He ranks 71st in shots per 60 at even-strength. He ranks 33rd in attempts per 60 at even-strength. And yet he’s 5th in goals per 60 at even-strength.
Even on the power play you won’t see him dominating the shots and attempts there. He’s 16th in shots per 60 while on the advantage, 21st in attempts per 60 on the power play, but you won’t find anyone who scores more often on the PP than Laine. So the question the league should be asking is what happens if he starts firing pucks at Ovechkin-like rates for a season? Just so you have some idea, Ovechkin’s 298 shots with Laine’s 19.7% SH% this year would see Laine with 58 goals already.
Perhaps one thing holding Laine back in terms of the amount of rubber he can violently hurl at goaltenders is that he has yet to be a dominant possession player. Whereas Ovechkin and Stamkos and Crosby and Malkin have always consistently been above-water in Corsi-percentages and comfortably ahead of their team-rates, Laine has yet to do that in two seasons. Getting ahead of the team-rate in Winnipeg is tricky because they’ve actually been a very good possession team the past two years, but Laine hasn’t been above water either season. If he spent more time in the offensive zone, his goal-scoring numbers would simply be pornographic. You would think playing with Ehlers and Little would make for better possession numbers, but it just hasn’t.
Of course, some of this is going to make for quite the headache for the Jets front office. They’re looking at giving Laine, Trouba, Wheeler, and Hellebuyck new paper over the next two summers, and Toby Enstrom and Tyler Myers are the only big-ticket items coming off the books in that time. While Laine will only be an RFA, the Jets are not going to get him on a bridge-deal you wouldn’t think. While offer-sheets just don’t happen, tossing three or four first-round picks at a historical scorer like Laine might actually make sense for a team.
Laine’s release already is up there with the best of all-time, and takes no backseat to Ovie’s or Artemi Panarin’s. If Mike Bossy played in this era, this very well might be what it would have looked like.
Game #71 Preview
Lineups & How Teams Were Built
Game Time Art is still our Jets weirdo. And he’s happy to be so. Which tells you everything you need to know. Follow him @GameTimeArt.
So the Jets have lost to the Preds twice in the past couple weeks. Does that put any fear into your playoff hopes or does the fact that the Jets (barring something stupid) will win their first playoff game and quite possibly series since being resurrected be enough for everyone?
In a strange way it doesn’t really put fear into most Jets fans because those last two meetings have been with a Jets team with four or more regulars out of the lineup including their top center and top defenseman and really save for a stretch of ten minutes at the end of one game and ten minutes at the start of the other, a depleted Jets lineup hung in ok against the Preds, so I think there is still hope that if the Jets can get healthy, they should give Nashville a good fight. That said, I think everyone expects good things from the first round and then we’ll worry about a potential second round blood bath against the Predators.
Blake Wheeler has 77 points. He shifted to center when Scheifele was hurt. And yet he doesn’t seem to be getting any Hart Trophy love. While it would be hard to make a case for him over say MacKinnon or Hall or Malkin or Kucherov, shouldn’t he at least be discussed?
Maybe a little… If there was an award for most inspiring leader who leads inspiringly – is that the Messier award? – then Blake should get that hands down. As far as most valuable player, I’d say he deserves a brief mention but I don’t even know if he’s the MVP on the Jets as I’d argue Connor Hellebuyck has been far more important to the Jets win totals than anything Blake has done. Then again, maybe I’m just not used to seeing actual good goaltending for my team so I could be biased.
Flying under the radar a bit is Kyle Connor, thanks to Wheeler and Laine and Barzal in the Calder race. What’s most impressive about his game as a rookie?
I love Connor’s ability to weave in and out of traffic when he has the puck, especially when it comes to skating into the offensive zone. He seems to have this ability to find just enough room on the ice to make a move past a defender or at the very least give himself an extra second to move the puck forward or pass it off to a teammate.
How much has Trouba been missed?
A lot and really it’s only because with Trouba out, it has meant Tyler Myers I’d argue has gotten more minutes per game than he can handle and Myers’ game – especially in the defensive zone – has suffered because of it. Byfuglien has done well in stepping up as he does and Josh Morrissey is quietly good as always, but Trouba is kind of the lynchpin that holds the Jets defense together. To put it in a much dumber context, Trouba to the Jets defense is like syrup to waffles. Sure, the waffles are ok without it, maybe even good depending on the quality of the other ingredients you have, but syrup just makes the entire dish so much better. Jacob Trouba is syrup.
With only 12 games to go…what do you foresee for the Jets come the spring?
Increased health going into the playoffs for one thing, a first round series where the Jets have home ice and which should be a win because I think they match up well against Minnesota, Dallas or Colorado and then a second round where the limits of my heart being able to function properly will be severely tested.
Game #71 Preview
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Game Time: 7:00PM CST
TV/Radio: NBC Sports Chicago, WGN-AM 720
God Save The Queen: Arctic Ice Hockey, Jets Nation
Fresh off three somewhat palate-cleansing barely-wins against the absolute dregs of the league at home in Buffalo, Arizona, and Florida, the Hawks face a far sterner test tonight in The Peg, where the Jets at least kind of look like they have finally gotten their shit together.
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Game Time: 7:00PM CST
TV/Radio: CSN, TVA, WGN-AM 720
A New Name For Everything: Arctic Ice Hockey, Illegal Curve, Jets Nation
As the Hawks stay in the snow blasted prairies of the Midwest, they take their road show to the MTS Center in downtown Winnipeg, where they hope to actually win a game against the Jets this season in their last head-to-head meeting of the regular season.
vs. 
RECORDS: Jets 22-25-4 Hawks 30-15-5
PUCK DROP: 7:30pm Central
TV: CSN
FOR WE’VE GOT NOWHERE TO BE: Arctic Ice Hockey
ADJUSTED TEAM CORSI %: Jets – 49.2 (20th) Hawks – 50.0 (16th)
ADJUSTED TEAM xGF%: Jets – 50.6 (14th) Hawks – 47.5 (25th)
POWER PLAY %: Jets – 17.7 (17th) Hawks – 17.6 (18th)
PENALTY KILL %: Jets – 76.8 (27th) Hawks – 75.8 (28th)
Interesting position the Hawks find themselves in here. Having won three of four, and with the break right on the heels of this one tonight, you wouldn’t be surprised if they played this one with sunglasses on and Bermuda shorts underneath their pants (I assume this is how Panarin has been playing the last month). On the other, the Hawks are coming off a bad loss on Tuesday, losing in regulation when leading after 40 for the first time since Daley was in charge or some shit (no, not Trevor, moron). Backing that up with an in-division loss would certainly put a small pall (see what I did there?) over the vacation time. But then again, this is still a game in January. So you tell us.
vs
Game Time: 7:30PM
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Fireman Ed’s Cousin Gord: Illegal Curve
In what was a tradition unlike any other, the Hawks for seemingly eons played a home game on West Madison on Boxing Day, and even during the Stone Ages the building was more packed than usual. The league in its wisdom has opted to extend the holiday break, pushing the return to action to the 27th, and even giving the Hawks a road game or two in recent years on the date. But tonight will be as close to the Boxing Day games of yore as the league will allow, and the Hawks will be welcoming the Jets to the UC once again already.
vs. 
RECORDS: Jets 12-13-2 Hawks 16-7-3
PUCK DROP: 6pm Central
TV: CSN, Rogers for the creepy-ass Hometown Hockey Mishegas in Canada
COLDER THAN A WELL DIGGER’S ASS: Jetsnation.ca, Arctic Ice Hockey
ADJUSTED TEAM CORSI %: Jets – 47.5 (24th) Hawks – 50.4 (15th)
ADJUSTED TEAM xGF%: Jets – 48.3 (21st) Hawks 48.2 (22nd)
POWER PLAY%: Jets 15.2 (20th) Hawks – 16.3 (17th)
PENALTY KILL%: Jets – 78.4 (25th) Hawks – 71.3 (dead ass last)
The Hawks get an immediate chance to get the Listerine out to wash out the taste of yesterday’s loss. The Winnipeg Jets dance on in here, though if the Flyers speed was something of an issue, there’ll be no reprieve from the Jets. It’s been augmented by a return to health for Bryan Little and analytic darling Mathieu Perreault, which they didn’t have last time the Hawks saw this squad. And that one didn’t go all that well anyway.
Garret is a contributor for JetsNation.ca. You can follow him on Twitter @GarretHohl.
Let’s start with Connor Hellebuyck, who was supposed to fix the Jets’ biggest problem for years. It hasn’t worked out that way. What’s been the problem? Still hopeful or is this worrying? Are most of the problems on the kill?
Hellebuyck has indeed been better than Pavelec’s overall average. A career 914 save percentage is still better than a 907, and that’s significant. All things being equal, that is an improvement that will lead to wins.
The issue is that all things have not been equal. Team struggles on special teams, penalty differential, and have been their worst shot metric team (both Corsi and expected goals) since the move to Winnipeg.
It’s still early to tell what Hellebuyck will be, you need about 3000 shots (ish) for that. I have confidence he’s an answer to getting something better than Pavelec. The real question: how much better?
vs. 
RECORDS: Hawks 11-3-2 Jets 8-7-2
PUCK DROP: 7pm
TV: CSN
HOTH: Arctic Ice Hockey
SCORE-ADJUSTED CORSI%: Hawks – 50.3% (11th) Jets – 48.8% (23rd)
POWER PLAY: Hawks – 19.0% (14th) Jets – 18.7% (16th)
PENALTY KILL: Hawks – One day soon! Jets – 81.7% (17th)
TRENDS: Laine hasn’t scored a hat trick in like a week so he sucks
Gonna try sometin’ a little different today. Krista, a HockeeNight refugee, wanted to let everyone know what you should think about the Winnipeg Jets. We’re going to allow her to do so here. Enjoy, and follow her on Twitter @lechatsavant.
Greetings, everyone. I come to you as someone who knows the Winnipeg Jets all too well. They are a vile bunch of whiners who choose to revise history rather than accept it. I’m all too familiar with this team. You see, I began my love of hockey as an Atlanta Thrashers fan.
It was my best friend who introduced me to hockey via the Thrashers, and we got to the point where we could gauge a win or a loss based on only the goalie (Pavelec good, Mason bad). We were hopeful that nothing would come of the rumors that the team would be relocated. That was some beautiful hope, but it was shattered on May 31, 2011. That was the day the Thrashers died and the Jets were born.
