Ahhhh made up stats
Seriously, though - the eyes confirmed the Jets were bad after Christmas last year, and so far this year, I feel like especially with the lack of top 4 D we have, and outside a couple of stinkers the team has been pretty decent. The team has looked better as of late so hopefully that is the trend and not a blip.
The stat that sticks out to me is the big minus beside Morrissey. That's our #1 d-man getting torched on a regular basis, mathematically almost 2 out of 3 games being on the - side of the ledger. And really that's where I see the problem. We can look at the team that played without Buff last year. Morrissey-Trouba played a lot. Kulikov-Myers played significant minutes. And then Chiarot-Niku were steady, after a few bumps in the road. Well Kulikov-Pionk is doing the same as Kulikov-Myers did last year as a top 4. Sbisa is an adequate replacement for Chiarot. Beaulieu in for Niku isn't quite the same dynamic offensively, but Beaulieu is probably a little better defensively. So we are essentially missing Trouba's role, which Poolman has not grown into. And it is probably not the right role for him.
I'd like to see Niku get a look along side Morrissey. If Nashville can win games with Josi-Ellis, I don't think Morrissey-Niku is that far off. We would have a top 4 at least, little bit green, but at least 3 great skaters in it. Defensemen who can push the pace, join the rush, and push the play behind the goal line, are the key to creating and sustaining possession.
Then you can have a competition between bottom pairs, Beaulieu-Sbisa, Bitetto-Poolman.
Right now that is what we have. Samberg is an end of season aspiration for the top 4. Kovacevic could develop into an NHL regular by the end of the year, with lots of reps.
For all the talent we claim to have, we are really just running 2 scoring lines, and a checking/possession line too.
Apples and Bourque are 4th line energy guys, who can play up the lineup a line, but the 4th line hasn't been a factor since Perreault-Gustafsson-Bourque were together.
The salary cap and trades have really thinned us out at forward, and with Little out for awhile, the talent margin is not necessarily in our favour, if you come across a good defense that can stifle our speed.
Going to have to be scrappy all year to get to the playoffs.