Jets Start Strong on the Road

Roads games are supposed to be the Jets death knell this year.  Having only managed 33 points on the road last year and forced once again to play an unforgiving Southeast division schedule in a condensed season, doubts about the Jets ability to perform in the tougher 24 games of the season gave many pundits an excuse to place the team low in their preseason predictions.  It appears that Claude Noel’s squad is just as aware of this challenge as everyone else, as they put in an inspired effort in a 2-1 SO loss to Boston on Monday, followed up by a convincing 4-2 decision in Washington the next night in their third game in four days to open the year.  Taking three out of four points back-to-back on the road is no easy feat, and Winnipeg is going to have six more chances to replicate this success in this situation this season.

Review: Opening Weekend 2013

Hockey’s back, and is it ever rusty.  The boys have awoken from their seven month slumber, some teams more gracefully than others.  The Western Canadian clubs in particular are making hockey look more like a drunken foosball match on ice here in the early going; less artful setups and more hopelessly whacking the puck in a forward direction.   With the absence of a proper training camp or preseason this is to be expected, and it’s going to take a few weeks to get a good read on where teams are really at.  In the meanwhile though, here’s a review of how the teams have fared so far and how much better we can expect them to get.

Vancouver Canucks

The Nucks defenders did not do their goalkeepers any favours in a 7-3 shellacking at the hands of an impressive Anaheim squad.  While Cory Schneider certainly wasn’t at his best, there aren’t many goalies who would have been able to withstand that second period breakdown as the Vancouver skaters did everything in their power to create a day one goalie controversy.  Very few of the Canucks had been playing in the AHL or Europe this year and were completely incapable of handling the Selanne-led onslaught that started late in the first period.

The team recovered nicely on Sunday but still lost to Edmonton, and Alain Vigneault stuck with his original plan to play Luongo in the second game of the back-to-back.  Good thing too; Luongo played well, but if Schneider had put in that same performance with the same 3-2 result there might’ve been some calls from fans to start Roberto against the Flames on Wednesday.  Vancouver fans should resist the urge to panic and at least wait to see if the wheels fall of against Calgary, which is very unlikely.  They’re still the favourites to win the Northwest.

Bright Spots: Kassian, Sedins  ///  Still Rusty: Burrows, Ebbett

Winnipeg Jets

Jets fans will be thanking Bettman and Fehr for the shortened season if their team puts up performances like Saturday’s on a regular basis this year.  The Sens handled them easily in a 4-1 decision despite obviously dealing with some post-lockout cobwebs themselves.  Winnipeg fed off the home crowd’s energy for the first half of the first period and Dustin Byfuglien whipped the faithful into a frenzy when he shelved a laser from the blueline on a powerplay.  It was all downhill from there as the team failed to continue the momentum for the rest of the game.

The biggest concern for the Jets was the disappointing play of the first line.  Even prior to the season there were questions regarding potential chemistry problems between Evander Kane and new acquisition Olli Jokinen.  The duo failed to gel alongside Kyle Wellwood and often failed to find each other on the attack.  The Jets are going to need this line to succeed in order to make the playoffs.  On the plus side, the Eastern European bloc of Ponikarovsky, Burmistrov, and Antropov looked very good.  Scheifele is promising but needs more time in Barrie.

Bright Spots: Byfuglien, Burmistrov  ///  Still Rusty: Jokinen, Kane

Calgary Flames

The oh-so-familiar inconsistency that marred the Flames on a period-by-period basis was back in the fullest of force during their 4-1 loss to the Sharks at the Dome.  Calgary was skating hard and peppered Antii Neimi with 16 shots in the first frame.  After Lee Stempniak scored and Baertschi and Begin both hit iron, Flames fans were left marvelling at this new Hartley-led offensive juggernaut of a squad.  Unfortunately Calgary lost all offensive poise in the next period and appeared to be completely lost in their own zone as San Jose quickly took over the game.

Dealing with the Flames seemingly bi-polar nature is going to be a challenge for Bob Hartley this year, and he’s going to have to deal with it soon.  10 of Calgary’s first 15 games are at home and they can’t afford to squander away the first part of the shortened season learning how to play under their new coach.  That being said the team’s offence showed potential in their first game, and defensemen like Butler and Bouwmeester were very active in the attacking zone.  The Flames will hope to unleash their offence and shore up their defence in this weeks games against Anaheim and Vancouver.

Bright Spots: Backlund, Bouwmeester  ///  Still Rusty: Cammalleri, Tanguay

Edmonton Oilers

Nobody should be surprised to see that the Oilers had the best opener out of the Western teams, besting Vancouver in a 3-2 shootout.  With most of their team playing during the lockout, including the entirety of the first line, they were expected to be the one team in the league to have some resemblance of mid-season form.  Justin Schultz and Nail Yakupov performed well in their much hyped NHL debuts.  Still, the Oilers will have some improvements to make if they want to make the playoffs, and they will need consistent performances from their young players.

Bright Spots: Eberle, Hemsky   ///  Still Rusty: Whitney, Potter