Morale victory?

Courtesy mckeenshockey.com

Last night the Winnipeg Jets arguably played their best game of the year, and fell 3-0 to the Montréal Canadiens. I know what you are thinking, this is pro sports and there are no morale victories. Perhaps that is true, but it's also important to remember the NHL season is a marathon, not a sprint. The Jets dominated several aspects of the game last night, the numbers don't lie... 

 

To be honest, I'm really an advanced stats guy. I've started to read up on the subject more (if you are interested and not sure how to start, order Rob Vollman's book) but I'm not even at the point where I'm very comfortable writing about it. There is a recently new website called extraskater.com and they break down the advanced stats for every game nightly. The reason I point this out is the Jets shot the lights out last night. A good Corsi number for a player is 50%. The ONLY Jets under that number was Paul Postma who posted a 47.1%, which is not a bad number at all. All of the other 17 skaters save Postma posted an above average event. Basically what happened last night was nearly impossible. Carey Price was LIGHTS OUT.  

 

Some of the highlights last night were Evander Kane, Olli Jokinen, Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, and Tobias Enstrom all in the high 60's. Jim Slater was the best at 76.5%. Now if you like, you can poke holes in all the Corsi, Corsi Rel, and Fenwick if you like. I've heard it all, stats are for losers, all that matters is the final score, I get it. Hell, I used to say the same things. I can tell you this though, much smarter folks than I that I read and chat with tell me there is something to this. I'm lead to believe that if the Jets can consistently post events like this, not only are they a playoff team, they will be a dominant team. That of course assumes some good luck to go with the bad and quality goaltending... 

 

So cheer up Jets fans! They may only be 2 points from the bottom of the division, but they are only 3 points from second place in the division. If they follow the path from last evening, good days are coming. Really. 

And this just in...Evander Kane is hurt. Ouch