Stick to basics to bust slumps

Opinion

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This article was published 13/12/2017 (2325 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s rare that a National Hockey League team can avoid going through a “slump” at some point during the season. After all, even the best teams go through them.

At least a few Winnipeg Jets fans were mumbling the S-word after last week’s road trip, which saw them lose to the Detroit Red Wings 5-1, Florida Panthers 6-4 and Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in overtime.

The grumbling stopped when the Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 on Monday, and the panic buttons were put back in the drawer.

While the road trip was just a blip, there were signs that the Jets might be heading into a slump.

Detroit took away a lot of things the Jets like to do offensively, particularly by using a strong forecheck. At the same time, the Jets were mishandling the puck and were not able to get anything going in a smooth manner.

However, they stuck mostly to their game plan and didn’t go off on crazy attempts to win the game in one shift, until they had to take chances in the third period, where they got burned.

The Panthers were able get a similar result with a strong battle level and pressuring the Jets. Winnipeg struggled with the puck often, but managed four goals and had some great chances, enough for them to win on many nights. But they weren’t right.

They then forced the best team in the NHL to engage in a chess match in Tampa Bay. There was very little room to move on the ice considering the terrific talent on each team. This was a perfect way to play the Lightning.

A slump was averted because the Jets didn’t stray from their systems.

I’ve been on teams that suffered through those down times, both as a player and coach, and I believe some “reasons” are closer to excuses.

Injuries can trigger a slump, but the teams with good depth in their system rarely let this affect them. The next-man-up approach works for them, unless you get a string of top players going down.

Even the Anaheim Ducks still have hope after an extraordinary number of big names suffered significant time on the sidelines.

You’ve heard a lot about the 15 games in 28 days the Jets have been playing and all the time-zone changes the Jets went though.

I don’t argue numbers often, but I’m not big on schedule excuses over the course of a season. Good teams play through them, compete hard and stay the course.

If you want to trot out excuses, let’s not forget the good things.

The Jets play the fewest sets of back-to-back games in the league this season (nine), and those are notoriously tough. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators each have 19 of them.

Bad goaltending is obviously a killer that can quickly send a team into a slump.

This is likely the most difficult one for players trying to keep their heads and stay within the team’s structure. Defenders will either overplay their gap or back in too much, while forwards will gamble to make up for the weak goals against.

These just add to the problem, but it takes a very mature group to stick with the plan until they start getting some saves.

To me, the best reason to take a nosedive is a team having some bad puck luck.

This is probably the easiest way to start sliding into some losses, and maybe the surest way out. If they’re a team whose shooting percentage drops to half of what it normally is, they’re likely “fighting the puck.”

The same thing holds if their goaltender’s save percentage drops 20 points from what he’s usually at.

Again, it’s simply a matter of sticking to what usually works until things return to their previous level. It doesn’t always normalize as quickly as they’d like, but it’s a good bet that it’ll get back there.

As much as a player’s tendency is to try to physically fix things, the ability to be mentally strong and resist the urge to stray outside their team’s plan is paramount to getting out of any slump.

I was asked at the end of November if I thought the Jets could do some serious damage in the playoffs, as they were my pre-season pick to get there.

While I’d obviously seen a number of good things to that point, I needed to examine the Jets for the month of December before deciding.

Thus far, they are 3-2-1, and have a reasonably tough schedule over the last half.

That’s not a great start, but they stopped the road trip bleeding before it became a slump, which gives the Jets a check mark.

They played the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night and have the highly anticipated back-to-back games with the St. Louis Blues on the weekend.

The Blues just lost Jaden Schwartz (who was ninth in the NHL in scoring when he went down) and stalwart defenceman Alex Pietrangelo to injury (he’s eligible to return Sunday).

While the Jets have defencemen Dustin Byfuglien and Toby Enstrom injured, there are really no excuses as the team had two days off before the Chicago game.

By the time they played the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, they might have enough check marks to project their playoff longevity a bit early.

Although, there’s a reason I said I’d need the whole month, so maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Chosen ninth overall by the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and first overall by the WHA’s Houston Aeros in 1977, Scott Campbell has now been drafted by the Winnipeg Free Press to play a new style of game.

Twitter: @NHL_Campbell