NEWSLETTER
Seth Jones had a strong game last night by his standards in the box score. After producing eight assists and being minus-seven in the first 23 games of the season, Jones had his first multi-point effort of the season and was plus-three in the 4-3 shootout loss. After the game, Jones spoke with the media and was asked about his lack of point production this season.
“It’s a struggle. We’re not a big rush team, so there’s not a lot of chances that come from there. So I’ve got to find a way to be a little bit more involved [in the O-zone] without being careless and over-aggressive and giving up chances the other way. That’s the line I’m trying to fight right now.”
There’s a lot to unpack in that seemingly simple answer to a question. Here are my issues/concerns with the final part of that response.
I absolutely, 100 percent understand and appreciate his apprehension with being too aggressive and leaving his team in a vulnerable position. And, when I asked Luke Richardson about this answer after the game, he acknowledged that having the number of new/rotating bodies in the lineup is a factor; knowing the personnel on the ice can be tricky at times. With injuries, subtractions and additions, there have been lots of different bodies in the lineup already this year. If Jones is out there with Kevin Korchinski, that might give him pause because Korchinski’s still young and learning. If he’s out there with Nikita Zaitsev… one of them needs to get off the ice and change because Lord help us.
Jones has played in 754 games in the NHL now. He’s an offensively capable defenseman who is getting paid, in large part, because of those elements that he brings to the table. On the Blackhawks’ first goal last night, he attacked the zone and made a really nice play to set up Nick Foligno for the score. Richardson said after the morning skate yesterday, as he has many times this year, that he wants his defensemen to be more offensively inclined and drive more pucks toward the net. Jones should be the veteran who shows/does that the most, because he’s good at it.
So here’s our conundrum: if the coaches are begging their defensemen to be more active, but the veteran leader of the group is having contradictory thoughts about when to go and why not to, how do we solve that? Is it as simple as… maybe communicating better? Do the skaters need better familiarity with each other to know who’s on the ice and who they can trust when they want to attack? Because we’ve seen Korchinski and Alex Vlasic do a really nice job of activating and the Blackhawks would absolutely benefit more from their defensemen becoming part of the attack. And, if there’s a fear that a rush the other was is going to be a problem, is there an underlying lack of confidence in the goaltending on the other end?
I can’t answer all of those questions. And, frankly, the coaches can’t solve them, either. The players on the ice need to sort their stuff out and figure out how to get it right. Jones is the guy who needs to lead that correction movement with the defensemen. We’re now 24 games into the season. It’s time to start seeing things get fixed on the ice and veterans who can help those fixes need to work to do that now.
