November 3, 2009

Jake Brown
IrishIllustrated.com Recruiting Analyst

JAKE BROWN: After watching the tape from last weekend’s split with Ohio State, what are some of the things that caught your eye?

JEFF JACKSON: I was very pleased with Friday night. Saturday we showed some of the same inconsistencies that we’ve shown earlier in the season, specifically our play with the puck, being too loose with the puck leading to transition for the opponent. In that regard, it’s disappointing to not have that level of consistency.

JB: What is that inconsistency? That’s kind of a strange thing to be worrying about with a mostly veteran group.

JJ: Well, the turnovers are coming from all different areas. Just bad decisions with the puck sometimes by our defensemen, sometimes by the forwards, at both blue lines to where transition is optimal for the opponent. Right now we’re gonna continue to practice making good decisions with the puck. That’s all we can do at this point. It’s just the responsibility of the players to know when they can take a chance and knowing when they should take a chance.

It’s a matter of knowing the difference. It’s no different than a quarterback under pressure making the right decision. Sometimes you have to throw the ball away or eat it. There are other times where it’s worth taking the risk. It’s just a matter of having the poise to make a play under pressure.

JB: What was the biggest difference between Friday (a win) and Saturday (a tie and shootout loss) from what you saw?

JJ: It was probably puck possession and good puck decisions – passing, puck support. Those things are the things that have haunted us for the most part early on. It’s a matter of us working as a group of five coming up the ice and also going back defensively working as a group of five as opposed to one guy or two guys versus five.

I think that the frustration of several individuals for not being able to score has added to the problem. It takes away from making good plays with the puck, trying to do too much to create a scoring chance.

JB: Do you see a lot of guys out there that are pressing right now?

JJ: I’m starting to see more and more. Let’s face facts; we’ve got like 18 goals in eight games. I think 10 of them are power play. We may be averaging a goal a game 5-on-5. With some of the ability we have out here it just doesn’t make sense.

JB: The puck possession stuff, is that directly related to not scoring 5-on-5?

JJ: Oh, I think it is because when we make bad decisions we’re forced to play defense. I thought we were OK in the first period Saturday night but then we started pressing in the second period and started turning the puck over which led to (Ohio State) gaining momentum and taking advantage of their transition game because they’ve got a pretty good transitional team.

I thought that especially their top two lines, but for the most part their whole team, was really taking advantage of the mistakes we were making with the puck.

JB: How important is it to iron some of that out quickly? Because Alaska, they don’t take many penalties, you wouldn’t think you’d be on the power play much this weekend.

JJ: It’s gonna be a problem. The way we beat them last year is the way we’re gonna have to have success against them this year. They’re gonna play tight defensively. They’re gonna play with a lot of discipline. Last year, both games were one-goal, struggling games. I don’t expect it to be much different.

JB: Does Alaska look a little more potent on offense than they were last year?

JJ: Yeah, I think they’re a little quicker up front. I think they do a real good job on the cycle and deep on the offensive zone play. They’ve got some skill up front. It’s showing. They’re having better offensive production than they did a year ago.

JB: How important is patience when you’re playing a team like Alaska?

JJ: I think it’s everything. That’s what they wait for you to do. They wait for you to break down. Last year we showed a lot of poise against them and patience. They were two tough games. They haven’t lost a game this year and we’re playing in their building. They’ll have last change. I’m sure they’ll be all geared up for us.

JB: How do you feel about the goaltending situation right now? It’s not like Brad Phillips has played poorly.

JJ: No, he hasn’t. I keep trying to profess to people that Mike Johnson’s done a good job and I think he’s put himself in a position to challenge to be our No. 1 goalie. But we also have to take a look at what’s happened is because we’re not scoring much it puts more emphasis on the goalies. The games that we’ve lost, Brad’s been in for all four of them.

The thing is that his numbers, his save percentage, is no different than what Jordan Pearce’s was last year. And Mike Johnson is even ahead of that and so is Tommy (O’Brien). A goalie with a 92-plus save percentage is playing pretty good. He’s letting in less than one in every 10 shots. The timing of the goals against, in the third period especially, and our inability to score a couple goals, has put more pressure on the goalies.