Pod Excl: Why is Nyquist Still Out There?

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1:05Rwiki, discuss why Gustav Nyquist is getting played ahead of some prospects. We get into that. Don't go anywhere. Well, well, well, well, if it isn't the guy that said the Jets don't need to possess the puck to win hockey games, you're right about that. I was right. Well, well, well, well, if it wasn't the guy that said it. Why would you need the puck if you can just keep turning it over in your own zone and end up with two points? But anybody says Conor hella-buck needs to be traded when you could get Leon Dry's title form straight up. Just get the other players. Just do not build them out. Young players with size and speed, and they know how to play the game. Do not find the player that is absolutely the best on the planet in his position and keep him. You must move on from him to rebuild the game. So we were going to, I was, I've had a lot of time to think that we, we had a crazy free-for-all Friday and Thanksgiving for stepping it on fire, and there was a lot of people

2:06were trash in Conor, and I didn't come to Conor's defense enough because there was a lot of people complaining, he doesn't go in the corners and all that. You could have stood up, but I stood down. But I should have, like listen, you can have all three forwards going in the corner to dig the puck out. Then who are they going to get the puck to? To get it out. So Conor's job is not to go into the corners and get the puck. His job is to sort of be that, the, the, the, the, the Jets call it that F3. The guy that's outside of, like, shifle is going to go in, I follow is going to go in, Valardi is going to go in. It's then Conor's role to be that F3, to be the F3, to be the guy that's, that's outside of the, outside of the corner, because that's not good defense. It's not good offense to keep off all your, you can't keep all your players deep in the zone. You're going to get caught off the rush. It's so funny to you, like, looking back at the rush last night, like, you just look at a guy like Oveschkin and like all the narratives that are put against him and his career.

3:08And it's just like, like, goal scorers, just when, if you're not winning, goal scorers just get pinned as lazy, they don't play defense. They don't care. And it's like, that's not the fence of games come miles. Yeah. Hey, who's great? Who is doing fantastic killing penalties yesterday? Yes. Kyle Conor. Here's the thing when I, but like, when I was listening on Friday, but I'm like, so the kids are there, right? Like, I'm homesick. They're sick. I'm making them lunch. We're listening to Jets at noon. It's my 14 year olds, like, people don't like Kyle Conor. And I'm like, while they like him, they just don't like how he, he can struggle defensively at times. Like, he's like a great player. And it just gave me that kids perspective of, is he perfect? No, but who's the perfect hockey player right now? Who is, who doesn't have one thing in their game? Nine years, nine out of 10 years, nine years, 30 goals score, and I'll argue eight years in a row. But the, the one year he didn't, he had 26 goals in 52 games.

4:09If you put right, that 82 games is 30 goals. Yeah, I don't count the, yeah, I don't count. So he's a perennial 30 goal score. He's a 90 point, 80 to 90 point getter. And we pick him apart. Does he deserve criticism when he plays bad defensively? Of course he does. But does that outweigh, like, against the ducks, like, against the ducks, and a real tough game. We're homers, apparently, but we call them out on that when they is, when the top line has a bad game, we talk about it. Oh, I want to talk about something else that came up on Friday. I want to talk about, uh, night quest. I'm starting to get to the point where, and I, I had enough of, and I could listen to the argument about, well, you know, listen, you got to, you know, play the vets, you're going to put Roseanne with, with a, with a couple of veterans that have been around the league a long time. He sees how he needs to prepare. He sees how he needs to play and how he needs to go and shift in, shift out, I've time for that. It's getting to the point with night quest, who was doing a lot of drawing with the referees yesterday, who can't win a puck battle to save his life, can't win a one-on-one battle.

5:13Um, it's just, it's essentially a black hole on offense. Can't get the puck out of the zones, turn the puck over. I'm at the point where I, I think there needs to be somebody else that's, that's taking that spot on the third line. Well, I'll say first of all, the officiating yesterday was terrible. I mean, the rest of the battle, you know, it was terrible, it was terrible both ways. But that face-off draw, um, with Schifle that he was so mad about, um, I mean, it was against Brock Nelson. It was against Brock Nelson on Saturday where the home team put, Brock Nelson put his stick down and the guy dropped the puck and won the face-off. The home team puts their stick down first and he allowed it to go on. Nelson put his stick down, Schifle bends over and the guy drops the puck, doesn't tell him to pick up his stick till Schifle puts it down. And then he, he lets it go and Schifle's, I read it at the end of the period, he's like, what are you doing? And then the guys are arguing with him. What are you arguing? Well, then the line's been two, it's just like every single time it's, uh, oh, not yet,

6:15not yet. Okay. And then it's into the game yesterday. Arneal was losing his mind. I don't know if it was on camera, but I was in the press box and they call the, the, the icing or the off side on something. And Arneal was so irate, he literally was waving his hand like this going, get out of here, get out of here. Just just f off. We'll get to, we'll get to that during the show, like Nyquist, um, we're going off top. I'm fired. Yeah, Nyquist. Um, do you, do you have time? Do you have time for, do you think that he, do you think that maybe a Danny Jilkin or a part of it? No, I don't. I, when they are out of the playoff hunt, that's when those guys will come in. Yeah. I don't, and the argument people will say is Danny Jilkin's not going to be any worse than Gustaf Nyquist, and they're probably right. But they also might not spot a, play a goal like a veteran player might do. Yeah. He's got experience. He's a veteran. Does he deserve to be in the lineup? I don't think deserve has anything to do with it. I think they're paying him three and a half million dollars to not sit in the press box. And he's not hurting the team to the point of to what you're saying.

7:16Like he hasn't scored, he hasn't produced, he hasn't done anything, but he hasn't caused any turnovers and he hasn't been a liability defensively, like a young player might. Like when I see Brad Lambert come in, right now, I really like Brad Lambert, but he still has some defensive deficiencies that are there. Well, it's, it's like with Roseanne too on the same line that there's, there's, there's turnovers there. Right. He's, you know, he's like, uh, Lambert had a, had a couple of iceings that were not great. He just not playing. Right. Just, just, just, that's not that you can work out, but there's not. So to me, the Nyquist thing is, do we have a guy in the moose that is probably going to get us some points? I don't think you are. I don't think Danny Jilkins going to come in and have three points in six games. I'm going to push back on that a little bit because I like, and I get the, you know, he's veteran. You got to do right by them. The keep guys wanting to come to Winnipeg. To me, Gus Nyquist has not held up his end of the bargain whatsoever when he signed that $3 million deal. And if you're not doing that, like, this is a professional sports organization. It's not a place where, hey, if you're at the tail end of your career, you can come here

8:20and we'll get you in the lineup, like goose, Gus Nyquist has not done what he was brought in to do this year, and he should absolutely be sent down. There's no, but he has been, he has been sat for that, he has been healthy scratch for that. And they don't have anybody else that could potentially do the veteran things that he's aware of. You don't think Morgan Barron could help out though there instead of Gus Nyquist? Well, more than Barron. Yeah, but you're still dressing Nyquist. This is the discussion is where you're not dressing him and bringing somebody up from the moose. But I think that's a bad look because like, as an organization, you need to have standards that look. If we bring in to do a job and you can't do it, then it's not about someone else's because Mark Schifle said in the post game, when he finally got, Nyquist finally got that goal, we're all elated for him. We love Gus. He's one of the best teammates we've ever had, and he hasn't even been here a full year. See, that's, that's my theory here that it's a team decision, but then all the players want him out there. That sounds country club to me, but that's, that's, that's the Jets in so many ways. But don't you think that that's what's going on here?

9:22That is probably, he had Schifle and Morris and Adam Lowry come into the office and say, no, this guy, we want him out there. They're not saying we want him out there. The coaching staff would just see how beloved he is and how these veteran guys love him and love playing with him. And they would have also seen the reaction when he was healthy scratch and how they probably all galvanize around him and said, hey, Gus, don't worry about it. When you get back in there, we keep your head up a little blah, but that, that's to a point. I think there was something like the moose line up that could come in and help make a difference more than Nyquist is. I think they would do it, but we don't, I think there's entangue. I think there's things behind the scenes just to why he's still in there. I don't think it's, I don't think it's all to do on ice or off ice. I don't know if that's, I think that's a little, but that, and that's why the Jets are where they are right now. That's why there are four points away from being fourth last in the NHL because it's just like guy, hey, Gus, you're great, dude. You're going to keep getting power play and top six opportunities and, no, I don't, I don't buy that Tyson naming the player on the moose that will come in and do more than

10:24Gus Nyquist's. Brad Lambert, Danny Jentcher, Danny Schelkin, Danny Schelkin, look great in the fourth line. He's done nothing offensively, but we don't know what Brad Lambert could do because he's playing nine, seven minutes a night every game instead of Gus Nyquist getting to what Brad Lambert can do. And he's looked very good in those nine to seven minutes, but he's also a defensive liability. Okay, but he almost has as many points as Gus Nyquist does all year, but he also has a turn over up the wall that ended up in the back of the net and the team lost. Well, that's, I'd rather have that volatility where, hey, maybe Brad Lambert can make plays as opposed to Gus Nyquist, where it's just, I mean, he's already made more plays than Nyquist has this year. When they're out of the playoffs, he'll have the opportunity to make all the plays they want. But right now, they bank on the veteran who they believe in and who more so, I think the coaching staff sees the team believe in. I just, I really don't think Gus Nyquist does anything. I don't think he's done anything, but that's the, but we've just been over that, right? You know what? I think it's the safe choice. I think that's the Jets making the safe choice. It's a safe choice. And, and to be honest with you, just to wrap this up, again, we all know it's the same

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