Whenever I talk to hockey fans and Steve Mason is brought up, there’s always mention of how the Winnipeg Jets would be better without him. He hasn’t had many strong games, if any, and has taken a whole lot of blame.
Steve Mason has subpar stats, and his game hasn’t been on point this season. Last night, he let up some weak goals against Buffalo near the end. They weren’t weak on his part, but on the defensive end. Mason takes lots of blame, and it’s time to draw the line. He obviously need to step it up, but saying that he’s the cause of losing the six games they lost with him in net? That’s too far.
What’s causing him not to succeed?
The Jets defence has been great this season, but Mason seems to get unlucky with them. He’s taken some bad bounces, for example, a goal Buffalo scored near the end of the game. It bounced weird off the boards behind the net, which let one of the Sabres players pounce on the opportunity and score. Goals like those can’t be prevented by any goalie and Mason is no exception.
It’s never easy moving to a new city to play. I wouldn’t be surprised if he still hasn’t gotten comfortable, and doesn’t have his confidence all there.
Will he pick it up?
Against Buffalo, he was all good until he had a couple unlucky bounces. The Winnipeg Jets still came away with a win, but letting their play slip later in a game is not a good way to do their job. They let themselves think they had it in the bag, when really, it’s not over ’till it’s over. Letting the Sabres take advantage of them like that was not in any way Mason’s fault.
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I still haven’t decided whether Steve will get back on track, or if this is going to be a long two years. He has bad stats, but in a game like yesterday, the necessary improvement isn’t on him. Maybe he’s getting into the feel of things already. Maybe it was a lucky win. I just hope Mason lives up to his $4 million a year deal.