Tyszka Shift-By-Shift
April 10, 2017
By Grant McCagg
Given that there is a huge divergence of opinion on Jarret Tyszka…ranging from scouts that like him in the first round to some who would be hesitant to pick him in the mid rounds – I decided to have an in-depth video look at him. I focused on the first game of Seattle’s WHL semi-final series versus Everett. I started watching him at about the 7 or 8-minute mark of the first period – here is a shift-by-shift breakdown of what I saw that was notable:
Very first shift I look at…D partner gives it to him..he skates up to his own blueline like a house on fire with it and head down, then realizes he can’t do anything, stops just as he’s going to get checked and softly dumps it to the Everett dman on the opposing blueline.
2nd shift – ….I’ll let the play-by-play commentator sum up the shift…. “Right side Tyszka….gives it right back to the Silvertips.”
3rd shift – Gets the puck in the O zone with a good chance…wrist shot four feet over the crossbar and two feet wide.
4th shift – Pressured an opponent in his own end..puck ended up going out of his zone…he chases it all the way down to behind the Everett net as the first forechecker…circles the Everett net…follows the puck on his way back to his own zone a line behind it and out of the play as a forward covered for him. Looked fast doing it though…he can skate.
5th shift – Last 30 secs on the pp..made three short passes in the EVT zone that weren’t intercepted. No mistakes…but nothing noteworthy.
6th shift – Nothing noteworthy happened good or bad..deflected a shot out of play.
7th shift – Nothing happened…he was there. No offensive or defensive plays.
8th shift – Strand played with his regular D partner Hyman
9th shift – Touched the puck once…puck came to him at his blueline…pass went off the Everett player pressuring him..turned over but nothing bad happened.
10th shift – Went back behind his net to retrieve the puck..skated around his net and tried to keep it from the forechecker but lost it..puck was fed into the slot but no great scoring chance…turnover. Puck battle with his D partner in his own one on his left side…instead of staying on the right hand side of the net stands about ten feet away from his partner on the same side..leaving the entire right side exposed..nothing bad happens.
11th shift – With Bear. Everett comes down…he backs up right to his goalie…is on the same side as Bear and ends up with his back turned facing the goalie. Two Everett forwards on his side left alone…rebound comes to Tuololla..he scores with Tyz still turned around facing his goalie. inexplicably. 1-1. Next shift Bear plays with Hyman.
Played last 15 second of the second…lost a puck battle behind his net..Everett ran out of time
13th shift – puck takes a funny bounce.behind his own net..puck comes to the front of the net with goalie out..Tyszka was there..lost the puck again behind his own net..got it back and got it to a teammates…uneventful other than that.
14th shift – Tyszka gets the puck deep in his own..moves slowly with it and doesn’t pass..Everrett fwd takes it from him…D partner rescues him. Puck comes to him behind his own net..gets bumped off it…Everett gets it…takes a shot on net.
15th shift – Nothing happened….never had the puck.
16th shift – Offensive zone faceoff won back to him..went over his stick..D partner quelled the chance as he skated back behind the play. Gets puck in off/ zone at the blueline..takes a wrist shot that never finds the net.
17th shift – Seattle up 2-1 late. Everett gets puck along the boards..he leaves the front of the net open and stands high in the slot..leaving forwards to cover the front of the net…puck comes to Seattle..he takes off like a bat out of hell ahead of the other four teammates..don’t even see him in the screen he’s so far ahead of the play hoping for a pass..this is with his team “protecting” a one-goal lead…it was quite mind boggling. Seen him do it before as well.
18th shift – Puck comes to him in own zone..tries to head behind the net..gets it checked off his stick three times.manages to club it over to the boards where luckily a teammates gets it..certainly wasn’t a purposeful ‘pass’..more a play of desperation.
19th shift – Puck comes to him in own zone and once again just hung onto it until it was checked off his stick..swung it away from the opponent and it ended up behind the net..where he lost it again Gets the puck…and often does nothing with it until it’s checked off of his stick. This happened at least eight times. He had two shifts the last 11 minutes.
PP time – 30 secs at the end of one PP
PK time – None
Shots – None
Scoring chances created – None
Plus/minus – He was -1 in a game his team gave up one goal.
Turnovers – If you count ones where he ended up knocking the puck back off the Everett players after he lost possession…more than a dozen. At least six times he took the puck below his goal line and stood there with it until it was taken off his stick…simply handed it to the Everett dmen three times…another three times his own zone passes were intercepted, three other occasions as he glided in his own zone with it he had it stripped.
Draft potential – This is not the first time he’s had a bad game..there have been more bad ones than good for me in the 15 or so I’ve watched. Major issue with his hockey sense….it’s a big issue with me. I would not draft him in the top-three rounds. I would not draft him at all, frankly, as he’ll be gone by the time I’d consider him. Someone will pick him based on his size and skating higher than he should be.