Jones, Ranford break down Saturday’s performance in goal

Martin Jones stopped 18 of 21 shots in Manchester’s 3-2 loss to Providence on Saturday night in a game in which the Bruins did a good job of generating traffic, deflections and difficult reads in front of the net. On a night that featured a disproportionate amount of time in the opposite end, it wasn’t the easiest game for Jones to get into a comfortable rhythm and see a lot of shots cleanly.

“I think they pretty much only had two clean looks at the net today, and they were both in the third period,” he said. “All of it today was kind of scrambles in front and deflections. It was tough. Tough game. Just tried to fight most of ‘em off. Got a good skate this morning and felt good, but just one of those games where you didn’t see a lot of clean shots.”

Jones and Goaltending coach Bill Ranford broke down the performance in net following the 3-2 loss:

Bill Ranford, on Martin Jones’ performance in the loss:
I think the most important thing for him is to play and to get some looks in, and that’s the whole idea of him coming here. It was a weird game, really bad breakdowns that ended up in the net. I thought he made some big saves when the game was on the line in the third, and that’s what you really want him to do. I thought it was just a good game. Not a lot of work, but he’s got lots of room to improve.

Ranford, on the difference between seeing NHL and AHL-level shots:
I think the big thing is the breakdowns are usually bad breakdowns, and it’s just you’ve got to get used to that. The fortunate thing is he knows these guys here, and I think he’s comfortable playing in front of this group. I don’t think it’s necessarily a big adjustment for him. It’s just different mistakes that you don’t see at the pro level that you’ve got to be ready for, and I thought he handled them pretty well tonight. It’s just what I said to him – ‘just go upwards with your play, and focus on detail.’

Jones, on whether he had to make any adjustments in his Manchester return:
Nothing, really. I mean, there’s no adjustments. This is a tough league and a good league, and I’ve got to make sure that I’m playing with the same urgency and speed that I do up there. Nothing really changes from my standpoint. I want to make sure I’m playing the same game as I am up there.

Jones, on whether it’s a “tougher game” without the clean looks:
Yeah. Like I said, it was a tough game because you don’t see a lot of clean pucks. I didn’t really see any until the third period. A lot of scrambly plays, and a lot of deflections, so I just tried to stay in it and battle and compete on all those loose pucks.

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