Cup parade? How about a funeral procession instead? By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 2:10 PM CST Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/02/2019 (2138 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The first step, it’s been said, is admitting you have a problem.

And what had been bubbling near the surface for the Winnipeg Jets came to a full-blown boil Wednesday night in Colorado. Embarrassing. Pathetic. Inept. Those were just a few of the words that came to mind after watching the debacle in Denver.

Turns out I was being kind in my assessment of a 7-1 loss to the Avalanche, which included getting lit up for five goals in the final period. That prompted goalie Connor Hellebuyck — completely thrown to the wolves by his teammates — to smash his stick in half after Colorado converted the touchdown with 34 seconds left in the game. It wasn’t a good look for anyone, even if it perfectly summed up the current state of affairs.

“It looked like we kind of gave up,” said Blake Wheeler in a damning indictment of the team he captains.

“We were (expletive) awful. We were terrible. It’s unacceptable,” added forward Adam Lowry.

Coach Paul Maurice seemed taken aback when team broadcaster Brian Munz told him Wheeler said it looked like the team quit. “Somebody used that word? K. We’ll sort that out tomorrow.”

The normally affable, well-spoken bench boss then abruptly cut the media gab session short — after a grand total of 43 seconds — telling scribes to “have a wonderful day” as he quickly exited, stage left, with smoke figuratively pouring out his ears.

There’s a lot to unpack here.

Yes, Winnipeg woke up Thursday morning, still somehow in first place in the Central Division. (Nashville would overtake them with a victory Thursday night over Los Angeles, although the Jets will still have three games in hand).

But to simply trumpet their current spot in the standings would be to ignore the elephant in the room.

Winnipeg hasn’t looked right for a long time, punctuated by perhaps the worst game of the season a couple weeks ago in Montreal where a 5-2 loss actually flattered the visitors. At the time, everyone talked about it being an important, perhaps even necessary, wake-up call. Maurice even called it “horses—t.”

But the Jets followed up that dreadful performance with not one, but two losses to the sad-sack Ottawa Senators, who currently sit 31st in the 31-team NHL. And now two losses to Colorado, a team well below them in the standings that had been in a terrible slump until they beat the Jets twice in six days by a combined score of 11-2. Only a couple of wins over Buffalo and the New York Rangers have prevented this recent stretch from being a complete disaster.

Perhaps most alarming is how a team like the Jets, which is supposed to be built on speed and skill, looks slow and completely out of sorts. Maurice gave his troops two straight days off earlier this week, believing it was the answer to getting them moving again.

“I felt the best chance for us to win in Colorado was to get them rested, get them feeling good,” he said Tuesday.

And they responded by throwing up all over themselves.

Perhaps most alarming is how a team like the Jets, which is supposed to be built on speed and skill, looks slow and completely out of sorts.

So now the question becomes where do you go from here? No, I don’t believe Maurice has “lost the room,” as some might suggest. But like most of his players right now, Maurice needs to be better in getting this group prepared to play and putting them in the best position to do so. They’re back to taking way too many penalties, the penalty kill has sprung a huge leak and every opponent seems to be on to every system the Jets are using right now.

Maurice brought out the line blender in the third period Wednesday, and it only led to more misery. Short of shuffling the deck even more, there don’t appear to be a lot of in-house remedies available right now.

Dustin Byfuglien, Joe Morrow and Nikolaj Ehlers are still out of the lineup with injuries, and the two healthy extras the Jet are carrying right now are Nic Petan (a healthy scratch since late December) and Tucker Poolman. Sure, you can try inserting them into the lineup and sitting a couple players to send a proverbial message, but it’s hard to see either being a difference-maker.

The obvious suggestion would be a shakeup by way of a trade. It’s no secret Winnipeg is in the market for an upgrade prior to Monday’s deadline, but recent events should increase the urgency. This team is clearly not good enough right now to compete for a Stanley Cup. In fact, it’s hard to see how they even escape a round or two of the playoffs in their current form.

General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who stayed back in Winnipeg for this road trip to oversee trade talks, must have been horrified by what he saw on television Wednesday.

Everyone seems to be saying the right things, only to go out and do the complete opposite.

The Jets are damn lucky the Western Conference is a shadow of its former self this season. Consider this: Winnipeg has already matched the number of its regulation losses from last season (20). The Jets put up that many in 82 games and finished second. They have that many through 60 games and somehow still sat first in the Central after the latest defeat.

“I guess we’re fat and comfortable with where we’re at,” a seething Lowry said after the Colorado game. “We’ve got to look at ourselves and know that nothing is given in this league. We’re not that (expletive) good.”

No, they’re not. And here’s the thing: what once seemed like a virtual lock — home-ice advantage in the opening round — is no longer the case. It’s not just Nashville they have to worry about. Here come the St. Louis Blues, winners of 11 straight games and now just seven points back of Winnipeg entering play Thursday, with a game in hand.

Sure, the Jets can stumble into the playoffs even at this current rate of play, thanks to putting enough points in the bank earlier in the campaign — which is looking increasingly like a huge mirage. But it’s going to be a very short stint if they don’t get their act together.

I keep coming back, in my mind, to Wheeler’s comments about giving up. As the veteran winger pointed out, Winnipeg has had plenty of teams in the past that didn’t even come close to this one in terms of talent, yet never seemed to mail it in the way the Jets did Wednesday night.

That can’t become a habit. To his credit, the captain called it a “reflection of leadership and it starts at the top.”

“It’s a good time for an awakening for our team. I think our team needed it, needs it. We’ve got a bunch of guys who want to look in the mirror instead of pointing fingers. We’ll be all right,” he insisted.

Notice a trend here? Everyone seems to be saying the right things, only to go out and do the complete opposite. Yes, they’re admitting they have a problem. But right now this looks like a group that has absolutely no solutions.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Sports columnist

Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.

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