We've done pretty well at drafting. Scheifele, Trouba, Ehlers, Morrissey, Connor, Hellebyuck, Laine, Perfetti...
The Atlanta core had their chance to contend, now it's time for the Jets core to step up and make their run. We can't keep watching our core age out of their primes and hoping we hit on all our 1st rounders. For every Connor or Ehlers, we seem to end up with a Stanley, Roslovic, or Vesalainen. It's never going to be an exact science, but the clock is ticking. We have too much talent to bottom out, so there's no point in hoping for a top pick that's going to somehow be the difference maker. The team just went 4-1-1 in a nine day span against the west with two b2b's in that period. They're finding ways to gut it out even if it's not pretty. This is what the Jets used to do when they were fighting to contend back when they had Buff. It's a sign that the players are starting to give a shit, and that wasn't happening under Maurice.
To be fair Stanley was our 2nd pick of the first round, Roslovic was our second pick of the first round also. Vesalainen has been disappointing I'll agree, I was definitely expecting more but how long can one wait?
I'm hoping you're right on the team giving a crap but I'm not entirely convinced just yet. There've been some good games of late but some real bad tendencies within those games so I'm not entirely sold.
The rest are random thoughts not related to your post specifically.
I'm not all that convinced that Covid is to blame for the play of Mark and Blake. Mark's apathy was apparent early in the season and his play hasn't been there for a number of years relative to what it was so I think Covid is just another thing he had to deal with. Wheeler is aging out. His effort is top notch, almost always, but I still have issues with the ice time he gets and putting him out when the other team has an EN is just beating a dead horse. He's a warrior but he's not a great defender, he's not especially quick and by the end of the game he's usually gassed anyway. Maybe Covid affected Blake more and he's coming out of it a bit, but his effort has always been unquestionable, even if his usage has at times been odd.
Comrie has been a remarkably pleasant surprise. I'll confess to being terrified of having him as a backup going into the season. I'd still prefer Broissoit but Comrie has done all that has been asked of him. My only real knock on him is he seems to generally let one in early, but it seems to get him going, so whatever in that case. I still develop a nervous tick at the thought of Hellebuyck getting injured but that may not be entirely fair to Comrie. Their roles and expectations are different.
On the coaching side, assuming we don't win the cup, I'd actually like to see them sort of clean house. A couple of recent games notwithstanding I'm not seeing much different from the Maurice coached Jets. Any issues I might be able to put forward are entirely speculative so I'm really not going to travel down that path much. The reality is the organization will not trade Scheifele and they'll not trade Wheeler. Full stop. I'm not convinced that Maurice's hierarchy within the team isn't lingering and I don't think it's a positive. I mostly loved the play of both our leaders in the last two games but I think the play of the team when both were out is a direction I'd like to see the room take. So if we aren't getting rid of those guys, and I'd contend we probably shouldn't (loyalty for Wheeler and he only has a year left; trading Scheifele will come back to bite us hard, I'd rather see him rejuvenated in Winnipeg under new staff) then the only way to really effect change is by changing the coaching staff. I'm not sure you need to wholesale fire the lot but I'd like to see the boat rocked a little bit. If it were up to me I'd get rid of Flaherty and Huddy, move Lowry back to assistant. I'm undecided on Kompon, probably keep. But I think you really need to look at hiring a coach from outside the system this summer and give them the option to select their own staff.
When Ehlers comes back how about we send Poganski back down? Others have mentioned Harkins, Vesalainen but nobody is mentioning Poganski. I liked Poganski's game in the couple of preseason tilts I attended and we nicknamed him "Transcona" but we (the guy I go with for all preseason games) never thought he'd have a regular role on the Jets and was Moose bound. What is with the love from Lowry for this guy? Yeah, he's kind of serviceable as a 4th line guy so Covid, injuries, etc. and we make use of him for 4-5 minutes a game. But in my mind he's shown less than Vesalainen or heaven help us Svechnikov? What's with the coaching staff and their hate for Svech? Does Lowry have a daughter and Svech hit on her? This one just baffles me, it's as irrational as Maurice's love for "vets" who were clearly less valuable than the young kids.
And for the weather gods: on the snow? Enough already, m'kay?
