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Jets Post Mortem- a great run ends |
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Post Mortem- a great run ends
First and foremost it’s time to congratulate the Vegas Golden Knights on their win to advance to the Stanley Cup finals. They won in a fashion that should make many clubs envious and more than a little curious, but that seems rather obvious. The Jets on the other hand are going to have to do some review and then deal with the upcoming contracts that are looming.
What the Jets have to consider is whether what they are now is part of an evolution to an end goal or are they at that point where Kevin Cheveldayoff feels the roster design is complete. First, no roster is ever complete. It’s always a work in progress but in essence a GM gets to a point where the changes are a natural cycle based around core players with larger shifts coming at certain times with those players.
Before getting to that specific topic (we have all off season) looking back at the series is appropriate because will Chevy adopt aspect of the Golden Knights or continue on his own path?
I’ve said it before and will say it again, and again and again. The Golden Knights are essentially a one trick pony- a team that takes the cult-like adherence to a system from the 2003 Minnesota Wild and combines it with a slight-of-hand or illusion of Vegas performers like Penn and Teller. The tenacity that every player uses creates an almost magical effect of being in the right place at the right time to create opportunities and goals.
Give credit where credit is due, the Golden Knights are good and perhaps they are the future of where the NHL is heading as large bodies who can crash and bang are less frequently seen. Even Ryan Reaves found ways to turn his fists into soft hands and play with a speed and tenacity not seen before.
The Jets, if they choose to adopt this style, are closer than many other teams in being able to do so but that’s a discussion for later.
What this series exposed in Winnipeg is some tactical issues and player usage for Winnipeg. The Jets did not get scoring from across their forwards and perhaps relied on their top guns too much. Again that’s a credit to Vegas but it’s also a concern with Paul Maurice as after game two there were reasons to be concerned about some of the moves he was making.
The series was closer than it appeared but one team was better and found some holes to exploit. The rebound effect of scoring goals within seconds or a minute after Winnipeg did was a psychological back breaker for the Jets as well as a concern of focus for the Jets. Too often the Jets dropped back down to playing less than 100% effort and focus and Vegas took advantage of it.
Finally what more can be said about Vegas goalie Marc Andre Fleury? While the Golden Knight might not be the most tactically dynamic team they are back stopped by a goalie who is playing to break records. Right now Fleury leads in playoff save percentage since 1990 for goalie playing 15 games or more at .947. Quick from 2011-12 is at .946 and JS Giguerre from 2002-03 is at .945.
The biggest point the Jets can take away from this run of 17 post season games with 9 wins and 8 losses is they are an elite team. The regular season was no fluke and had a few bounces gone their way as well as a goalie playing to his career average not an all-time high this series might still be going. That has to be comforting but the hardest part is knowing you have to play 82 games to do it all over again.
If you are a believer in that some teams/players need lessons to be learned in their experience then think about this. The Chicago Blackhawks went to the conference finals in 2009 and lost in five games before winning the cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The Jets have as good a core as the Blackhawks did then and perhaps enough talent in the pipeline to get even better for next year too but that’s another article.
As disappointed as many Jets fans are be fair to Vegas, they are doing something magical and unprecedented and that’s worth giving them respect. I doubt many would feel that way about the Predators had this happened if those teams had met in the final. There’s lots to be optimistic for with the Jets but also much work and given the comments made today from Wheeler and Scheifele there’s an understanding and drive for next season. Find the silver lining in this run and be happy it happened.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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