In the last piece the position, one that should have been obvious to all, of how the Jets arrived at their extension for Paul Maurice and Kevin Cheveldayoff was discussed. To think the decision made by owner and chairman Mark Chipman was a difficult one is a bit naive, he values loyalty and his two key charges have been loyal to a fault as they followed the chairman’s plan and wishes. So here they are, extensions in hand and a perception that the responsibility is on the players now to ‘get it done’.
If only it were so simple. If only every professional sports team could create a climate where players magically realized they held the key to success or failure of the team.
Yesterday my twitter account @Teddier started doing something that has been an on and off feature. I proposed a question and used the hashtag #jetsconvo for responders to use. I hope to do this every Friday and have a review of the responses.
The question was this: What’s your biggest concern for the Jets this season? (you can search the replies and participiate by using the #jetsconvo hashtag)
The responses varied but clearly the residue of the Cheveldayoff and MAurice signings was still in the minds of those who participated.
The most poignant and comprehensive came from Matt Robinson when he replied:
Paul Maurice #jetsconvo
— Matt Robinson (@ice_matty35) September 8, 2017
he cant fix a PP or PK
he'll play Hendricks
he cant curb discipline problem
What’s clear is there is much suspicion level around the capabilities of Paul Maurice remains high for some and ‘there’ at the minimum for others. Theres good reason to feel that way as Maurice is positioned to be leader in all-time losses for head coaches. Consider this- he’s had the benefit of the shootout since 2005 to help pad that stat in his favour too.
Others respondents mentioned goaltending and this issue too flows back to Maurice and his infamous quote to Jets fans about Pavelec. Back in the fall of 2014 he said that ‘you can’t judge a goalie until you perfect the defence in front of him’ (my paraphrase).
With this group of highly paid defensemen for the Jets, 28.255 million on the blue line, there should be plenty of support for the tandem of Mason and Hellebuyck. However does some of that responsibility lie upon Maurice and defence coach Charlie Huddy?
One point that keeps coming up is the use of analytics by the Jets and what they use, value and how they interpret the data. These are probably the most interesting conversations to read via social media. Within the Jets community there are many who debate and discuss how the Jets arrive at their play and roster and in the end it would be hard to come to some firm determination or consensus. The teams uses analytics and on Thursday Paul Maurice while on TSN 1290 said they gather data via game and have over 3000 data points per game. That’s a lot of info to make sense of and a fair question would be, does the team know who to separate the noise from the important details?
The basic premise from across the league when one reads about the Jets is the goaltending going to be good enough? That was what many of the responses to #jetsconvo said as well. That’s on the goalies, Wade Flaherty the goalie coach, and Paul Maurice. As mentioned above the goaltending may also rely on the defence too, so again looking at Huddy and Maurice even closer.
So what does this all mean for the coming season. Just like we analyze players and look at their underlying numbers to determine value and effectiveness it would appear that a certain segment of Jets fans want to judge Maurice the same way, less so Cheveldayoff. That’s fair, and as much pressure and responsibility that the players are preparing to accept fans in no way see Maurice any less culpable.