If you followed Twitter during the game on Tuesday and were not completely caught up in the Jets side if the game you may have notice a few things about the Canucks fans. Most of them are at peace with where that team is. That win against the Jets, it was a nice to have, but they didn't really care, they know what that team really is.
Maybe you have heard that the Canucks coach, Willie Desjardins, is a likely candidate to be fired after the Christmas break. It might happen but did you notice no one in the Canucks space seemed to get to up with that win and what it might do for Willie?
Perhaps after the game you looked at the standings and noticed that the Canucks are now only two points back with two games in hand of the Jets.
So ask this- why are the Canucks fans so resigned to a season of failure while Jets fans seems to be wondering what's going wrong and rather unaccepting?
The Canucks are a mess of something between legacy and rebuild with a GM who is as entertaining for his perceived ineptitdue as he is for his skills, or lack thereof. The Jets on the other hand are simply in 'the process' to building a winner.
Yet, the results are basically the same.
Goals scores is 91 (wpg) 84 (van) and goals allowed is 104 (wpg) and 101 (van)
Winsare at 15 and 14 and losses are at 17 and 16 and loser points at 3. They are very much equals yet somehow people see Winnipeg, the Jets with their young core as a much better team. Why?
Would you rather have:
Dustin Byfuglien or Alex Edler?
Little and Wheeler or the Sedins?
Horvat and Sutter or Ehlers and Scheifele?
Tanev or Trouba?
Markstrom or Hellebuyck?
I think I'd take the Jets more often than not but with the results the way they are why is no one really looking at the Jets the same way those in Vancouver look at the Canucks?
In theory the Jets should be a better team in the long run based on the roster but right now they are not and that's the question that needs to be explored. I don't see that happening anywhere either.
As for the game- what do you expect based on Tuesday's effort and performance? Anything can happen in hockey and on any given night one team can beat another. The better ones just do the beating more consistently.
Will two days to work on some fundamentals, practice some areas of concern make a dramatic difference in the outcome tonight? It could or simply winning the small battles, monitoring shift length and playing the game with a better awareness could help too.
Paul Maurice discussed what he sees as challenges for the team and it seems he's starting to sound like a bit of a broken record, or at least one that is repeating. With this team and the coach it seems like when one problem is fixed another or more appear. I don't sense exasperation but I do sense a bit of bewilderment in his tone with how he keeps referring back to some basic concepts that never seem to be permanently fixed.
Right now your guess is as good as anyone's as to which team will show up tonight and how they will play. Unfortunately I think the coach is probably in the same situation and that should be the troubling part for fans. It may not be Maurice's fault but it is his job to fix these problem.
As we edge toward the half-way mark of his third season behind the bench the coach is starting to sound a lot like his predecessor did at this time in his third season. That is the disconcerting part about this team and if history is repeating itself then the GM better have some answers because he's going to have some explaining to do.