Backslides always feel good.
Pardon the pun but until midway through the second period yesterday most Jets fans were singing the blues. Singing about another season of missing the glory of the post season. Singing about the troubles they have, singing about how the Jets are like a bad relationship. Okay, they aren't singing, they're ranting.
Today on the 1290 morning show a caller described the Jets as being like a bad relationship that you give up on and then start over again knowing that you shouldn't. It was a good radio and fun to listen too and perhaps fairly accurate. He should have stopped as his next comparison was water-boarding but that's not important right now.
The Jets simply were due to have some goals. Luck or what many like to say as 'the law of averages' was bound to let them score more than 2 or 3 in a game. They tried to get 8 last night against the stars. The fans in that repeatedly hurting relationship all wanted them to stop after 5 but that's just baseless fear. It's not like a person moves back in with their ex after the first backslide is it?
The game had that element present in any bad relationship, an inevitable quitting. At least that's what many fans felt was about to happen after the Stars went ahead 2-1 after an early Jets lead. Instead the Jets decided to clean up the dirty dishes, fold the laundry, clean the bathroom, gas up the cars, vacuum under the furniture, and do the windows by scoring 6 consecutive goals. Hey, guys leave some stuff for the next make-up session eh!
Instead it comes down to a game tonight against what may be the conference's toughest opposition, the St. Louis Blues. Montoya gets the start and a rested Byfuglien is back in after leaving the game early with a reported lower body injury. In this case it was a preventative move not a necessity for the 2-goal scoring forward last night.
In the aftermath what some fans were talking about was the duo from St. John's of Cormier and O'Dell who played solid roles for the team, with the latter having almost 16 minutes of ice time. Cormier was at half that. Injuries are testing this group and having something from the farm come up and make an impact is a good sign for the Jets, unless your name is Eric Tangradi who was a healthy scratch again.
Tonight though the nervous partner in this relationship has to wonder what this team does to test the boundaries after beautiful make up. Do they leave the goalie without help, refuse to shoot hoping for a better pass, decide not to back check, or simply not show that they care? That's the kind of relationship the Jets have some a large part of it's fan base. It hurts so good.
Whether last night was a backslide or not the Jets made up for a string of 6 games that had their fans grumbling and disheartened. Unfortunately keeping up appearances only gets harder for this group with St. Louis tonight and then Colorado as the next opponents. They can be rather difficult hosts and guests with both being able to stick you with a mess that's hard to clean up let alone manage as it forms. How the Jets address these challenges will go along way to deciding if the backslide against Dallas was meaningful change or more of the same.
It's one thing to test your relationship regularly when you know you can get out of it forever, it's another when it's a marriage with assets and a complicated agreement. The latter is a better description of the Jets and their fans. Whether we see two groups ready to figure out their differences for the remaining games this season is irrelevant. Both sides know there are some deeper rooted issues that are going to require a trained therapist named Kevin Cheveldayoff come the off season.
In the short term hopefully the Jets get a little more of what feels good tonight in St. Louis.