With a 6-game eastern swing the Winnipeg Jets went 4-2 with big wins over tough opponents like the Islanders, Devils, Rangers, and the Lightning. They also had a couple of losses to Philadelphia and Florida and once again the story for many fans is not that they lost games but 'how they lost games'. The 'how' is becoming almost the entire storyline in Winnipeg.
The story for the Jets this season, like the previous two, has been a struggling team bucking some odds to get into the playoff mix and then fading away due to inconsistent play. The fans know it, see it and generally speaking, are beyond tired of it. Nothing ever changes, or the more things change them more they stay the same, or throw your hands in the air and just get over it- all are just the frustrations of being a fan.
Right now the Jets are not in the playoff picture, they sit 5 points back with almost every team having games in hand. A 4-2 road trip earning 8 of 12 points did almost nothing to help them. That's life, it ain't fair so have a cocktail and get over it.
What needs to be considered now is the 'how' in the wins and losses. From this recent road trip the Jets only beat two teams with better than .500 records but they also lost to two teams with .383 and .483 points percentage records.
Take the Florida game and the outrage with one Blake Wheeler was apparent, my Twitter feed was filled with RTs after I suggested that Blake Wheeler needed to spend a night in the press box. Fast forward to last night and after the lashing the Jets core took from one Gary Lawless something was bound to happen.
Whipping boy Wheeler and his rookie henchman Scheifele (who was described to me last night as 'Bambi on ice') did the 'something' almost as if they knew everyone had run out patience with them. Wheeler opened the scoring and set up the OT winner scored by Scheifele and the Jets scraped out an extra point against Stamkos-less Lightning, just barely.
The Jets played scared at times, hesitant and somewhat nervous about what might happen should they lose. You know, nothing. Yet that's almost always the case when things go wrong with this group, nothing other than the coach getting testy in the post game press conference, or as after the game in Florida, exasperated.
So what now, or now what?
The Jets went 4 wins and 2 losses against marginally weak opposition yet showed they could rise up and beat the odd team hovering at the bottom or just below the playoff line in the east. While fans are happy for the results take a closer look at them. In only one game did the Jets score more than three goals and they gave up 5 to a team with a -30 goal differential.
There's nothing to jump up and down about here. Don't get all excited and think this is the start of something bigger, better or a change within the team. The Jets won (and lost) games against their peers and those below them.
Put it in perspective this way; if a child has good behaviour should he or she be given praise or rewarded? If you said yes please revisit your thinking. Good behaviour is the standard! It's what kids are supposed to have and practice. It should not be some surprising exception that makes parents fawn all over them.
The Jets just gave us their version of good behaviour, the standard and minimum that is expected of them. There should be no reward and praise for that, from anyone, anywhere. Maybe a stick tap for beating Tampa but the rest of the games, no way.
This has to be what this team accepts from itself day in and out. If you are some one who enjoys heaping praise, well now, I'll give you scenario when that might be warranted. Should they win at home against St. Louis, Colorado, and Dallas I think that's a fair point in time to give them some praise for achieving above expectations.
The Jets aren't going to beat every good team they face and no one should expect that. They are going to have to beat their peers and that is what fans should expect and the players themselves. The challenge lies in whether they can accept that no one should be gushing over them when they do beat an equal. Look for praise when you do something exceptional, above and beyond expectations not when you just meet the bare minimum.
I'm not going to respin what Lawless wrote, but when this team accepts that no one is giving them a pass for meeting some very modest expectations perhaps they'll kick it up a notch. That step doesn't have to come from the 'core' as much as it does by the collective group because this core can't carry this team through another 50 games. A little pressure from it couldn't hurt though.