Time for Maurice to Trim the Fat
The Winnipeg Jets have three pre-season game remaining, including one tonight versus Ottawa at home before home and home against Calgary on Friday and Saturday. The Jets have a 1 and 3 record so far this pre-season, something that means little to nothing as a predictive set of data. The question that needs to be asked is this: is there anything else to be gained from icing half rosters, one filled with players likely to be elsewhere come October 9th.
Part of the issue is the inherently flawed nature of the NHL pre-season schedule; a lot of games at full price with players who have little chance of being with the club when games really start to matter. It’s a cash grab, plain and simple.
However, for the Jets there is some necessity for the games when you employ a draft and develop model for the long-term growth of your team. As has recently been said in this space, it’s refreshing to start seeing some of the results of fan’s and team’s patience in regards to legitimate prospects at camp. Those prospects only need to go so far though and by now it’s quite clear we’ve hit the end of the line.
The Jets have been a slow starting team the past 3 seasons, with some players not really arriving until November, see Wheeler, Blake. Where things stand now is that head coach Paul Maurice has set expectations for fans in regards to systems changing, especially defensive ones, along with neutral zone play. That’s also known as the transition game. Isn’t it time we start seeing evidences of how these changes might look?
To the average eye there will probably be little difference other than what should be improved end results, but how does the team work to that goal with a line-up that was iced last night? The systemic problems with the Winnipeg Jets, ones they have not been able to break in three seasons, do not lie with Perreault, Lowry, Cormier, Morrissey, Klingberg, Lipon, Petan, or Albert. The answer could lie within those players but of that group, and aside from Perreault, only 2 really had a chance, Lowry and Morrissey. The later seems be showing that he is not ready for prime time and needs more time.
If Maurice is going to change the Jets and improve their fortunes is he, like Claude Noel, searching for answers, again?
It’s time to trim the fat and get to work. This team needs to release the players unlikely to play into the regular season and move forward to taking the practices into games, as a core group. Is there anything more to be gained other than individual experience for young players by keeping them around?
They can sit, practice, and watch while still learning the ropes of being a professional hockey player. There is value in that approach but not if they are taking time away from perennially slow starting core group veterans, the same ones who need to adapt to change.
One can always say there is no such thing as bad experience but the counter argument is the last three seasons of Winnipeg Jets hockey. A combined effort that saw 2 coaches fired mid-term for failing to make any meaningful progress towards the team being closer or in the post season.
If there is a defensive system to fix the acclaimed number one goalie Ondrej Pavelec needs to see and experience it first hand as by the coach’s own comments Pavelec can’t be judged until that happens. Take his apparent back-up, Michael Hutchinson, who won fans over at the end of last season. He seems to be getting a long look and practice in live games, why? Is Pavelec getting that big a pass with his track record?
No one, including this writer, expected the Jets to ice veteran teams for 7 pre-season games but the time has come to inch towards that point and tonight is a good example. Paul Maurice has added many familiar faces for the match against Ottawa including Kane, Ladd, Slater, Wheeler, Sheifele, Bogosian, and Enstrom. It’s the step that needs to happen but not without understanding.
Maurice should be seeing his core group implement changes, tactical changes in the areas he wants to change. He should also be expecting mistakes and be forgiving about those mistakes, but only to a point. Mistakes made through lack of effort or carelessness, often the kind that have plagued the Jets in seasons past, cannot be tolerated but those arising from unfamiliarity and new tactics must be given a pass.
For a group that has often been referred to as somewhat ‘coddled’ by ownership and management it may seem counterintuitive to be forgiving for some mistakes. But is it really all the player’s fault for past problems? There has to be fresh start for change and accountability, especially with the amount of changes the players are expected to adapt to this season. That change has to start now though as history dictates that this group needs more time than most observers expect. Paul Maurice needs to understand this reality too and training camp/preseason is where he gets a pass on mistakes coming back to haunt him. Unfortunately this was the same pass Claude Noel never seemed to understand and right now the jury is still out on if Maurice does either.