Are the knives out yet? Have Jets fans come to realize that it was far too early to replace the Golden Boy with Paul Maurice? Can we go back to being despondent and sad about the state of the club?
No, nor should you or anyone.
As I tweeted last night, a loss was inevitable but there are different things to discuss in this loss than during the Noel free-fall. I don't want to hear anything like 'oh the effort was better' or 'at least they tried harder' because that's a red-herring or smoke screen. If effort was so important what happened in Anaheim? Clearly the Jets were 'out-efforted' in that game right?
The problem with words like effort, and yours truly is a guilty past offender, is they are in accurate to the bigger picture but are easy catch all phrases. I liken it to 'who' vs 'how' when blame-storming.
Finding out 'who' is to blame may provide a culprit but not a solution hence 'who' does not always lead to 'how'. To the contrary, finding out 'how' things went wrong inevitably leads to 'who' is responsible. Think of it as an audit start with how because the trail leads to who.
So instead of effort, think execution. Last night the Jets executed much better against a top team in the NHL than they have in the past. Although in the previous meeting between the two team the Jets came back from three deficits and won the game in a shootout. The difference last night was another strong if not 'wobbly' performance from Pavelec and some chances and bounces that didn't go the Jets way like they did the previous game in Anaheim.
Where the talking points should be is how to best utilize Byfuglien as forward or why he is still being used as a forward on the third line against top teams. Blame Buff is not happening here but understanding why he's up front when in games such as the one against San Jose he might have better value as defense.
The theory
The biggest and clearest weakness of the Jets under Noel was the defensive zone, in almost all capacities. It's the one area that seems to have changed the most under Maurice with a different style of coverage, breakout and overall transition. It's being executed with competence and success and Maurice has to take some credit for this and perhaps Byfuglien plays into this success as well.
While Noel already had Buff on forward for his last game as coach Maurice opted to keep him there when he arrived. This is also interesting because we know that Maurice and Chevy had been talking for 5 days about the team and taking over with Maurice admitting he was a bit familiar with the team due to working for TSN.
So Maurice doesn't come in and overhaul the system, he tweaks it in the defensive zone while leaving Buff as forward. The problem comes now that Buff is a player who is better than a third line forward and having Setoguchi as a winger and probably Jokinen as a centre. It also gives Maurice and Buff a chance to have the player see the changes, at least from ice level without the responsibility of changing...yet.
The question should no longer be, about Buff's defensive capabilities but how best to use him on this team either at forward or defense. Remember, he has only played 35 games as a forward- that's it! Expecting him to dominate like he did with Kane, Toews, Sharp, Hossa and more is delusional, especially when playing with the above-mentioned players.
I'd suspect we'll see Byfuglien back on defense but this time he has the advantage of not being thrust into a changed system and having to adjust on the fly. He will have had time to see the changes, experience the benefit from playing forward and hopefully see how he has to change.
The one thing about Buff that is loved is his ability to free-wheel from his own end- something that makes him dangerous against any opposition. To capitalize on that ability the team around him also has to react and that's also something that was not happening with competency under Noel near the end.
Byfuglien is a weapon, one that can be deployed in several situations but the crew around him has to be able to adapt. Under Maurice we'll see if he can educate and teach the troops how use the weapon that is Buff as right now on the third line we're seeing blanks, not bombs.
That's not Buff's fault.