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Explanations vs Excuses now that season is over |
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Congrats to the Blues- team played a great series and capped of the most remarkable transformation from last to contender ever seen in a season.
As for the Jets, they have to consider many things about how this season unfolded, how it progressed and how it ended. That task is far from easy as by now there are a whole host of issues that are generally known and others that aren't and perhaps a few that are still to come to light.
In the aftermath of the loss last night there were the obvious painful first quotes and reactions. Blake Wheeler, in frustration and obviously emotional, opened by telling Winnipeg Sun columnist Paul Friesen to "F*ck off Freeze," as he answered the opening salvo. Paul Maurice was his usual articulate yet avoiding self too when the bulk of his responses came. What this all boils down to is are the Jets, the coaches and eventually the GM and management offering explanations or excuses?
These two words are often incorrectly interchanged when looking at responses to questions. Are people providing an explanation of why events happened as they did or an excuse for the events?
There is a lot of explaining for the Jets to do. A lot.
Excuses, they need to be taking with a grain of salt or perhaps a full cup because given the way the Jets played from January on there are many explanations required. Within those explanations there might be an excuse to be built, nothing other than injury to personnel should excuse what transpired with this team since January.
Player usage
It will always be somewhat dictated by health of the roster and such but the line combinations, the assigned minutes, the defensive pairs, and even goalie starts.
Tactics and Systems
A poor breakout, weak forechecking, dump and chase, and strange defensive zone coverage all marred the Jets from January on. The team with all the offensive talent became far to easy to defend
Trade deadline
For the second year in a row the GM gave up a first round pick and more to acquire a depth centre and one that would be used to supplant Bryan Little at times. Remember this is the GM that extended Little for six years. Then there were the insurance moves of adding Lindholm, Beaulieu and Kiselvich with almost no usage.
The 'inside the room issue'
Will some details spill out? They seem to be starting already with some tweets suggesting where trouble may lie.
The GM, contracts and UFAS
There is more than enough for Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff to do this offseason and thankfully he has a bit more time to focus on it than last year. He's probably going to need it. How much could have been addressed in the season in the hopes of fixing the above mentioned concerns?
The coach
If Paul Maurice is not feeling some heat then something is wrong. Given what's already coming out and has been alluded to he has to take some responsibility and some one has to make sure he does. He's the architect of the on-ice product and it's not looking so good anymore. In fact it has no looked good for some time.
These are all issues to be explored as the Jets and their fans settle in for a longer than planned off-season. One where the Jets only have 3 picks in the upcoming draft in Vancouver but many issues to deal with beforehand. This should be a fascinating off-season because simply given the contract status of the team there are bound to be changes, and perhaps quite meaningful ones.
That's the fun stuff but now it's Easter. Enjoy your day and family. Get out it's beautiful and take a break from hockey for a bit. Also remember there's a big difference between explanations and excuses and don't be believe that understanding the problem is reason to excuse it. Many will be selling that logic and we should all be smarter than that by now. It's been that kind of season.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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