Post by NHLJets2point0 on Jan 6, 2014 1:19:34 GMT -5
By @dejan_Kovacevic
blog.triblive.com/dejan-kovacevic/2014/01/05/morning-java-pittsburghs-best-team-yawn/
It was one game. I watch a good bit of Jets through GameCenter, but it’s hardly like seeing them regularly.
The Penguins see them even less, I’m sure, in spite of all the filmwork that goes into preparing for a game.
So let’s start with that for context.
The Jets look to me like a team going absolutely nowhere. Not their roster. Not their system. It just isn’t happening.
There are four very good forwards on the team: Evander Kane, Blake Wheeler, Andrew Ladd and Mark Scheifele. There’s a very promising defenseman in Jacob Trouba, who rebounded nicely from minus-3 in Boston to a strong game here. And I know that, in addition to Scheifele and Trouba, there are other good prospects on the way, notably Josh Morrissey.
But what you’ve got is an age gap that’s way too big between the current core and that next wave, and either no inclination or no means to add to the current core.
That’s a mess.
I respect that True North wanted to keep the Thrashers’ more experienced guys on the roster to ice a competitive team right off the bat. Made absolutely perfect sense. The people of Winnipeg know their pucks and, even with the delirium that followed the return of the franchise, they’d want to see a real NHL product, not just have an NHL franchise. It was the right thing to do.
But I’ve seen this situation before, including with local teams I’ve covered, and this is the point where you push the plunger. You blow it up. Doesn’t mean you give guys away. As I wrote above, there are real assets. Kane and Wheeler should bring back one real-live young player and a first-round pick, maybe more. Even Dustin Byfuglien, for all his warts, can bring back something meaningful. Not everyone has that power-play rifle at the point. It’s possible, as I’m sure you’ve read, that the Penguins will be among the teams interested in Kane but especially Wheeler. They love Wheeler.
So do it. Send it to kingdom come and build around Scheifele, Trouba and the next generation.
If not, you’ll forever be the Flames, perpetually flailing away at mediocrity.
Now, about that system … and this is the real reason I’m writing this.
I have only ever heard the Penguins speak derisively of another team’s system once in recent years, and that was right after Buffalo passed through with the laughably-over-his-head Ron Rolston at the helm. The Sabres were flat-out clueless. Just humiliating. And it wasn’t long, of course, before Rolston got canned.
I heard much the same yesterday about the Jets. One player said they have “no structure.” Another said they had “no real plan for what they’re doing.” Yet another called them “really just a strange team.” All concerned, it should be noted, praised the talented individuals on the Winnipeg roster. It was hard not to be impressed with some of them on this day alone. But the focus clearly was aimed at Claude Noel’s system or, if he has a system, the evident failure to execute it.
If it’s a bad system — and again, I’m not going to claim to know — that’s just sad. But it does say something, I think, that an opponent would have such observations while at the same time respecting the talent at hand and having zero ax to grind. It’s not like the teams are rivals.
You do with that what you want. I know True North felt an obligation to a lot of the Moose people, and maybe that’s what brought Noel into the picture more than anything. Or, for all I know, it could be that Noel is some brilliant tactician whose team just had a lousy Sunday after playing in Boston on a Saturday.
But I’m not inclined to ignore those observations from veteran players when they sounded so strikingly similar to that following the Buffalo mess.
Long-time readers know of my attachment to Winnipeg the city. I don’t extend that to the Jets any more than I do any other sports team. That’s not how this job works. But I can say that I’d love to see hockey succeed there on multiple levels, in part because it would make such a powerful statement for hockey in Canada’s heartland, the salary cap and so much more.
It sure looks from this faraway vantage point like the real work has yet to begin.
blog.triblive.com/dejan-kovacevic/2014/01/05/morning-java-pittsburghs-best-team-yawn/
It was one game. I watch a good bit of Jets through GameCenter, but it’s hardly like seeing them regularly.
The Penguins see them even less, I’m sure, in spite of all the filmwork that goes into preparing for a game.
So let’s start with that for context.
The Jets look to me like a team going absolutely nowhere. Not their roster. Not their system. It just isn’t happening.
There are four very good forwards on the team: Evander Kane, Blake Wheeler, Andrew Ladd and Mark Scheifele. There’s a very promising defenseman in Jacob Trouba, who rebounded nicely from minus-3 in Boston to a strong game here. And I know that, in addition to Scheifele and Trouba, there are other good prospects on the way, notably Josh Morrissey.
But what you’ve got is an age gap that’s way too big between the current core and that next wave, and either no inclination or no means to add to the current core.
That’s a mess.
I respect that True North wanted to keep the Thrashers’ more experienced guys on the roster to ice a competitive team right off the bat. Made absolutely perfect sense. The people of Winnipeg know their pucks and, even with the delirium that followed the return of the franchise, they’d want to see a real NHL product, not just have an NHL franchise. It was the right thing to do.
But I’ve seen this situation before, including with local teams I’ve covered, and this is the point where you push the plunger. You blow it up. Doesn’t mean you give guys away. As I wrote above, there are real assets. Kane and Wheeler should bring back one real-live young player and a first-round pick, maybe more. Even Dustin Byfuglien, for all his warts, can bring back something meaningful. Not everyone has that power-play rifle at the point. It’s possible, as I’m sure you’ve read, that the Penguins will be among the teams interested in Kane but especially Wheeler. They love Wheeler.
So do it. Send it to kingdom come and build around Scheifele, Trouba and the next generation.
If not, you’ll forever be the Flames, perpetually flailing away at mediocrity.
Now, about that system … and this is the real reason I’m writing this.
I have only ever heard the Penguins speak derisively of another team’s system once in recent years, and that was right after Buffalo passed through with the laughably-over-his-head Ron Rolston at the helm. The Sabres were flat-out clueless. Just humiliating. And it wasn’t long, of course, before Rolston got canned.
I heard much the same yesterday about the Jets. One player said they have “no structure.” Another said they had “no real plan for what they’re doing.” Yet another called them “really just a strange team.” All concerned, it should be noted, praised the talented individuals on the Winnipeg roster. It was hard not to be impressed with some of them on this day alone. But the focus clearly was aimed at Claude Noel’s system or, if he has a system, the evident failure to execute it.
If it’s a bad system — and again, I’m not going to claim to know — that’s just sad. But it does say something, I think, that an opponent would have such observations while at the same time respecting the talent at hand and having zero ax to grind. It’s not like the teams are rivals.
You do with that what you want. I know True North felt an obligation to a lot of the Moose people, and maybe that’s what brought Noel into the picture more than anything. Or, for all I know, it could be that Noel is some brilliant tactician whose team just had a lousy Sunday after playing in Boston on a Saturday.
But I’m not inclined to ignore those observations from veteran players when they sounded so strikingly similar to that following the Buffalo mess.
Long-time readers know of my attachment to Winnipeg the city. I don’t extend that to the Jets any more than I do any other sports team. That’s not how this job works. But I can say that I’d love to see hockey succeed there on multiple levels, in part because it would make such a powerful statement for hockey in Canada’s heartland, the salary cap and so much more.
It sure looks from this faraway vantage point like the real work has yet to begin.
