Winnipeg Jets

Blame Game, it's all Jets fan have left
March 24, 2017, 11:24 AM ET [13 Comments]
Peter Tessier
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It was looking promising. The Jets had a 2-1 lead against a team that can't really score and then they finished the game losing 5-2. There was some ugly there and that score was actually flattering when you consider some of the misses the Kings had. Looking at you Iginla.

Now however, there is the blame game and it's getting nasty. Yours truly felt the need to fire some shots at the goalie, and deservedly so in my opinion. It is starting to appear that Hellebuyck might not be the most focussed goalie, at least at times as I see it. He let's in too many easy goals and when things are a mess in front of him he loses focus unable to be the backbone and last stop. The shorthanded goal last night was a prime example.

Oh sure he's still young and developing but at what point does he actually need to develop into something?

In his first three seasons Pavelec had these stats

61 games played 1573 shots faced .897 Save % and 3.33 GAA

Hellebuyck to date looks like this:

79 games played 2167 shots faced .910 save% and 2.75 GAA

He's without a doubt the better of the two but he's not good enough for this team, at least right now. Now who's fault is that?

I tweeted this last night:



And in the melee of thoughts I put this out too:



It's full on blame game now and I'm an active participant, I will own my stuff!

The point, now that I'm feeling more coherent, is that again there's good reason to believe there are systemic problems to the approach of building and developing this team. It's simply not progressing, again.

I'm not a fool, there are uncontrolled variables but those lead to other questions such as where is the developing depth to deal with an injury epidemic?

But what about the coaching? Is it a good workman with poor tools argument as the results never change or is it a case of the tools not having the properly skilled craftsman? Heck, is the general contractor even qualified?

These are the kinds of things that are being debated again and again in Winnipeg and the number of debaters, or participants is growing. The team is not doing itself any favours when trying to quell criticism. None. At. All.

Thus the cycle goes on with no end in sight as the Jets appear content with the coach and the GM so again one segment of fans cries out 'this will be the summer of Chevy' as they hope for change based on the rare opportunity this off season provides.

Hope is never a plan.

It is all that's left as few can decipher what the plan is anymore. Is it draft and develop? Is it to win? Is it anything that fans can latch onto?

Take a look at the Leafs with their three rookies, one soon to be a Calder winner and ask the hard question- what's taking so long in Winnipeg? They did it 4 seasons after that infamous 4-1 lead game seven.

It's not a pretty reality and now, after 6 years of more or less the same thing, fans are growing weary. The MTS Centre is lifeless. Gone are the chants, the energy and the huge 50/50 jackpots. There are tickets to be had, and even the Jets are promoting how to buy them through their own ticket exchange with a message that tries to pull on heart strings to 'taking care of seats'. At games now, and for some time, there's room to move.

Want to get to the glass? You can move down pretty close now without anyone batting an eye. Reservations at a restaurant before the game... no problem now. Oh and guess what season ticket holders got a 3% increase on tickets for next year and told it was for the upcoming concourse refurbishments needed for a 13 year old venue- really? So soon? That was planning wasn't it?

Oh there's that word again, 'plan'. It's the one thing Jets fans need to know, want to know, and now should demand to know- what is the plan to get out of this rut?


Until they hear that, until they see it in action there's going to be a lot of blame-storming simply because enough fans are worn out of being fed the same thing with the same results and being told to have faith while they hand over their money.

Anyhow, if you want to see what joy in hockey looks like watch the video below. This was my son's Peewee team winning the city championship last night in double overtime with one second left on a power play and :58 left in the OT period.