Losing with purpose

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2016 (3525 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some of you are already there, and have been for a long time now. And to the many more Winnipeg Jets fans just now arriving, welcome aboard.

Yes, if it wasn’t already abundantly clear the 2015-16 NHL season is a lost cause, it certainly became obvious after watching the Jets manage a puny eight shots on goal through the first 40 minutes of Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes — a so-so squad that will never be compared to the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens.

And with the playoff dream now but a tiny dot on an ever-fading horizon, there is a growing sense around these parts that it’s time to embrace the tank. And by embrace, we mean throw your arms around a freefall and squeeze hard, to learn to love losing with the same passion that came with last spring’s sprint to the playoffs.

Now, look, there’s nothing subtle about the term “tank” as it pertains to the NHL. It’s an ugly word, one of the ugliest in sports, and it has all sorts of negative connotations. And the very suggestion of such will have Jets owners, management, coaches and players scribbling devil’s horns and a goatee on the mug shot accompanying this little rant.

Think Mark Chipman, Kevin Cheveldayoff, Paul Maurice or Blake Wheeler and the gang in the locker-room are going to ease off the gas pedal, even if their tires have already been spinning for months now?

Hardly.

The Jets may have just a 4.5 per cent chance of making the playoffs according to sportclubstats.com (heading into Wednesday’s action), but the numbers suggest that with the teams above them not yet pulling away, any sort of run could get them right back into the discussion. In fact, if the Jets could get to 92 points — the equivalent of an 18-5-3 record down the stretch — the math says they would have a 92.9 per cent chance of hopping over the boards for some meaningful hockey in the spring.

We now return to reality…

The Jets haven’t won three games in a row dating back to last April, so there is a better chance yours truly will grow back his mullet, discover the lost city of Atlantis and win the lottery — all on the same day — than there is of this crew cranking out that kind of record.

All of this isn’t to suggest coach Maurice deliver an impassioned “Lose one for the Gipper” speech tonight in Tampa, or that the Jets fill out their roster with call-ups from the Manitoba Moose and the Tulsa Oilers. This franchise has a loyal and dedicated fan base doling out big coin for tickets, and protecting the integrity of the product is paramount.

But if Jets Nation could just bite down hard and take the pain for the final 26 games, there is the latest in a series of generational talents available as a potential franchise-changing consolation prize. Hockey types continue to rave about centre Auston Matthews, the consensus No. 1, who is chewing up the Swiss League with 38 points in 31 games. His coach — longtime NHL boss Marc Crawford — told Vancouver TSN 1040 this week: “I’ve been around a long time. I’ve coached a lot of these star players at a young age — whether it’s Daniel and Henrik (Sedin) at 19 or it’s Jamie Benn, who I had at 19, or it’s Anze Kopitar, who I also had at 19.

“This kid is better than those guys were, and he’s 18.”

And should the ping-pong balls not tumble in the Jets favour on draft lottery night — circle April 16 on your calendar — then landing the second- or third-overall pick is not exactly a mammoth drop-off, what with fantastic Finns Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi expected to quickly follow Matthews at the top of the first round.

Hey, we get it: finishing last is by no means a proven formula, because for every superstar like Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin there is a first-overall bust like Alexandre Daigle or Rick DiPietro. And Edmonton Oilers fans can attest winning the lottery has hardly translated into more Stanley Cup banners being hung from the rafters of Rexall Place.

But it also can transform a franchise, just as it did for the Jets 1.0 when Dale Hawerchuk — grabbed first overall in 1981 — helped the team to a 48-point turnaround the next year (at the time the largest in NHL history). Even if these current Jets were to complete some small miracle and advance to the playoffs, what are the odds they advance past the first or second rounds? Slim, meet none.

Consider this, too: of the top 10 teams in the NHL only two — Detroit and Boston (which traded second-overall pick Tyler Seguin to Dallas) — don’t have a top-three pick on their roster. Some of that high-end talent was landed via trade, granted, but there’s no arguing what Ovechkin has done for the Washington Capitals or Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have meant to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Just imagine if Matthews, Laine or Puljujarvi could do the same for Jets 2.0.

And if the notion of “tanking” just makes your skin crawl, then maybe the term used by former Toronto Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo — “It’s losing with a purpose, but not losing on purpose” — is a little easier to swallow.

It’s short-term pain for long-term gain. Or, as Steve Miller sings: sometimes you have to go through hell to get to heaven.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait