Five takes: Jets vs. Sabres

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This article was published 27/03/2016 (3480 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Five takes on the Winnipeg Jets the morning — or is it, ‘mourning’? — after they were officially eliminated from the 2015-16 National Hockey League playoffs:

1. IT WAS STRANGE… to hear and read the words that the Jets were officially eliminated from the playoffs with Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. We’ve all been watching this season die for weeks if not months now, after all, and could see the end almost dating back to an awful stretch at the beginning of January.

The Jets had returned from a 2-2-1 road trip that featured stops in Arizona, San Jose, Anaheim, Nashville and Dallas for a stretch from Jan.10-Feb. 5 that saw them play nine of 10 at MTS Centre. They went 2-7 in those nine home dates — 3-7 overall — and it was then that the next of kin was notified and everyone began writing the obit on this season.

The Jets are 31-38-6 and unless they wrap up this campaign with a seven-game win streak — yeah, right — will finish with a sub-.500 record for the first time since relocating from Georgia:

2011-12: 37-35-10, 84 points

2012-13: 24-21-3, 51 points (lockout-shortened season)

2013-14: 37-35-10, 84 points

2014-15: 43-26-13, 99 points (franchise record)

2015-16: 31-38-6, 68 points

The hard sell over the last couple of months has been all about the future, with young guns like Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers turning into stars before our eyes and the likes of Kyle Connor and a possible top lottery pick en route. Next year this could see this team be even younger.

But the drop-off from last season’s record point total has clearly been significant. And how long without a playoff payoff — just one trip to the Stanley-Cup derby in five years — will it be before even the most loyal in Jets Nation lose patience with this draft-and-develop blueprint?

2. THE KYLE CONNOR WATCH… by the way, can now officially begin. The University of Michigan freshman phenom had his college season end with Saturday’s 5-2 loss to North Dakota in the Midwest Regional Final in Cincinnati. After the game Connor — who extended his consecutive-game point streak to 27 games — picked up the latest in a series of awards as he was named to the All-Midwest Region tournament team (along with another Jets draft pick, UND defenceman Tucker Poolman).

Connor finished the year with 71 points on 35 goals and 36 assists in just 38 games. The question now isn’t if he’ll turn pro, but when? Funny line on that subject earlier in the week from Elliotte Friedman’s 30 Thoughts column (item 15: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/30-thoughts-clearing-expansion-draft-questions/)

Wrote Friedman: “Is Michigan’s Kyle Connor ready for the NHL? “Is that a serious question?” one scout said Tuesday. “Why are you bothering me with this?” said another.”

3. IF YOU WERE WONDERING… why Tyler Myers was on the trip to Buffalo and then Philadelphia, knowing he had a procedure on his knee last week and has hip surgery on the horizon, it’s because he’ll be heading to New York after the stop in Pennsylvania to visit a doctor who specializes in hip work.

“I’ve been dealing with it for a few years now, even when I was here in Buffalo” Myers told reporters Saturday in Buffalo (http://video.jets.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=96&id=945989&lang=en). “It had just come to the point where it was time to take care of it. It’s a pretty common injury in hockey players, so I don’t expect any complications.”

4. THE DANISH DYNAMO’S GOAL… against the Sabres Saturday was spectacular (https://www.nhl.com/video/ehlers-opens-the-scoring/t-279576254/c-42942103) and the assist Mark Scheifele drew on the marker established a new career points high for the young centre.

Scheifele now has 50 points on 24 goals and 26 assists in 64 games this year and since coming back from injury in January now has 12 goals and 15 assists in his last 27. One more from the silver-lining department: Blake Wheeler needs just three points in his last seven games to establish a career high, as well. He has 67 points this year (19G, 48A) and had 69 (28G, 41A) in 2013-14.

5. FINALLY, DICUSS AMONG YOURSELVES… this intriguing idea from Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

At this time of year, winning is counter-productive for those teams chasing a prime spot in the draft lottery and Brooks suggests the lottery standings be frozen at the trade deadline.

“…It is tough to tank beginning with Opening Day, tough to intentionally put an inferior product on the ice for six months. Not even the 1983-84 Penguins, who earned a Master’s Degree in Dumping in depleting their roster so they could fall behind the Devils and thus select Mario Lemieux, fixated on that strategy until pretty late in the season.

“Freezing the lottery standings at the deadline would neither penalize nor reward teams that trade pending free agents for draft picks. It would neither penalize nor reward teams that choose or choose not to promote their best AHL prospects over the final weeks of the season.”

Just FYI, on Feb. 29th — after the trade deadline, but before games were played that night — the Jets had 56 points, leaving them tied with Calgary for the fourth-worst record (Buffalo had one more point, but had played three more games).

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait