Jets’ ire genuine after losing

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This article was published 14/02/2015 (3925 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DETROIT — Blake Wheeler was seething Thursday night.

Sweating and angry, his body language screamed, “Don’t talk to me.” He jammed the last of his equipment into his bag, leaned back in his stall and, with his hat pulled low over his eyes, began to answer questions without looking up.

He was in control but there was an edge to his answers and when he didn’t like one of my questions, he let me know it. Wheeler was not to be trifled with on this night and it all stemmed from losing a game.

Now, no one in the NHL likes to lose. Some teams become resigned to it. Others feign disappointment. And on some teams it really isn’t acceptable. Those teams that take a loss as an insult, an assault on what they are trying to accomplish. The Winnipeg Jets have crossed over to the latter.

Losing, on any night, is simply no longer acceptable to the Jets.

If there is anything we can say about this team as it continues to grow and build an identity, it is that their expectations have changed. The Jets expect to win. Every night. That’s unrealistic for every team in the NHL regardless of their talent. But one thing is consistent among elite teams in any sport — they believe in themselves and they make that belief their standard. When they fall short of it, they check themselves.

The Jets have talked the right way for some time, but it wasn’t always easy to take them seriously. They would say one thing and then do another.

Those days are mostly behind them. They mostly like to talk on the ice and when things don’t go their way, as exhibited by Wheeler, they don’t like to talk at all.

No philosophical rambling. Curt, snippy replies instead.

The way a team loses can be instructive, as is the manner in which they respond. The Jets have been very effective this season at not letting poor games become habit and they’ve only lost more than two consecutive games on two occasions this year.

When they lose, they figure out what went wrong and fix it. Head coach Paul Maurice says how the Jets take losing and what they do about it is being ingrained in their identity.

“As a group, I’m still concerned at how hard they take a loss. But they’ve come to a point where they know how to assess a game. So the loss (to Nashville on Thursday) only hurt because of the investment. Not because we let one slip away or we didn’t come to compete,” said Maurice. “I think they’re coming to a point where they know how they played, Which is really, really important.

“So when you win a game but you didn’t play any good, there isn’t a lot of talk afterward. But in this instance, it was quiet on the bus because there was some fatigue. But they came right back to the rink (Friday) and you can see it in their eyes as they walk by. They all say hi and they’re ready to get back to work.”

Ironically, before he was fired, Claude Noel talked a lot about looking in mirrors and being honest with oneself when evaluating effort and results.

It was a lesson Noel was unable to get across but one that Maurice has watched take root. Whether it’s come from the new coach or in a more organic form of growth within the room — it has taken hold.

Maurice makes an interesting distinction when he says it’s not only the losses, but also the wins, which the Jets are honest about in their self evaluation.

Likely it spreads to practice and other forms of preparation. The Jets know what’s good enough and what isn’t. They’ve found their standard and the ability to judge themselves.

Players say this all the time about one another, and in the most complimentary of ways; “he’s an honest player.”

Put together a room of such players and an honest team is formed. The Jets have picked up on this and made it part of their identity.

“I’ve had teams in the past that got really hot and were able to have a strong identity for a short period of time, but we weren’t going to be able to maintain it,” said Maurice. “Because of the youth of this team, we feel we’re getting to that identity that we should be able to establish and keep for a long time.”

The Jets used to try and get by on talent. Now they’ve transformed into a group that puts hard work first.

The Jets keep one another honest, which in the end, is one of the best and most important things one can say about a team.

 

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @garylawless