Jets’ future yet to be written

Opinion

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This article was published 05/03/2015 (3868 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They are on the latest cover of the Hockey News — ‘Meet Your 2019 Stanley Cup Champions,’ screamed the cheeky headline praising their prospect pool — and were fresh from spanking the defending Stanley Cup champions.

At the same time, GM Kevin Cheveldayoff was getting hugs from all over the planet for his wheeling and dealing in the month leading up to the NHL trade deadline and, as a result, the mood surrounding the Winnipeg Jets heading into Wednesday night’s matchup with the Ottawa Senators was all rainbows, puppy dogs and lollipops.

So it was Paul Maurice — roughly seven hours before the Jets were beaten 3-1 by the Sens — who unwittingly ended up perfectly describing what unfolded at the MTS Centre Wednesday night:

“Momentum,” he noted, “changes every time the puck is dropped.”

No, one loss at the end of a solid run at home doesn’t mean it’s time to bust out the black arm bands and throw up the white flags on the push for a playoff spot. And, given this team’s recent ability to flush losses, regroup and move on, now is hardly the time to reach for the panic button.

Still, Wednesday night was a not-so-subtle reminder of just how tenuous the Jets’ grip on a playoff spot is right now.

And just how nutty this game is sometimes.

Consider that the Jets not only lost their MVP Dustin Byfuglien in the second period with an upper-body injury, they were beaten by a 27-year-old rookie making his seventh start in Andrew ‘the Hamburglar’ Hammond — he’s now 6-0-1, including consecutive shutouts in Anaheim and L.A. last week — and saw their own netminder yanked in the second period, ending a 5-0-3 run for Michael Hutchinson.

Hutchinson, like the rest of the Jets, vowed to flush this one and move on quickly.

“You have a couple choice words when you come into the dressing room and then after that, probably two minutes later, I’m fine and pretty much over it,” explained Hutchinson. “You realize these things happen. We ran into a hot goalie… he made some unbelievable saves to keep their goalie in the game and when their team had chances they were able to find the back of the net. You’ve got to tip your hat to their goalie and move on.”

That’s one of the simple, but important takeaways for the Jets in a game like this: the sport can be cruel and unfair sometimes. Yes, sometimes a career AHL netminder blindly flashes a pad to make one save, backs it up by taking another off the forehead and then watches helplessly as Jiri Tlusty whiffs on a yawning cage from just outside the blue paint.

But if Maurice’s team — and the rabid fan base that religiously follows every shift — needed any reminders to put loss No. 21 of the season into perspective, it came after the game when they gathered at centre ice for a group photo with members of the armed forces on Military Appreciation Night.

“It’s a great reality check, isn’t it?” said Maurice. “Especially with the emotions and the pressure we think we’re under every game to win and how important every win is and the importance of competing hard. I’ve been very, very careful of using the word ‘warrior’ to describe a hockey player or an athlete. I work really hard at never, ever using that. I spent a lot of years in North Carolina with Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, Pope Air Force Base and the front page of the newspaper in town always had caskets and flags coming back from overseas.

“It’s a real strong reminder that our job’s not that tough.”

The most important lesson from a game like Wednesday, might simply be this: The best story about Jets this season won’t be written about their pool of prospects or their handiwork before the deadline. It’s the one they author themselves on the ice.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait