Saturday, January 14, 2017

No Excuse

What a disgrace.  You can make up some excuse as to how there's a silver lining and they showed some kind of resilience at the end.  Nope.  Not having any of it.  The complete and utter collapse in the first period against the Arizona Coyotes was enough to write this team off.  Remember how I said the loss against the Buffalo Sabres will define the Jets this season?  Nope.  This was that game that did that.  Forget the extinction of the Jets offense against Montreal, this was supposed to be the game where the Jets showed the hockey world, and more importantly their fans, that they are a team of resiliency and could bounce back from an embarrassing shellacking like they did at the hands of the Habs.

Well, no, the Jets and Coyotes had other plans.  After grabbing a first period, 1-0 lead, the Jets showed who they truly are this season and decided to give up again and allow four unanswered goals to the Desert Dogs. Connor Hellebuyck was pulled for the second consecutive game after allowing three goals on six shots.  And for the second game straight, Micheal Hutchinson had to come in and attempt to bail out the flood Hellebuyck and the Jets defense created.  The final was a 4-3 embarrassment.  The fact that head coach Paul Maurice said, "...they didn't quit.  They kept fighting and competing to the very end and that means a lot right now."  They didn't quit?  They barely got started.  You can't keep having to come from behind every night.  And as a head coach, you certainly can't be happy with starting behind the eight-ball almost every contest.

           

But, still, as bad as the Jets are doing right now, believe it or not, they're still in the running for a playoff spot.  As of right now, they sit only three points out of the second wild-card spot currently held by the Los Angeles Kings; the team that the Jets play tonight.  Of course, the Jets still have to wade through the rest of the Central division (and a couple of Pacific division teams) that has three other teams one or two points ahead.