The Daily Faceoff Show: The Winnipeg Jets’ season is starting to run out of steam
It’s been a long winter so far in Winnipeg and that has nothing to do with the weather.
The Jets lost 5-1 to the Vancouver Canucks at home on Thursday. It was Winnipeg’s sixth straight loss and has prevented the Jets from winning at the Canada Life Center since Dec. 19.
Despite being only five points away from a playoff spot, the Jets quickly lost ground and now find themselves in 13and place in the Western Conference.
Which, for a team many expected to contest for a Stanley Cup this season, leaves the Jets franchise searching for an identity.
On Friday’s episode of The Daily Faceoff Show, Frank Seravalli spoke about everything that’s troubled the Jets and the conundrum general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff now finds himself in.
Seravalli: “I’m really concerned about the comments we heard from Blake Wheeler after last night’s loss. There were a number of different points that raised my eyebrows.
« One of them, saying that in his 14 years in the NHL, it’s the biggest adversity a team has ever faced that he’s played on. He’s a guy who played in Atlanta and played on some teams that really struggled. Hearing this is worrying.
“It makes you wonder what you don’t know is going on behind the scenes.
“You see the departure of Paul Maurice and that is obviously part of it. They’ve dealt with COVID, they’ve had injuries, a lot of different things that frankly, a lot of teams have dealt with this season.
« The other part that I think I would really pick as a bone of contention would be, Blake Wheeler said, ‘we have a very young hockey team.’ I’m not buying this for a second.
“You can look at the Winnipeg Jets and their fourth line. You can watch Cole Perfetti and the action he sees. This squad is a ready made roster, built and solidified. Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Andrew Copp – go down the list. Ehlers, Connor Hellebuyck at net, Brenden Dillon, Nate Schmidt, Josh Morrissey. It is a solidified core.
“It’s a team that is, you mentioned, I picked them to win the Stanley Cup this year. I thought about the improvements they’ve made on defense, the depth they have up front and one of the best goaltenders in the league. They are on pace for an 83 or 84 point season. That’s not good enough and the math is now getting daunting for this team to fight their way to a playoff spot.
« And I think that raises much bigger questions for general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who hasn’t been afraid to sell in the past when his team hasn’t performed well.
« What are they doing? »
You can watch the full episode of The Daily Faceoff Show here…
