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Fourth and final game with the Jets (the Increased Divisional Rivalry schedule requires that one team get busted down to four a year from the normal Increased five we get with, say, the Predators, which is somehow Increased from the old six with the Red Wings), but I hope to keep using Weakerthans lyrics in game threads, because fuck, I just love the Weakerthans so much and every day I hope it'll be the day I find out they'll make a fifth album or even just come and play in Chicago, anything, give me something more. John K.'s solo album was really good, and in the grand tradition of solo albums, made with pretty much the same people as the band, but there needs to be more. It's funny: in lyricism and arrangements, they're actually pretty close to the Mountain Goats, but conversely, John Darnielle has never had a passing thought he didn't see fit to record. Still, I most passionately recommend that anyone who reads these threads goes out and acquires all five albums, it's the best mix of folk/punk/Americana/esoterica since Camper Van Beethoven. There aren't many bands who have been better at making their hometown a virtual member of the band than they have with Winnipeg. I feel like I know all about that weird little place and I've never even set foot anywhere in Canada.
Anyway, the weird little place comes to us for WUNNA DOSE GREAT SIX-AH-CLAAHCK STARTS, minus the exceedingly creepy Claude Noel, who got launched two weeks ago. Noel was a curious hire in the first place: the Jets went and poached Cheveldayoff from the Blackhawks to be their general manager and give the new organization some instant Cup cred (which was a curious hire unto itself because to hire him, they fired Rick Dudley, who had the same 2010 Blackhawks bona fides as Chevy did), but kept the old Manitoba Moose GM Craig Heisinger, equipment manager for the 72-96 Jets and Moose lifer through every organizational rank, on board as Chevy's assistant. The last coach of the Moose before they were banished to Newfoundland was, of course, Claude Noel. So you go and get this guy to be your GM and then you cut him off from above (Chipman) and below (Heisinger) to make a loyalty hire and saddle your team with a guy who was good enough for the AHL but clearly not good enough for the NHL? Why? As we broke down a few times with both Jets and Oilers games, the Jets under Noel had a terrible tendency to send like four defenders after the carrier, which against guys whose vision and passing are among the best in the world, just meant they'd leave a shit ton of ice open for everyone else and immediately put 80% of the opposition behind the play and practically bumping into one another. So he's done, replaced with Paul Maurice, longtime Whalers/Hurricanes coach who himself has always seemed a little odd. It's been the textbook New Coach Bounce since he came on board: they're 5-1 with a 21-12 aggregate score in that time and the lone loss being a 1-0 to the Sharks. The Hawks' last six have been, well, less good.
So what does this mean for the Jets, ultimately? Well, for them to have finally gotten to the point where they'd actually shitcan a longtime Manitoba Moose guy would mean that they must have been pretty far out of it. And they were. And now they're a little better, but realistically, they're not going to leapfrog Phoenix and get into the conversation for a playoff spot. I'd love it if they did, but they won't. They'll be lucky to pass Dallas, and Dallas isn't even that good. So they'll finish around 85 points like they always do, draft around 15th, and still manage to reach on the pick. They've locked up every player of consequence, so even though they should sell at the deadline, there's not much to sell. There's Evander Kane, whom many in Winnipeg want to get rid of for being a bad fit (read: black), but even he's signed through 2018, so I don't know who even has the assets to swing that one. Devin Setoguchi and his fat face could go for a conditional fifth or some anonymous fuckup, and yet another team might take yet another whirl at The Keaton Ellerby Project, but that's about it. Frolik's contract is up but he remains cost-controlled, so it'd be a folly to move him without getting something in the neighborhood of a low first, like the Hawks got for Troy Brouwer. Heeeeey...
This won't be the walkovers that the last three Hawks-Jets games were, I fear, with the Jets' rise in giving a fuck coinciding with the Hawks' abandonment thereof, but on paper we still have a much better team -- or at least we do if the paper has the name "Duncan Keith" written on it, because hoooo-lee Moses, did these guys ever go down like a house of cards without him in the lineup the other night. You'd think he were the captain the way everyone deflated without his glorious presence. Ondrej Pavelec is still in net for Winnipeg, who still sucks, but the fact that there aren't approximately 50 defensive breakdowns per game anymore has really ameliorated his woeful numbers to something approaching an NHL level.
Hawks are really looking less than exceptional as of late. Four wins in the last ten, scoring really drying up, especially from Kane's line. Take away the point inflation and Anaheim, Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Colorado, and San Jose all have better winning percentages. That's a lot of teams to be behind this late. Blues won again courtesy of a bullshit disallowed Long Island goal, and the Ducks won the Dodger Stadium game. I don't know whether the regular season really matters, but if it does, it sure as shit got away from them in a hurry. I don't think there's a playoff team that can't beat them in the first round, a least as constituted at present.
So far all I've gotten out of this Increased Divisional Rivalry is that they still love Toews in Winnipeg but boo him anyway (?), and our sodden bourgeoisie likes wearing funny hats. Well, at least they engender more passion at home than the Blue Jackets do. Sigh.
Jets: 24-24-5 (53), 19-25-9 adjusted (47), 49.497 expected
Hawks: 32-9-12 (76), 27-14-12 adjusted (66), 68.741 expected
Jets: 2.717 scored (14th), 2.887 allowed (22nd), -0.170 differential (20th)
Hawks: 3.472 scored (1st), 2.623 allowed (15th), 0.849 differential (3rd)
Jets: 27/179 15.1% on the power play (24th), 158/190 83.2% on the kill (11th)
Hawks: 38/170 22.4% on the power play (4th), 123/157 78.3% on the kill (27th)
Please actually win a game.
_________________ Molly Lambert wrote: The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
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