With last night's 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars, the Winnipeg Jets playoff hopes are now, although not yet officially, dead in the water as it pertains to this season. This will mark the seventh straight season the Winnipeg Jets/Atlanta Thrashers have missed the NHL's post-season party. That's only second behind the woeful Edmonton Oilers, who have missed the post-season the last eight years, including this one. While that last sentence fills me with sheer delight to write, as I still personally hold great resentment towards the Oilers, stemming from their complete domination of the Jets 1.0 in the 1980s.
So, the obvious question is, what to do to make this a playoff team and beyond? Keeping interim head coach Paul Maurice is a good start. Maurice did the annual "Coach's Summit" with local Winnipeg media and said he likes this young squad and would like to be around to see this club grow into its potential and eventually become a Stanley Cup contender. Maurice is a good fit and has shown he can improve this club, but he has to have a "dinner table" discussion with his family about moving to Winnipeg full time. I can't really get a good read on Maurice's intentions, as he has spoken about his potential future in Winnipeg quite vaguely. He may recieve other, more palatable offers from other teams witnessing the turn-a-round Maurice has done with the Jets. As this article notes, Maurice is a good fit for the Jets. My feeling is he'll be back next season. As for some Jets players, that's another story.
