Okay, so I thought a good night's sleep might change my attitude towards the way the Jets played last night. I got a solid 7 hours of shuteye and watched the game again, all while doing my best to remain completely and utterly emotionless.
That lasted less than a minute.
Despite the fact the Jets had quite a contingent of home-town fans who had travelled all the way to Phoenix to watch them play, the Jets allow a goal before the engine on the zamboni had even shut down. Let the mediocrity begin.
It is becoming apparent that Dustin Byfuglien (man.....I hate typing that name, it just seems weird to string that series of consonants together) is not exactly what you would call a "quality" defenseman. He was on the ice for the first 3 Phoenix goals, and was a direct cause of two of them. Once for not keeping his head on a swivel and picking up an opposing forward coming to the net, and the next for whiffing on a puck in the corner, just getting enough of it to make a perfect pass to a Coyote forward, hitting him perfectly in stride. It didn't help him at all though that his defense partner, Randy Jones, was equally as bad last night. I'll cut Jones a little slack though as this was his first game of the season.
Not that you are asking what I would do if I was Kevin Cheveldayoff, but I'll tell you anyways.
First, I would move Buff to forward. He won't like that much because he will be required to skate more......but who cares.
Next, I would either start Derek Meech on "D", or put him on a 3rd or 4th line. That would allow me to bring up Paul Postma from the IceCaps. Postma is chomping at the bit to get back to the big club and show what he can do. He has extremely good offensive skill and can't be any worse in his own end than what Buff has shown.
Finally, I would call every GM in the league that is looking for defensive help and tell them that there are only two guys that aren't available. Stuart and Hainsey. Yep. That what I said. Stuart and Hainsey. They have been pretty solid. "You would get rid of ENSTROM ?!!!" you say ? Yep. This team needs some forwards that care and have scoring touch. Dealing Enstrom will bring me that forward.
The way I see it Chevy can do 1 of 2 things. He can start to change the dynamic of this club right away and hope the team can come together before it is too late, or he can stand pat, have Claude Noel work with what he's got and start planning for a possible 1st overall pick in next year's draft.
The fans can put up with mediocrity for one season. Especially if they know that mediocrity for one season could bring them a bonafide goal scorer for years to come. If the team is going to suck, this is the year to do it. People are just so thrilled to have a team back they give a brutal team a standing ovation for a poor showing. So, if you want a high draft pick, this is the year.
That being said, Chipman and company hate to lose. So I don't expect them to stand pat. So get ready for the wheeling and dealing to begin. It's not like this management team is married to any of these players (other than Scheifele). They didn't draft any of them, so they have nothing invested. We'll see what happens. If you ask me I think they make a deal before we are 10 games into the season.