The Jets Day After: What The Frick?
4 years ago
The main purpose of these “Jets Day After” posts is so that we can point out things that we noticed during the Jets game the previous night and may be worthwhile talking about. Usually we try to pick out three or four topics in a game, sometimes they are positive, other times they are negative.
When it’s my time to do these things, I usually write out a list of things as I watch the game and then afterwards pick out three or four things and expand on them.
All I want to talk about today though are two very important things that I think are worth shedding some light on even if I know deep down both points may fall upon a lot of deaf ears.
Before I get to those, just for fun, and because I thought these were all worthwhile topics, here was my list from last night:
- @Corey Perry is an asshole.
- Bad starts are bad.
- The Jets knew the Stars were going to come out motivated, why aren’t they playing like it?
- Ray Ferraro is such a delight to listen to during Jets games, it’s just unfortunate the Jets are cursed when he works the games.
- Corey Perry is an asshole.
- @Nikolaj Ehlers is so much fun to watch. Even when he fails, he fails in a fun way.
- Are things that bad in Dallas that a Cowboys road game affects Stars attendance that much?
- Uh oh, I think I actually don’t mind @Luca Sbisa on this roster. I may need counseling.
- The Stars power play with the talent they have should be better than it is.
- The Jets penalty kill is just not good and any time they do kill a penalty, I feel like it took a large amount of luck for it to happen.
- Corey Perry is an asshole.
- How are the Jets so bad at passing sometimes?
- I can’t watch a game involving @Tyler Seguin without picturing him half naked at least once per game. I just can’t. I’ve tried. Stupid sexy Seguin. Goddamn you ESPN.
- The waiver claim of @Nick Shore might just be what the fourth line needs because it’s practically invisible right now. The only time I notice it is when they give up multiple scoring chances.
- Corey Perry is an asshole.
- Why oh why would you ever have @Patrik Laine in the slot area of the power play?! What a waste of a shot!
- @Connor Hellebuyck gave up a “bet he’d like to have that one back” goal for the first time in I think over a month. That’s pretty good.
- @Roope Hintz is sneaky fast and once he learns to use his 6’3″ frame to combine power with that speed, he’s going to be so dangerous.
- Corey Perry is an asshole.
- Why do both @Neal Pionk and @Blake Wheeler freeze up so much on the power play? Keep the puck moving fellas!
- @Nathan Beaulieu is only as good as the partner you put him with, and when that partner is @Anthony Bitetto, it’s not going to be very good at all.
- Score effects shouldn’t be a thing when you’re only up by two goals, but yet here we are.
- Still trying to figure out how that Wheeler shot got past @Ben Bishop. I bet both of them are as well.
- Corey Perry is an asshole.
Ok, with that all out of the way, I have two things worth talking about. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but:
Bad officiating did not cost the Jets the game
Look, I get it. It’s frustrating. I’m maybe guilty of stoking the flames of discontent on Twitter when I post a GIF like this with a caption dripping in sarcasm…
(Corey Perry is an asshole)
It’s ok to get angry at missed calls. It’s fine to be angry at bad calls. You can even go as far as point out that a missed call, or a bad call led directly to a goal against. All of that is fair and acceptable. I won’t deny anyone the right to feel jilted in that way.
What you can’t say though is that a missed call, or a bad call or even a series of them put together ultimately decided the outcome of a 60 minute long game.
Why, you may ask?
Because while the ref decided that he couldn’t be bothered to do anything when Hellebuyck was tripped up in the first period, or when @Kyle Connor was prevented from a possible scoring chance in the third, but was all too happy to dish out an extra two minutes when @Mark Scheifele said “he sucked,” thus hurting his over fragile feelings, it’s still on the Jets to overcome all that – and they did.
Because while @Josh Morrissey getting tagged for a really, really chintzy holding the stick penalty 1:31 into overtime (especially when compared to the non-call Perry was gifted in that previous GIF), may have put the Jets in a really bad spot, it’s still ultimately up to the three players and goalie on the ice to overcome that – and they could have but didn’t.
Because as mentioned the game is 60 minutes long and even if you want to take out the 10 minutes worth of time the Jets were shorthanded (actually less than 10 minutes thanks to the sudden death at the end) that still leaves 50 minutes where the two teams are playing either even strength or the Jets have an advantage in man power and should be doing something with it.
The Jets spent the first 30 minutes of the 60 minute game being arguably as bad as the Stars were on Tuesday night. The next ten minutes after that were a slight improvement, and the final 20 minutes was a combination of the Jets playing really well and the Stars being as bad as the Stars were on Tuesday night.
I really liked Paul Maurice’s comments after the game regarding the refs. Would it be nice if the Jets never saw bad calls put on them and every infraction against was properly called? Of course it would, but that’s never going to happen. Every team has to live with it, overcome the craptacular hand they were dealt by game officials and then press on.
The officials didn’t cost the Jets the victory last night, the Jets did a fine job in the first period and a half of doing that themselves.
But feel free to be angry over shitty officiating all the same. Trust me, when they went to video review on the Mark Scheifele 2-2 goal, I could swear my right eye was twitching a bit in anticipation of being really, really upset.
Don’t ever count these Jets out
Some of you Jets fans are so silly.
Down 0-2 after 40 minutes of play, I get that things aren’t looking good and I get that it’s a very small minority of people that do this, but the fact I see any messages of “tiMe To gIvE uP oN tHiS GAmE BeCUz ThE JeTS hAvE” – especially given what we’ve seen so far this season – is kind of astonishing.
The Jets are 4-2-2 when training after the first period and 3-1-1 on the road in that situation. They have the third best winning percentage in the league when trailing after one. When trailing after two periods, they are a respectable 5-8-2. They are tied with the Florida Panthers with the most wins in the league when trailing after 40 minutes of play and are top five in win percentage.
There is a reason why over in Toronto they are talking about how much their hockey club folds or quits on games. It’s because they are 0-8-1 when trailing after two periods.
It would be nice if the Jets weren’t behind in games so much, but they aren’t too far behind the league average in that department. Most teams in the league this season have gone into the third period trailing in a game at least 11 to 12 times, so the Jets aren’t that far away from the norm.
I maybe understood the feelings of despair from fans early in the season when we didn’t know better, but now? After we’ve gone how many weeks of hearing “stay in the fight” from media and players alike?
The Jets are a lot of things this season, but they aren’t boring and they don’t seem to ever quit on a game. They also don’t start on time a lot and it would be nice if they worked on that, but when they finally do show up, they don’t quit which makes for some crazy fun finishes even if it doesn’t go our way in the end.
Now, if only we could do something about the officiating…
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