View image in full screen
It was anything but a November to remember for the Winnipeg Jets.
So there is not much doubt the team will be focused on avoiding a repeat over the next three weeks leading into the Christmas break — beginning tonight in Buffalo.
Five wins and eight losses. That’s how the Jets finished the just-completed month of the schedule, their worst November in a decade.
Story continues below advertisementIt could have been Winnipeg’s worst November in the 2.0 history of the franchise had it not been for Saturday’s 5-2 win in Nashville.
Get daily National news
Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.So for Jets Nation, the hope — and for the Jets’ roster, the expectation — would be there is nowhere to go but up for the month of December.
But pump the brakes if you believe tonight’s 6:30 p.m. faceoff in Buffalo is a given in aid of a solution. As enigmas go, the Sabres just might be the NHL’s most difficult puzzle to piece together.
One night, they looked all-world in a 5-1 beatdown of Edmonton. Forty-eight hours later, they get embarrassed 6-2 by Calgary. And another 48 hours after that, they wallpaper Chicago 9-3. All in the same home stand.
Just last weekend, they followed up a 5-0 home loss to New Jersey with a 3-2 shootout win in Minnesota to end the Wild’s seven-game winning streak.
Story continues below advertisementSo if you think there is a “book on Buffalo” because the Sabres are dead last in the Eastern Conference, you might want to rethink that position. The Jets certainly won’t. Nor can they afford to.
Saturday’s “almost must-win” can only be viewed as a potential starting point. Because while Winnipeg is not quite the Rubik’s Cube Buffalo has been this season, the Jets have hardly been a model of consistency themselves.
Tonight could be another small step toward regaining their status as the team that delivers on a nightly basis.
What we just saw during the past month is an indicator of just how much work there is to do to get back to achieving that level of respect.
4:11
John Shannon on the Jets: November 25
Related News
- Manitobans light the lamp as Winnipeg Jets fall 5-1 in Carolina
- ANALYSIS: It’s not time for Jets fans to panic … at least not yet
- ANALYSIS: Jets’ goal should be to stay in playoff hunt
- ANALYSIS: Prospect Salomonsson’s addition to lineup can only help Jets compete
- Jets goalie Hellebuyck out 4-6 weeks to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery
