As his team languishes in the cellar of the NHL, Jets general manager Kevin\u00a0Cheveldayoff offered a mutual feeling of disappointment with fans \u2014 but no commitment to make immediate changes to try to salvage something from a miserable season.<\/p>\n
“To this point, obviously, it’s been very disappointing. We need to find a way to be better,” Cheveldayoff\u00a0said Monday during a mid-season media availability.<\/p>\n
He then offered a hat trick of cliches:<\/p>\n
“All you can do is control what’s in front of you.”<\/p>\n
“Adversity is part of this game, it’s part of life. The art in it is how you handle it.”<\/p>\n
“It’s a tough league to win in.”<\/p>\n
The sputtering Jets are on a nine-game losing streak and dead last in the 32-team National Hockey League with a 15-21-4 (wins-losses-overtime losses) record for 34 points.<\/p>\n
This time last year the Jets were 27-12-2 with 56 points and second in the league. They would go on to win the Presidents’ Trophy after finishing first in the regular season with a 56-22-4 record and 116 points.<\/p>\n
After a promising 8-3 run to the start of the current season, the Jets have been in a tailspin, going 7-18-4, including blowing a three-goal lead against the Toronto Maple Leafs last week.<\/p>\n
In Ottawa, at the most recent loss on Saturday, TV cameras spotted a Jets fan with a paper bag over their head.<\/p>\n
“Fans in our market are very, very passionate and that is something we care deeply about,” Cheveldayoff\u00a0said on Monday.<\/p>\n
“Sports are very unpredictable and that’s the nature of the game here right now. I feel their [fans’] disappointment as much as they do.”<\/p>\n
Only one team in NHL history \u2014 the 1942-43 New York Rangers \u2014 went from being league champions one season to placing last the next year. However, there were only six teams then, which make the Jets’ collapse even more staggering.<\/p>\n
Cheveldayoff said many of those losses have been one-goal games, and the team could easily be on the winning side if it sticks to its structure. There’s been a tendency to veer off the blueprint at times, he said.<\/p>\n
He also defended head coach Scott Arniel and his staff, saying they are “working extremely hard” and are also frustrated.<\/p>\n
That same discouragement is felt by Mark Chipman, chair of True North Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Jets, Cheveldayoff said, calling Chipman a “bigger fan” than most.<\/p>\n
The team’s management has faced criticism for not creating room for some of the veterans or highly touted rookies plying their trade on the Jets’ AHL farm team Manitoba Moose. Other than some minor juggling during injuries, the roster has remained the same.<\/p>\n
To shift players down to the Moose would require putting them on waivers and risk other NHL teams scooping them up.<\/p>\n
Cheveldayoff\u00a0was asked whether that’s a risk worth taking to send a message.<\/p>\n
“You’re always looking, you’re always trying to evaluate what options are out there, whether it’s internally, whether it’s externally,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Those are conversations that are ongoing all the time. We’re not ruling out any of those options as we move forward here.”<\/p>\n
The Jets aren’t the only ones doing so. At this point in the season, most teams are holding meetings and contemplating plans \u2014 some more urgently than others, Cheveldayoff\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
“There’s lot of teams that are fighting for their lives right now.”<\/p>\n
Many recent trades around the NHL have involved teams giving up “currency” the Jets no longer have, he added, referring to draft picks or positions in upcoming drafts.<\/p>\n
The Jets traded a lot of those positions away in previous years to get veteran players they thought could help carry them to the promised land and a Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
Now they need to build that currency back up.<\/p>\n