News Article: Ken Wiebe sits down with Paul Maurice for an exit interview.

[Whileee]

Coaching has to shoulder a big part of the blame here. Ladd was excellent at deflecting pucks - why wasn't he parked in front of the goalie every power play? Buff's pretty elite from the edge of the crease too. Why are we playing the perimeter game? It's not like there haven't been a lot of different personnel in and out of the PP lineup over the years - and they're dead last 2 out of the last 4 years, bottom five in 3 out of 4 and bottom third 4 out of 4.

And now you're saying Perreault is a just hard worker who doesn't have good vision and passing ability?! Am I being Punk'd?

It's not the first time I've questioned Perreault's vision and passing ability. He's a very good player, but he makes a lot of questionable reads and plays in my view, including on the PP. I just don't think he's elite.

He had a pretty bad year this season in terms of offensive production - just 10 primary points even-strength all season. The Jets had 9 players with more primary points 5v5 than Perreault this season. Some of that is driven by a ridiculously low personal shooting percentage, but he only had 7 primary assists in 71 games.

 

[Yukon Joe]

To be fair, coaches typically get fired every couple years and are constantly moving their families all around North America. They have less stability than players. Lots go a year or two between coaching gigs. Maurice, as lucky (and good?) as he has been to land several stable gigs, went a year between Carolina and Winnipeg (no idea if he coached overseas...).

PMo did in fact coach in Russia for one year. 2012-13, Magnitogorsk Metallurg.



Interesting article. Maurice of curse couched his answers very carefully to avoid giving up too much information. But the big news is the talk of an "open competition" for goalie, and for it being Pavelec's contract year.

Maurice is never going to throw a player under the bus, but the answers hear are clear - the Jets are almost certainly moving on from Pavelec. Gone is the talk of him being #1. The Jets want Hellebuyck to be the #1 next year, either right out of training camp, or later on down the season. He'll be given every opportunity to take the job.

 

[sipowicz]

Here is what we are being led to believe: Paul Maurice, the guy who had Byfuglien as our permanent #3RW until catastrophic injuries forced him to move him back to being a perrenial all-star and top 15 defenseman; who had assessed Adam Lowry as our #1C going into training camp; the Paul Maurice who still has the worst statistical PK defenseman in the league getting the most ice time on the worst PK in the league (a PK that cost us any hope of the playoffs this year); and the Paul Maurice who trotted out Ondrej Pavelec and his .870 through all 4 games of a playoff sweep; is now telling us that he knew way back in May 2015 that the team just wasn't good enough and that they had to switch gears for the future. He knew that then but decided to tell us now, 12 months later, after the gears were already switched and the wheels had fallen off. No sale, comrade.

Dave Cameron was fired by the Senators and one of the reasons stated by the new GM was poor special teams play both near the league bottom, sound familiar. One of the things working in Mo's favour in keeping his job is the fact that Chevy has already fired a coach, next firing puts Chevy squarely on the hot seat if he isn't already!

 

[Hunter368]

Dave Cameron was fired by the Senators and one of the reasons stated by the new GM was poor special teams play both near the league bottom, sound familiar. One of the things working in Mo's favour in keeping his job is the fact that Chevy has already fired a coach, next firing puts Chevy squarely on the hot seat if he isn't already!

Exactly, Chevy is covering his ass.

 

[Tootsmagoo]

I know a lot of people aren't big fans of r/hockey on the site that shall not be named but did anyone see that post with the limo driver at Winnipeg airport with a Mike Yeo sign? I thought that was very interesting. Could there be a new assistant coach for Paul Maurice?

 

[YWGinYYZ]

You talking about Reddit? It's not off limits anymore: Mods just have to double check all links. Feel free to post the link.

Interesting that he was at the airport. Flying into Winnipeg for the juniors stuff, maybe?

 

[Tootsmagoo]

You talking about Reddit? It's not off limits anymore: Mods just have to double check all links. Feel free to post the link.

Interesting that he was at the airport. Flying into Winnipeg for the juniors stuff, maybe?

https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/4eh20j/from_a_friend_spotted_in_winnipeg_airport_todayon/ The title is wonky because why would he be stopping in Winnipeg but it's still intriguing why he would be here.

 

[JetsFan815]

I agree with much of what you're saying. But I think you're missing a key point.

It wasn't just the 4 game series that led Chevy to view last year's team as having reached their top level. As having nothing more to give. It was that they killed themselves to get there. Even the Ducks remarked on how beat up the Jets were. That's not a sustainable way to be a contender.

Killed themselves to get there? Injuries are usually just chance, not a function of "how hard to played to get there", Jets are more beat up this season then they were last season. Tampa is more beat up going into the playoffs this season than the Jets were last season. Jets got 99 points, 99 points is more than "sneaking in", 99 points in the NHL is very good esp with the suspect goaltending we had, 2 more wins (say we won the game against the Blues where Pavs let in the game winning goal from center ice and one of the several games where we blew a late 3rd period lead) we'd end the season with 103 points and a better record than the Stanley cup champions and fighting for 2nd place in the division. Marginally better goaltending in a couple of games would have put us with 100+ points and comfortably into the playoffs. All that is to say that making serious long terms decisions based on the sample size of a handful of games or the health of your team in those handful of games is not a recipe for success in the NHL

You can say my name: it's OK. That "people" is me - I consider this to be informative, but still a spin, just like all media discussions. For instance: I don't for one reason believe that the core was "bad" due to a poor showing last PO's. The team was beaten into the ground. Is it possible that they wanted to go in a different direction? Sure, but I don't think it was necessary to throw them under the bus while they did it.

See? I'm consistent. It's all spin.

I wasn't referencing you

 

[Puckatron 3000]

Killed themselves to get there? Injuries are usually just chance, not a function of "how hard to played to get there"

You really don't believe a highly physical, hard hitting team that plays on the edge, or past it (#1 penalties in the league) is more susceptible to injuries? Guys who are giving everything they've got (including Ladd playing through the hernia problem) just to make the playoffs? Weird.

Jets are more beat up this season then they were last season.

No they're not. Don't let all the tank moves fool you. The vast majority of the guys who were "injured" at the end of the year would have kept playing were we in the playoff hunt.

Jets got 99 points, 99 points is more than "sneaking in", 99 points in the NHL is very good esp with the suspect goaltending we had

I never said they snuck in, but maybe someone else did. They were the last wildcard though.

But to achieve that record, we did not have suspect goaltending. It was above league average.

All that is to say that making serious long terms decisions based on the sample size of a handful of games or the health of your team in those handful of games is not a recipe for success in the NHL

The whole point of my post is that the decision wasn't based on just a handful of games.

 

[raideralex99]

I don't know if this was brought up but on Yahoo they had a story on Maurice.

""I would like to see the best players make our team," Maurice said. "And if they're all young guys, they're all young guys.

"If that means, in the Central Division, that you've got to take a knock or two, I think that is the best thing for the organization."

Does this mean Pavs, Thor and Stuart are gone?

 

[Board Bard]

To be fair, Claude Noel was a Chipman hire. Chevy hired PMo himself. Noel was a joke of a HC.

To be fairer, Chevy had plenty of time in two and a half years to do an evaluation even if Pee-wee Herman was his coach. It's either just smoke or something worse.