Jetfaninflorida
Southernmost Jet Fan
That's a simplistic view of how injuries affect performance. For one, injured players are often not in shape or not fully up to speed until some time after they return from injury. Also, some players are playing sub-par with injuries before they decide to go on the injury list to get things sorted out (like Enstrom before the end of the season when he finally sat out to get injuries dealt with). Moreover, during a very hectic schedule, injuries put more wear and tear on the remaining top players, reducing their effectiveness for prolonged periods of time. Beyond that, there is the natural lack of rhythm and consistency that a team has with players going in and out of the line-up.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying, like injured players performance is affected for a period of time when they come back into the lineup, wear and tear etc. But it is also very simplistic to say that we would have been in the playoffs if we didn't have so many injuries.
Of course anyone can say that we could/should/would have had more points if we had less injuries. So could fans of other teams. But then if you look closer at how our team performed with injuries AND with our schedule from hell, there isn't much difference from month to month when compared to when we were healthy and had a light schedule. But then, at the end of the year when we went 7 and 0 we had some significant injuries. But if I recall, our goaltending was better over that stretch. So to me, I would key in more on the goaltending in that situation. If we had better goaltending earlier in the year, maybe that would have gotten us closer to the playoffs. Why didn't our GM do something about goaltending like other teams that did address goaltending and then got into the playoffs.
I am not saying anything other than: I don't see the direct correlation between Winnipeg Jets injuries and that we would have made the playoffs. That's all I am saying. If the data (not an opinion) showing that direct correlation exists, I would really enjoy seeing it. It is a pure what if, so you can believe it if you want. I just don't because I don't see the correlation.
My quick and dirty analysis of looking at our record when we had significant injuries and when we didn't seems reasonable to me.
Another point. Statisticians will say that our man games lost to injury should return to the norm over time. What that means is that we should see less injuries compared to other teams in the next some number of years. Woo Hoo!
I wish we had more to talk about these days other than why we aren't in the playoffs. It is such a bummer to be out of the playoffs.
GJG!