Saw all the coaching chatter in the Schmidt thread but didn't want to derail that further, and I think this is a pretty good leaping off point to continue to the discussion.
I agree with you about Maurice being good at managing relationships and setting an overall tone. He seems like a great guy and the players like him. That's great, and it's important for the Jets/True North to have a guy like that in the locker room. Winnipeg isn't as warm as Arizona, or Florida, or Tampa; we can't offer the nightlife of Vegas or Los Angeles; we don't have the endorsements that Toronto and New York benefit from; we have high taxes here; we are a small, frozen abyss in the middle of nowhere (by NHL standards) - there is a lot of things to scare players away. Vegas are being complete clowns with how they treat their players, but IMO, they can stand to get away with it more than we can just based solely on location. Winnipeg isn't terrible; no, rather, I like it here. But it would be a tough sell for some players. What I'm getting at here is a long-winded way of saying True North needs to offer something else, and Maurice is part of that. We don't have palm trees and hot girls in bikinis everywhere, but we can offer loyalty, and a players' coach.
I can also respect the opinion that we shouldn't criticize lineup decisions if we don't know the full story and the ins and outs. With all due respect, I think it's hard to justify Beaulieu on the top pairing unless he has blackmail material on Maurice, but I can try to stymie my critiques on roster and lineup decisions because I don't know the full story.
I also think our systems have been generally shit for a few years now, but perhaps that's due to the lack of talent we've been deploying on the back end. We've also seen instances of the team folding under adversity (St. Louis Game 6, Calgary series, Montreal series). But is that Maurice? Or is it a symptom of something bigger? I'm not sure.
I like the room we have. We seem to be in a much better place than we were a year ago. And the talent is coming. With Dillon and Schmidt in this year, the Jets have a good defensive core. The pressure is on Maurice now to perform with it. He's had a long leash here, and eventually, you need to win it all.
In Bomberland, O'Shea is the same way. He is a players' coach, guys WANT to play for him. He's been a big part of the appeal of us being able to bring in all these top CFL free agents in recent years (Harris wanted to come home, but even excluding him you've got guys like Medlock, Bryant, Adams, Bighill, Jefferson, etc.) The Bombers had looked like they were dragging their feet in the mud for a couple of seasons there (continuous disappointing playoff losses) but they stuck with O'Shea and it ultimately paid off. If the Jets are sticking with Maurice, all we can do is hope for the same.
