I'm feeling this very strongly.
I've been a die hard, one team fan of the Jets for every second of their existence in the nhl.
I've been through extremely dark times with this team - playing under the shadow of the Oilers, the macoun crosscheck on Hawerchuk, the popcorn incident, losing the team.
However, through all those times the team always did the best they could and it showed.
It has been a real slog watching this team the past 5 years. So much frustration and disappointment.
I can take a team that is less talented, and gives its all but falls short, but I can't accept a team that has no mental fortitude.
For me the worst part is this isn't new, we've seen this collapse under pressure over and over and over.
Thinking a bunch of vets are going to suddenly figure it out is naive at best. I know it will never happen but if bet a guy like Sydney Crosby could straighten these guys out.
Add all of that to my Supreme hate for the nhl and I'm just wondering what's next?
It's a pretty empty feeling honestly.
The only realistic scenario I see this team go beyond their"mentally weak" kind of thing whenever it counts is in a couple of years, when we have switched out most of the roster with the new generation. Not everybody will be gone obviously - Scheifele and Hellebuyck will most likely still be here. Probably Morrissey. But other than that, I can see the entire roster outside of Samberg maybe gone. Yes, maybe even Lowry because he is done with the core itself and wants to try and lead another team to a championship as their 3rd line machine.
We'll have a brand new coach in place for his second or third seasonn since this is at least 3 years away - probably more like 4 or 5 even. It is only then I see a realistic chance for this franchise to actually go all the way and win a cup.
Looking back at it now, in hindsight, I feel like we really should have won the Stanley Cup in 17/18 and the only reason we didn't was the fact that Scheifele, Wheeler & Hellebuyck already obviously had the same mental weaknesses and captain Wheeler was part of them not being able to get the collective over the hump when it was do or die time. Look at that nasty roster we had, look at that D-corp we had. Look at the teams that won the Cup since. I think there are plenty similarities and you've got to wonder "how did the 17/18 Jets not even make the finals that year?".
I've been theorising about this before one year ago but I still strongly believe that Buff just going away wasn't only because "he lost the love for the game" or whatever media platitude you'd like to insert. It certainly wasn't because his body was done. So why did he leave the team AND left 14 million USD in contract years on the table? There has to an explanation to it - which he never gave. Not to this day. And I think it will be many more years until he will explain it - because he's going to have to speak about the still active players in a bad way he just can't until they still have active playing careers. That's not Dustin Byfuglien. But I had this feeling for more than a year now that it had something to do with the mental weakness of the core - Scheifele, Wheeler, Connor, Hellebuyck.
Again it is a pure theory but I think it makes sense on all levels. Why has he never showed up since? Not even for the once a season occasional visit. Why wouldn't you show up at least once, hang out with the guys in the locker room, have a good time, see many friends from many years coming to the rink daily. Because once you leave because you didn't believe in your teammates, that isn't going to happen obviously... It would be very weird and might even create bad statements in the press from those players...
I feel like it is also remarkable that so many long, long time users of HFJets like you, Jet, and plrenty of other like surixon or Duke or ps or myself - we apparently all seem to have very similar opinions and feelings about the state of the situation in presence and looking into the future. We all seem to have the same thoughts about this group. It can't be some weird coincidence that all of us show these matching opinions. There must be truth to this - we're all not THAT stupid collectively, lol.
Now after having said that, watch the team push back randomly today and win the game only to roll over at both home games left and lose it in 7 lol.