Prepare for lift off?

The Winnipeg Jets are back. Yay for us. I'm a big hockey fan, so needless to say I am very excited about their return. I'm not however, so excited about their start. O'fer 2. Thats zero, zilch, notta, nothing.

In the season opener against Montreal, we didn't seem to have a lot of goal scoring gusto. We never really looked dangerous, didn't record many scoring chances, and when we did have them, we failed to capitalize. Unlike the Capitials, who unfortunately for us, are also in our division, seem to have no problem with that. Anyways, by the third period of that game, we looked totally outmatched.

In Thursday's game I noticed a bit of an improvement but I think its time to get a little worried, especially if your one of those people hoping for some playoff action this spring. The trouble is, the Jets lack a goal scorer, they lack a superstar, someone who is going to deliver at the pivotal moment. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers faced that problem last year, ahem, Steven Jyles, and their record was a sad 4 and 14. 

Lets get real, the Jets scored 3 goals in Chicago, two on deflections from the point in the first five minutes when the Blackhawks were sleeping. After that? They managed one goal, on route to a four three loss. Despite having a ton of chances, we couldn't climb back into the game. During the season opener one could rationalize that we were playing one of the league's best goalies, Carey Price. On Thursday? Not so much, as Ray Emery doesn't exactly strike fear into most goal scorer's eyes.

Upfront we are out-gunned. We had Mark Scheifele lining up against Marion Hossa Thursday night. It doesn't take a Don Cherry to realize that's a losing proposition. On Defence, we seem to be getting beat far too often by opposing forwards when they take the puck wide with speed around our defencemen. I guess thats good for Ondrej Pavelec's development, at the very least.

That said, our team plays with passion, which apparently we are fuelled by. Hopefully this Saturday in Phoenix we can be fuelled by goals, because we are certainly going to need them. Now that the Jets are back, it's time to be concerned with winning, because sooner or later, thats how the Jets are going to be defined, might as well start now.