In a previous column, I laid out the “bump” that teams experience when they replace a coach in mid-season. It’s been minor, but it exists — for whatever reason. The Jets are getting much more than a bump from the hiring of Paul Maurice. It’s more like Maurice loaded the team onto a catapult and fired them into playoff contention.
The other 11 current NHL coaches who were mid-season replacements improved a team’s results by an average of 1.3 points over five games and 2.3 points over 10 games.
Under Maurice, the Jets have gone way beyond that.
Maurice’s first games vs. Noel’s last games
Noel | Maurice | Improvement | |
| 5 games | 0 | 8 | +8 |
| 10 games | 6 | 16 | +10 |
The Jets are 10 points better in Maurice’s first 10 games than they were in Claude Noel’s final 10 games. And the improvement with Maurice is the best of any active coaches.
| Coach | Team | Improvement |
| Maurice | WPG | +10 |
| Sutter | LAK | +7 |
| Hitchcock | STL | +6 |
With at least four points in the next five games, the Jets will have the biggest improvement over a 15-game span as well.
The more-important part of Maurice’s revival is that the playoffs are a real possibility now. The post-season seemed unreachable from the morass they were in on Jan. 12.
The Jets have gone from 12 points out of the final playoff spot to four. One problem is, they remain in 12th place — meaning they still have to get past three other teams to challenge Vancouver for eighth.
In the last 10 full seasons, the average number of points for the eighth playoff spot has been 92. That would require the Jets to win 17 of their final 25 games. When you consider what they’ve done the last month, that would be an amazing achievement. And one that would earn Maurice a long-term contract.
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