That noise you’re hearing is Rick Bowness in the kitchen, with the blender at high speed.
It’s not a very pleasant noise at this point, but the head coach is trying to concoct a little bit of offence from his players, moving centres to the wing and wingers up and down the lineup.
In many ways, it’s tantamount to the struggles we all have with our computers or other electronic gadgets: “pull the plug, hit reset, and wait 10 seconds.”
This late-season collapse is not something I can ever remember witnessing — at least not in hockey — nor is it something that appears to be easily remedied … and what has made it so much more frustrating than most is the great start that this team had.
For many people, the Jets were one of the great stories of this season through mid-December. Talk of three potential award winners was realistic for Hellebuyck, Morrissey and Bowness — but those talks have disappeared for sure.
The team was scoring, playing quality team defence and re-energizing the fan base, who were slow to rally to the club because of last season’s debacle. The strong start and the revitalized leadership group gave all of us hope for the playoffs, and a long playoff run.
Now that appears to be wasting away.
And while the Jets do have a good home schedule and control their own fate, you have to know that this season is starting to hurt like no other.
Having early-season success snatched away one more time — just like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown, only to snatch it away at the last second in the comic strip Peanuts.
It’s really hard not to think of the Jets as Charlie Brown, and no one wants to be Charlie Brown.