Winnipeg Jets: 7 Keys to Success in the 2011-12 NHL Sesaon

While the thrill of their first season in the NHL hasn't worn off just yet for the Winnipeg Jets, it will soon, and the team will need to get down to business.

And in sports, of course, the main business is winning games.

As a young, relatively inexperienced squad, they may have a tough road ahead of them for now.  But there are a few things the Winnipeg Jets can do to be successful.

1. Reducing Goals Against

It pretty much goes without saying that when you're fishing the puck out of your own net, you're not going to win many games. 

As the Thrashers, this team was 29th (out of 30 teams) in goals against last year.  They allowed a goal per game more than the Canucks.  And when you factor in that six of seven defensemen, both goalies and a majority of the forwards are back from last year, the Jets look like a team with problems in their own end.

Without a significant improvement in goals against over last year, this team doesn't make the playoffs.

2. Dustin Byfuglien Deciding to Grow Up

In an interview a number of years ago, long-time NHLer Mike Grier pointed out that the difference between the players who have a few good years and disappear and the players who thrive well into their 30s is discipline. 

In the NHL, everyone has world-class talent.  That's why they're there.  

And so the bottom line is that the guys who stay out of the bars and stay in the gym will last.  The players who don't, no matter their natural athletic ability, will disappear.

In that regard, Dustin Byfuglien's offseason brush with the law, not to mention his fairly significant weight gain (which suggests he didn’t bother working out over the summer), have got to be a concern. 

If he steps up this season, he could be a Norris Trophy candidate based on offensive production alone. 

But the warning signs are there of a player whose world-class skill might not be matched by world-class work ethic.  For his sake, and for the sake of the Jets, let's hope this summer was a blip and not part of a pattern. 

3. Young Guns

A big part of the key to success for the Jets this year is a number of young players continuing their development and emerging as stars.

While he's only 20 years old, people are looking for big production from Evander Kane, and with good reason.  He's shown consistent improvement in his two years in the league, and many feel that his 19 goals last year might just be the tip of the iceberg.

And so there's big hopes that some of the young guns, including Alex Burmistrov, Patrice Cormier, Blake Wheeler and even first-round draft choice Mark Scheifele, though he's not quite Dale Hawerchuk just yet, can emerge as legitimate scorers. 

Even if they can just chip in consistently from the third and fourth lines, they could play a big hand in turning this squad from a bottom feeder to a playoff contender.

4. On-Ice Leadership

As mentioned, this team needs Dustin Byfuglien to emerge as a leader.  On a talented Blackhawks team, he could play a supporting role, free of the pressure of the spotlight.  In Winnipeg, he won't have that luxury. 

And 25-year-old captain Andrew Ladd, who also won a Stanley Cup with Byfuglien in Chicago, is a senior figure on this young Jets team.  His experience will be a valuable resource, as he's been to the big dance before, and he knows what it takes to get there.

As Elliot Friedman pointed out at CBC.ca, Ladd will probably never be a point-a-game player, but his worth to the club goes light years beyond that.  In short, Ladd brings a calm veteran presence and a champion's swagger to a young team that desperately needs a bit of both. 

If Ladd can be a leader on the ice and in the dressing room, and if Byfuglien decides to join him, there's no reason to think that some of the younger players can't take care of the scoring.

5. Off-Ice Leadership

Unless you've played high-level sports, it can be difficult to appreciate the difference that good coaching can make.  But there's a reason that coaches like Scotty Bowman and Bill Belichick have consistently been winners, despite changing casts of players around them.

On a young team like this, new coach Claude Noel’s ability to adjust midseason (or even mid-game) if things aren’t working will be critical.    

In that regard, the collapse of the Thrashers in the second half of last season has got to be a concern for Noel.  His ability to keep this young club motivated and consistent over an 82-game season will be key to their success.

Also, new GM Kevin Cheveldayoff's ability to make midseason adjustments will be important, too.  The right trade at the right time can save a season, and the wrong one can ruin it.

6. The Game of Inches

In what’s probably the greatest sports-movie speech of all time, Al Pacino’s character rallies a nearly-defeated football team in Any Given Sunday.  His speech includes the comments that: "Life is a game of inches.  So is football.  On this team, we tear ourselves to pieces for that inch.  We claw with our fingernails for that inch.  That’s what I’m looking for.” 

Things like midseason injuries can't be planned for or controlled.  But how hard a team works, collectively and individually, can be.  In this age of millionaire athletes, coaches face an uphill battle. 

But as in life, so it is in the NHL, and the only place "success" comes before "work" is in a dictionary.

If the Jets develop that work ethic Pacino’s character speaks of, that willingness to scrap for every inch, they might just surprise a few people, including themselves.

7. Patience

Quite simply, there might not be a single key to success, or even six, because there are just too many factors weighing against the Jets.  And so, realistically, this might not be the year.

But this is a team so loaded with potential that it's ridiculous.  At every position, this team has players who seem like they could be poised to be on the brink of greatness, or at least have productive NHL careers.

So in that regard, maybe the biggest asset for the team, and its fans, is recognizing that it might be a few years until this team is a winner. 

But imagine this roster more or less intact, the core of it, four or five years down the road.  What do you picture? 

It may be too early to start planning the 2016 Stanley Cup parade route down Portage Avenue just yet, but who knows?