ANALYSIS: Banged-up Winnipeg Jets need to embrace the challenge

Call it a reality check, a swoon, or perhaps in its simplest form: a two-game losing streak. It’s something we haven’t seen in these parts for a long time now — since the end of November, in fact.

Perhaps compounding any thought about this team, is that fact that the Jets were riding high, as one of the best teams in all the NHL, before going east for a short trip, only to be derailed by Boston and Toronto.

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All those games with three goals or less — gone after the game in Boston. And to lose an epic game to the dreaded Maple Leafs certainly has to leave a bitter taste in the players’ mouths. They had their chance in Toronto … great chances.

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Right, Adam? Right, Morgan?

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This is now a test. Injuries to Scheifele and Vilardi have not helped, and now Josh Morrissey. From September through April, you can’t expect any of the NHL’s teams to go unscathed.  Last I checked, no one has ever gone 82-0. We all know that every team in the NHL goes through tough times in the long, grueling 82-game schedule. Some survive, some fail, other teams embrace the challenge. This team was re-shaped to handle these times.

It is disappointing they couldn’t win in Boston and close the deal in Toronto. But that is life in the best league in the world.

This is not adversity; this is a challenge. The Jets have to embrace the challenge. Remember, it’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s what you do about it that is important.

Click to play video: 'John Shannon on the Jets: January 24'

John Shannon on the Jets: January 24

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