I think the dire times are done after this year....largely due to the Pacific, as descending solar post MAX is rough for -AO/NAO for a few years...but TBH, +AO/NAO and a great PAC is probably the ideal paradigm for NE in terms of snowfall.
One obnoxious trend this season is for all of the PNA ridges to not only be west-based and positioned off of the west coast, but have a positively tilted, SW-NE lean that makes it very difficult to for anything to amplify enough to come up the coast.
I wonder if that seemingly omnipresent bundle of energy in the SW CONUS inhibits any subtle amplification of that clipper....may be more more likey for things to trend towards the GEM camp than the GFS.
Be honest about one thing...what would you be saying to folks like @MJO812at this point in the season if cold had been largely relegated to the long term charts Not to say that it won't warm up, because it will.