Here comes Trouba: polarizing D-man returns to MTS Centre

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/11/2016 (3278 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jacob Trouba sure knows how to make an entrance.

The 22-year-old defenceman, playing his first game at the MTS Centre since ending a contract stalemate on Nov. 7, was conspicuous with his stellar play in a 3-2 shootout victory for the Winnipeg Jets over the Los Angeles Kings Sunday afternoon.

Trouba logged 27:53 of ice time, behind only Dustin Byfuglien’s 31:28 and Drew Doughty’s 30:22, blocked four shots, took three shots and was a force all game with blue-line partner Toby Enstrom.

His return probably couldn’t have been more conveniently scripted, especially with veteran Jets blue-liner Tyler Myers sidelined again with a lower-body injury.

The extra work was welcomed.

“Yeah, that’s what you want,” said Trouba, who played 23:14 in his return to the Jets lineup Friday on the road against the Colorado Avalanche. “You always have to be ready for it. I don’t really know what to expect on any given night minutes wise. You just go out and make the most of them.”

Conditioning, Trouba said, was not an issue even if he had been away from game action for more than six weeks.

“When I was sitting there (at home in Michigan), it was the one thing I knew I could control – the shape I was in and I really focused on that,” said Trouba. “I’m pretty happy with where I am.”

And, if there was a negative reaction from Winnipeg fans, Trouba didn’t notice it.

“I don’t really pay much attention on the ice,” he said. “I’m pretty zoned in. I didn’t hear much and I didn’t really notice it.”

Winnipeg’s excellent defensive work would’ve been for naught without the nifty contributions of AHL call-ups Nic Petan and Marko Dano.

Adam Lowry’s first-period power play goal came when he potted Petan’s rebound and Dano finished off a slick feed from Enstrom to give the Jets a 2-1 lead they held until the third. Tanner Pearson, in the first, and Tom Gilbert, with 7:02 left in the third, scored for the visitors.

Rookie phenom Patrik Laine, showing some shootout wizardry in addition to his vast goal-scoring repertoire, beat L.A. goaltender Peter Budaj through the five-hole and Mark Scheifele added the winner, ripping a shot past Budaj’s blocker to provide the margin of victory.

“Patrik’s goal really displays the puck skills he has, and then Scheif’s, with his quick release there,” said Lowry. “Those are two huge goals and they’re always fun to watch.”

Finding his rhythm

Third-year pro Connor Hellebuyck started for the fifth time in six games and the 23-year-old Jets goaltender seems to have found his groove.

Although he faced only six shots in each of the first two periods, Hellebuyck was steady as the Jets killed off five minor penalties. His best stop came a 3:43 of the third period when he robbed Jeff Carter, sent in all alone, with a superb glove save. It was one of 17 L.A. shots in the period.

“I thought the team played really good in front of me,” said Hellebuyck. “And, after we gave up the first goal, I’ll take a little bit of blame for that. They came back and they scored twice.”

Gilbert tied it at 2-2 and the Kings started overtime on a power play but Hellebuyck said it was really no problem. He also stopped Dustin Brown and Nic Dowd in the shootout after allowing a goal by Dwight King.

“That was fun hockey,” said Hellebuyck. “I think the crowd liked it. I definitely loved to play in it.”

Special teams clicking

Jets captain Blake Wheeler was encouraged by the improvements his team has shown lately. The Jets went 2-for-5 on the power play, scoring twice while Kyle Clifford was off for a boarding major, and are now 6-for-18 in their last five games.

“Most importantly we’ve identified our game,” said Wheeler. “We know what it looks like when we’re playing like we’re supposed to play. I don’t want to say it’s easy to play that every night but it’s easier when everyone buys into it.

“It really feels like we’ve got every guy here playing the same way. We’re relentless on pucks, when we need a big block we get a block, when we need a big save, we get a save. That’s it a lot of fun to play.”

Winnipeg also killed off five L.A. power plays.

“Great penalty killing,” added Wheeler. “The unit on the power play (Enstrom, Trouba, Dano, Petan and Lowry) after us was awesome. Our power-play unit was atrocious. You need that, though. There are going to be nights where we snap it around and we look great. On the nights like tonight where we don’t really have anything set up in the zone – to have those guys get two huge goals that makes a good team.”

Added Jets head coach Paul Maurice, whose team hosts the Chicago Blackhawks Tuesday night: “You can sense from the start that everybody feels like they have piece of what’s going on. Everybody on the bench is involved, Chris Thorburn being physical and he did what he needed to do and Andrew Copp was a critical piece to those penalty kills. The entire bench gets a piece of the win.”

Sutter not impressed

The call on Clifford’s pivotal boarding major, in which Jets rookie Kyle Connor was taken head first into the boards, did not impress Kings coach Darryl Sutter.

“I totally agreed with it, it was a great call,” said Sutter with a sneer. “I thought they’d give like a 10-minute power play. In today’s two-referee system you’re just hoping for one really good one all of the time.”

Noteworthy

The Jets have placed centre Mathieu Perreault (lower body) on injured reserve to make room for call-up Quinton Howden. Meanwhile, forwards Joel Armia (lower body), Bryan Little (lower body) and Shawn Matthias (lower body) remain on IR and out indefinitely. Defenceman Mark Stuart (lower body) and right-winger Drew Stafford (upper body) are considered day-to-day.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14