Burmistrov needs ‘coaching’

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This article was published 25/11/2011 (5067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RALEIGH, N.C. — The division-rival Washington Capitals seem to have a daily soap opera percolating — losing streaks, pouty superstars, a testy coach, unproductive and scratched stars and players missing meetings.

The Winnipeg Jets can’t hold a candle to any of that but took a run at a least a small tempest this week with the dwindling ice time of budding young Russian sniper Alexander Burmistrov.

The 20-year-old first-round draft pick of 2010 has been averaging nearly 18 minutes per game this season but played not even half of that in Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime loss in Washington.

Burmistrov has been reduced to 13 minutes 11 seconds and then just 7:56 in the last two games.

More to the point, he’s contributed no goals and two assists in the last nine games after rolling up four goals and 10 points in the first 12.

“It’s just the coach’s decision,” Burmistrov said after Thursday’s practice at the RBC Center, where the Jets meet the Carolina Hurricanes tonight (6 p.m., TSN Jets, TSN 1290). “There is nothing I can do. I am disappointed. There’s nothing I can do. That’s the coach’s decision. We’ll do whatever he says.”

Burmistrov said that his dealings with Jets coach Claude Noel will remain private.

“I think whatever he says to me, that will be about me and him. It will stay with us,” he said.

That was the point where Thursday’s conversation with the talented forward went a bit odd. It was hard to tell if his tone was defensive, prickly or indifferent.

This was the exchange:

“What will you be looking to do tomorrow night?”

“I just go there, work hard. It’s all what I have to do, and play my game.

“Do you think something is missing from your game?”

“I think you should tell me what I’m missing. You see the game from upstairs. I don’t know what I’m missing.”

Later, Burmistrov seemed to revisit that answer, owning up to not getting the puck out of the Jets zone right before the Capitals went ahead 3-2 early in the second period.

“I try to play defence well, try to get puck out of the zone,” he said. “Yesterday I was not getting the puck out and they scored a goal, so…”

Burmistrov also identified his lack of production as problematic.

“I feel different,” he said. “I don’t have any goals, points. That’s the difference. That’s the change (in my) game. I need to get back on the track and get points.”

Noel, asked again about the matter on Thursday, described it all as almost routine.

“Basically what we’re doing is we’re coaching,” Noel said. “Him and I have a relationship and it will continue and we’ll continue to try to make him the player we see him to be.

“I’m happy with him. There are just some things I’m trying to get across. It’s just coaching.”

The coaching, Noel pointed out, is not just about one player.

He has indeed been juggling his forward lines. Thursday, for instance, Burmistrov was skating with Jim Slater and Tanner Glass. In Wednesday’s game, much of his skating time was with Eric Fehr and Jason Jaffray.

“The only difference is that he’s changed personnel,” Noel said. “That’s probably the one thing but that’s no fault of his. You try to manage individuals in a group. You try to manage for the group. There are all kinds of things you’re trying to manage, not only one player. Sometimes one player gets affected but you just try to manage things for the sake of the whole group.

“You juggle people around. That’s how you do it. He was going real good with (Nik) Antropov for a while but we weren’t winning at that stage for a lot of different reasons that really had nothing to do with one person.”

And Noel was doing his best to douse any fire that might be starting regarding Burmistrov’s ice time, which had reached more than 20 minutes seven times this season. That’s how much faith Noel had previously placed in him.

“These things come back around,” the coach said. “You just have to be patient. All players have to do is focus on their work ethic and just trying to play their A game. Everything always winds up working itself out.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca