Best-laid plans go awry
Maurice must improvise lineup, line combinations as battered Jets limp through pre-season
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/10/2014 (4013 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
It was a well-designed plan for the Winnipeg Jets’ regular lineup to ramp up its game ahead of the 2014-15 NHL season.
It’s out the window.
Jets coach Paul Maurice had plotted and reasoned his way through every detail this summer, including the rationing of proper amounts of playing time for each player that was going to send the Jets soaring in the Western Conference standings.
Now he’s flying by the seat of his pants with injuries, maybes and possibilities, but what goes on the ice tonight at Scotiabank Saddledome is not the team he envisioned for the regular season nor the one he wanted to see so it could work on and refine its game.
“Not so much to have a look at it but for them to have time to play together,” the coach said after Wednesday’s practice at the MTS Iceplex. “We’re not too far off where it’s going to end up. Yeah, there’s always concern when you have nagging injuries but the concern is that we don’t take the time and let them heal.
“Those guys stay off the ice… it’s turned out to be a good opportunity for other players getting an opportunity and that’s the positive in it. Most of these guys have enough experience that we have three days of practise before the opener that we can get it right.”
Just 32 players are left in training camp with Wednesday’s five demotions, but eight of them (Toby Enstrom, Bryan Little, Dustin Byfuglien, T.J. Galiardi, Eric O’Dell, Blake Wheeler, Danny Taylor, Patrice Cormier) were not on the ice Wednesday for regular practice.
And so it’s a hodgepodge of lines again tonight against the Flames (8 p.m., TSN3, TSN 1290), including several youngsters still making their bid for Maurice’s attention and a roster spot.
Maurice had said just more than a week ago he wanted the final three exhibition games for most of his regular lineup to get comfortable playing together and playing his way.
He has seen some of that game through a 2-3 mark in the pre-season so far.
And he wants more, starting tonight.
“Longer stretches of our game looking the way it’s supposed to,” he said. “It’s been in each game, we’ve had pieces of it. I thought we were a little bit better (Tuesday) night. There was only about a five- or six-minute stretch that we didn’t care for. So longer stretches of time, fewer penalties against, a little better with our sticks and getting our five-on-five play right.”
Jets captain Andrew Ladd is one player who’s taken a few days out of the mix but is back in and ready to go.
Ladd said Wednesday that he believes he’s ready to play the final two pre-season contests (also Saturday night at home vs. Calgary) after having seen action in just two of the five games so far.
He will go tonight without regular centre Bryan Little, however, as draft pick Nic Petan moves into that spot between Ladd and likely linemate Michael Frolik.
“No, I’m not too concerned,” Ladd said. “Better to take care of that (injury) stuff right now than to have it going on during the year. Sometimes it’s smarter to stay off. Me and (Little) have been together a long time, so it doesn’t take much to feel comfortable with each other.”
Ladd said despite the injuries there is a better focus in practice now that the training camp roster has been reduced again.
“I think it’s nice to have a smaller group to start working as lines and as a group on a (few) more specific things,” he said. “For sure it’s a lot easier for us, especially in practice, you want less guys to have the reps and to make sure you’re sharp and ready to go.”
The non-regular lineup tonight will include 2014 first-round draft pick Nikolaj Ehlers skating on a line with Mark Scheifele and Evander Kane, and improving youngster Adam Lowry going into a line with Mathieu Perreault and Matt Halischuk, who has led the Jets so far in pre-season scoring.
Michael Hutchinson will start in goal tonight. Ondrej Pavelec is scheduled to play Saturday’s game.
tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca
