No Keith for Hawks? No break for Jets

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This article was published 01/04/2016 (3476 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Only playoff-bound teams are left on the Winnipeg Jets’ schedule. The first of those five is tonight at the MTS Centre against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Hawks are currently third in the NHL’s Central Division with 95 points, six back of second-place St. Louis and four ahead of fourth-place Nashville.

Chicago’s storyline tonight won’t entirely be its place in the playoff seedings. It’ll also be what the short-term future looks like without star defenceman Duncan Keith, who will have his hearing with the league’s department of player safety this afternoon.

Wednesday, Keith swung his stick, whacked Minnesota’s Charlie Coyle in the face and was given a match penalty.

The NHL requested an in-person hearing — meaning possible suspension could exceed five games — but Keith opted to do it by phone today.

Keith’s time tonight will be spread around.

“I think everybody is probably going to get a little bit more (ice time) and Riemer (Trevor van Riemsdyk) is going to get that (No.1 pairing) spot with Hammer (Niklas Hjalmarsson),” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said today. “Look at the other guys that maybe go from 12 to 15, 16, 17 (minutes per game) and Victor (Svedberg) will get some penalty-killing time and power-play time; Gus (Erik Gustafsson) is going to get some power-play time too.

“So everybody is going to get more important minutes then they have been used to but I think that can help them as we go along here that they get exposure to top players and they get top situations.”

The Jets aren’t expecting a poorer Chicago team.

“They miss a key part but they seem to find someone to fill that role pretty good every time,” said Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien after his team’s game-day skate today. “I’m not expecting anything less out of their team. Somebody’s going to jump in and play his minutes.”

Jets coach Paul Maurice doesn’t see a big change in the flavour of tonight’s game, given that Keith is sure to be missing.

He praised the three-time Stanley Cup winner and last spring’s Conn Smythe winner as “a force.”

“They’ve got enough depth and over the years, whether a guy’s banged up on in the lineup, they’ve got enough strength of good players, they can make up for it,” Maurice said.

Speaking of forces, since he wasn’t available Wednesday night because he was receiving medical attention and the Jets cancelled their media availability on Thursday, Byfuglien entertained questions today about his colossal check on Ottawa’s Mark Stone here on Wednesday.

“I have seen it,” Byfuglien said. “That’s hockey. If you take that out of the game, everyone might as well put figure skates on. I’m glad he’s OK and everything worked out but that’s the way hockey is.”

Byfuglien admitted to feeling a little pleasure with that piece of work on Wednesday.

“I guess you take a little smile with it,” he said. “It’s just something I like to do. I’m glad I finally got one.

“You don’t see too many of those, guys coming with that much speed and head down. He saw it right at the last second but there was nothing he could do. It was a solid one.”

Last season, Byfuglien delivered a check of similar magnitude on Edmonton’s Luke Gazdic.

Wednesday, he had to face an onslaught of revenge-seeking Senators right away, and at several other instances before the game was over.

“Yeah, with the way the game is now, it doesn’t even have to be that big a hit sometimes and you’re going to get challenged,” Byfuglien said. “That’s part of the game and all you have to do is hold your ground.”

Maurice, his team last in the Central with 69 points, will ice the same lineup tonight against Chicago, apart from starting goalie Ondrej Pavelec.

Newly signed Brandon Tanev, who’s done at Providence College, was in the practice this morning but isn’t likely to see game action until Sunday against Minnesota, or more likely Tuesday in Anaheim, Maurice said.

The coach also said centre Bryan Little’s situation is being weighed daily and that one reason Little could yet play this season, after having suffered a compression fracture in his vertebrae on Feb. 18, is for the mental boost.

“That would probably be the thing we’re gauging because the easiest thing to do would be, ‘See you in September,’” Maurice said. “Through experience with these kinds of players, if they feel they really need that game and the doctors are saying there’s no reason why he can’t play and if we feel his conditioning is good, that would be the only reason.

“And the only reason, if he felt he needed to put it to rest, we’ll take that idea seriously and spend time talking about it and weighing it. But he will not be going back into that game if there’s even a remote question that he’s not at the level he needs to be.”

Little told the Free Press on Wednesday he was feeling great and was very close to being sure he could and should play again this season.

– with files from Jeff Hamilton

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca