Rule 1: don’t make Buff angry

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This article was published 28/10/2014 (3995 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Winnipeg Jets’ man-mountain left some carnage over the weekend.

There will now be fresh video to be spread around the team’s upcoming opponents to illustrate that when winger Dustin Byfuglien throws his weight around, people get hurt.

Byfuglien, in bang-bang fashion late in Sunday’s second period, sent a pair of Colorado Avalanche (Tyson Barrie and John Mitchell) flying, bringing the MTS Centre crowd out of its chairs.

Friday, Tampa Bay’s Radko Gudas made a big mistake by swinging his stick and hitting Byfuglien in the back. He took the worst of a Byfuglien mauling in retribution.

“It was just something that came up and that’s hockey,” Byfuglien said about weekend incidents.

“It’s just hockey, that’s all it is. You can’t get it to come to you. If it’s there it’s there.”

He was asked if we could see more of this kind of thing in the future.

“You can run around and try to chase it all you want but if it’s not there, it’s not there,” he said. “It’s a waste of energy.”

Byfuglien was asked if he likes that kind of knock-em-down game.

“It’s just part of the game,” he said. “I’ve got the ability to do it, I guess.”

That physicality didn’t overtake his or the Jets’ game on Sunday. It was one of the team’s better games this season.

‘He just keeps it simple. He’s a big body and he’s a guy who’s going to have fun. It’s going to be fun to watch him as his career progresses’

— Jets winger Dustin Byfuglien, on his new linemate, rookie centre Adam Lowry

“I think so,” Byfuglien said. “I thought we stuck with it and in all zones, I thought we did a very good job. Everyone was doing a good job.”

With two goals in the Jets’ first eight games, Byfuglien has seen duty on varying forward lines. Sunday saw him paired again with rookie centre Adam Lowry and right-winger Chris Thorburn.

Lowry, for one, gets wide eyes at the sight of Byfuglien in contact mode.

“I think it’s always exciting when you see something like that,” he said of the weekend incidents. “It’s uplifting. I think the fans really enjoyed that, too.”

And after a couple of games on the same line with the big man, Lowry was campaigning for more.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “You get tremendous matchups. He’s so physical down low. It’s so hard to take the puck away from him. He’s so creative and that opens up the ice for me and Chris.

“They usually have to try to go with one or two guys right on him just to try to win the battle. He’s so creative with the puck that anytime you’re cycling the puck down low, you don’t know what to expect from him. He’s able to spin off guys and go one-on-one, so that’s always nice playing with guys like that.”

Byfuglien didn’t seem to mind he’s currently matched with the rookie.

‘I think it’s always exciting when you see something like that. It’s uplifting. I think the fans really enjoyed that, too’

— Jets centre Adam Lowry, on Byfuglien’s high-impact game Sunday

“He’s young,” Byfuglien said. “He’s got so much potential. It’s fun to watch him. He’s a guy who’s going to keep it simple and you know what he’s going to do. He wants to do the right thing and he doesn’t want to get out of the comfort zone. He’s not going to try anything too fancy and if he does… I can’t wait till he does, actually.

“He just keeps it simple. He’s a big body and he’s a guy who’s going to have fun. It’s going to be fun to watch him as his career progresses.”

 

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca