What to watch in the remaining playoff push for the Jets

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/04/2015 (4129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is for stretches exactly like this — with a good chunk of our populace following each shift and storyline swirling around the Winnipeg Jets — that hockey fans still shout out “True North” with conviction during our national anthem.

Yes, when the National Hockey League made its return official back on May 31, 2011, fans in these parts knew there would be growing pains. The honeymoon? It was fun for a spell.

But the payoff is here now. Jets Fever is widespread, and it’s only going to become more contagious in the 10-day run from now to the end of the regular season.

Does this plucky bunch have enough fuel in its tank to make one more push for a coveted playoff spot?

Will Dustin Byfuglien get slapped on the wrist by the NHL or spend the next few games in detention?

Is it Ondrej Pavelec the rest of the way, or does Michael Hutchinson have at least one more big night to give in the Jets net?

All juicy topics, all of them yet to be determined.

Still, that won’t stop us from tossing out those subjects for debate in our latest edition of Mach II: the Winnipeg Jets Report…

 

5 QUICK TAKES ON THE JETS

1. No matter how Dustin Byfuglien’s phone hearing with the NHL department of player safety goes today — the overwhelming consensus is his cross-check to J.T. Miller will result in at least a two-game suspension — the impact on the Jets’ playoff push is, clearly, mammoth.

He is their fifth-leading scorer with 45 points (18G, 27A) in 68 games, is the guy who makes the power play occasionally dangerous and averages close to 23 minutes per game.

Simply put, he’s been their MVP this year.

But, and we’ve been saying this since the team first put down roots here, for all the game-changing plays Byfuglien makes for the Jets, if you want him to have a prominent role on your squad, you have to also be cool with some of the ‘other stuff’ that shows up in his game.

And that other stuff Tuesday night wasn’t just the cross-check on Miller — a play that wasn’t penalized but could now hurt the team big-time when he’s suspended — but also the inexcusable slashing penalty he took with 39 seconds left in a game the Jets trailed by one.

His timing in the loss and at this point in the season couldn’t be worse. In fact, it stinks.

2. So, now what? Assuming Byfuglien sits for a spell, Jets coach Paul Maurice has a rather meaty decision to make with his lineup. Ben Chiarot, who has missed 16 games with a hand injury, was tentatively scheduled to return to the roster for Saturday’s critical matchup against the Vancouver Canucks. He had been occasionally working with Byfuglien in a pairing that, at times this season, was the Jets’ top unit. But he’s also been out since Feb. 21, and the Jets, unless your name is Mathieu Perreault or Bryan Little, don’t have a lot of time left on the calendar to be doing the shake-off-the-rust thing.

Maurice could also turn to veteran Jay Harrison, a healthy scratch for the last three games, and lean on his experience. Worth noting here: The Jets are 18-9-3 with Harrison in the lineup and 19-10-7 when Chiarot sees action.

3. Discuss among yourselves, Jets fans: does Michael Hutchinson get any work in any of the five remaining regular-season games?

Ondrej Pavelec has started eight of the last nine, but the Jets are winless in their last two, and his save percentage is .854. Granted, there were no glaring whiffs in the losses to Chicago or the Rangers, but does Maurice still have the confidence to give Hutchinson one more start, especially with the Jets playing three games in four nights on the road next week in Minnesota, St. Louis and Colorado?

Hutchinson, who was 14-4-2 with a 1.90 goals-against average and .935 save percentage before the all-star break, is 6-6-3, 3.10., .880 since. Pavelec’s numbers, on the other hand, have improved. He was 12-10-6 before the break with a 2.47 GAA and .913 save percentage, and since is 7-6-1, 2.27 and .923.

The Jets have such a small margin of error, both in the standings and in their collective game, to mess around here. We’re betting Pavelec, barring a collapse, starts all five — the one exception might be the back-to-back in Minny and St. Louis next Monday-Tuesday.

4. Remember back in mid-January when Maurice, as the Jets continued their procession to the sin bin, said this about his bunch: “We’re going to spend some more time killing penalties. It’s who we are. It’s what we do.”

It was a statement that raised some eyebrows at the time. Some, understandably, felt he was giving his players a crutch. But if what he said publicly was an attempt to somehow curry favour with officiating crews, the results have been inconsequential. Prior to the statement, the Jets had more power plays than their opponents in just 10 of their 43 games (10 were even) and since the statement, they’ve held more man-advantage opportunities in just nine of 34 games (nine even).

And an incident from Tuesday’s loss to the Rangers further compounded the Jets’ image as a team prone to undisciplined play at times: Mathieu Perreault drew an interference penalty while leaving the ice at the end of a shift, throwing out his shoulder at Dominic Moore.

That Moore should have been penalized for diving — he looked as if he had been shot by a sniper and stepped in a bear trap at the exact same moment — is moot. The Jets aren’t going to get any favours from the officials, and they need to slice the cheap stuff from their act ASAP.

5. And, finally, this: Is there an NHL team that would like to put the last few days behind them more than the Jets? They carried a lead into the third period against Chicago, only to come undone in the final 13 minutes. Ditto for Tuesday against the Rangers, where the winner was scored with under four minutes to play.

Over a 21-day span from March 10-31, the Jets lost four games inside the final four minutes: falling to 5-4 St. Louis with 63 seconds remaining on March 10; losing 4-2 to Florida two nights later with the winner scored with 3:53 left (and an empty-netter in the last minute); surrendering the winner to the Hawks with 30.8 seconds left and then seeing Chris Kreider score with 3:46 left on Tuesday.

No word yet on whether Kevin Cheveldayoff & Co. will petition for 50-minute games at the next gathering of NHL GMs.

 

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait