Jets coach shuffles lines in practice after loss to Wild

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This article was published 11/11/2015 (3927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DALLAS — A chastened Winnipeg Jets team got back to basics here Wednesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after a humbling 5-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul.

“I think we’re still trying to figure out exactly what we are this year,” Jets forward Drew Stafford said following a high-tempo — and no nonsense — one-hour practice session here at an area ice rink.

“We’ve had some games where we played a solid 50 minutes and some were 40 minutes. But we haven’t really had that game yet where we can kind of say this is our game, this is how we want to play.

“We’re still working at it. It’s a work in progress. But having a day like today where we’re getting back to basics as far as playing with speed, staying with the puck, playing with that aggressiveness but also with discipline, I think that’s pretty close to how we were going last year.”

The return to basics comes after a night in St. Paul in which the Jets failed hopelessly at them, giving up a four-goal second period to a Wild team that skated around, behind and, in the case of Paul Postma, through a Jets team that looked over-matched for the entire middle frame.

So what does back to basics look like? Well, Jets practice Wednesday afternoon was both unusually fast and unusually aggressive — defenceman Mark Stuart flattened forward Mathieu Perreault at one point and Perreault wobbled as he slowly got back up.

Blake Wheeler also left practice early, nursing what appeared to be an upper-body injury sustained during practice. But head coach Paul Maurice proclaimed his leading points-getter to be “fine” after the session ended.

Maurice has been prickly through a five-game stretch that has seen his club win just once in November and his answers on Wednesday were once again clipped and to the point.

Asked if his team needs to find a way to start scoring more, Maurice said he thinks the problem right now is just the opposite.

“I think our focus on scoring is the kiss of death for us right now. We’ve got players who stop scoring for four or five games and they start changing the way they view the puck and where it is.

“We didn’t lose the game (in Minnesota) because we didn’t win it 6-5… The game wasn’t lost because we didn’t score six goals. The game was lost because we gave up five.”

Looking to light a fire, Maurice made a couple of lineup changes at practice on Wednesday, moving left winger Chris Thorburn up to the third line with Adam Lowry and Drew Stafford and dropping Alexander Burmistrov down to the fourth line with Andrew Copp and Nic Petan.

Maurice also returned to the same defensive pairings that he used for much of a 7-3-1 run through the month of October, reuniting Tyler Myers with Ben Chiarot and Jacob Trouba with Mark Stuart.

Chiarot was a healthy scratch the last two games while Postma auditioned for the sixth Jets defenceman spot, but a highlight reel undressing of Postma on the Wild’s fourth goal by Thomas Vanek Tuesday night has seen Postma once again banished to the press box.

Chiarot says he heard the wakeup call — loud and clear. “I wasn’t really holding myself to the standard that I have or that the coaches hold me to,” said Chiarot. “It’s been a struggle for me early on in finding my game and being confident out there. I’m just looking to get back to playing well.”

Ondrej Pavelec started the last two games for the Jets, suggesting Michael Hutchinson will get the start here Thursday night against the Stars. But asked Wednesday if was ready to name his goaltender, Maurice replied: “We’re still working on that.”

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek