Jets are frequent fliers to sin bin

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This article was published 21/11/2015 (3636 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Few things in the NHL can make a coach’s hair turn grey faster than a penchant for penalties. Sure, losses can have the same effect on the ol’ noggin’ but usually the two go hand in hand.

Once in a while, with a little bit of luck, it doesn’t always come back to bite you in the rear end, as was the case for the Winnipeg Jets Saturday night in their game against the Arizona Coyotes.

Despite sending the a Coyotes to the power play six times — two of which ended with a puck in the back of their net — Winnipeg was able to escape with a 3-2 win.

Closing hand on puck, holding, delay of game, too many men, cross-checking, and holding, again, is how the stat line read, pushing the total times short-handed this year to a whopping 88, tops in the league.

Assuming the Jets haven’t started a collection to buy head coach Paul Maurice a basket of men’s hair products as a Christmas gift, what does the bench boss do to relieve the stress of a constant parade to the sin-bin game in and game out.

“Lots of tea, really,” said Maurice. “I was going to say vodka but that doesn’t apply to me.”

The coach didn’t stop there, taking a moment to fish around for a few more ideas to toss to a room full of reporters.

After all, it’s the fourth straight game and sixth in the last seven his team has allowed at least five power plays in a stretch of games where the team has played some of its worst hockey this season.

“I’m thinking of taking up cigar smoking; hear that’s good for ya,” Maurice said. “I don’t think they’ll like that on the bench.”

But it’s not exactly unchartered waters for Maurice and company.

The Jets finished the 2014-15 NHL season atop the league in times short-handed (308), total number of penalties (428) and averaged the second-most penalty minutes per game (13.0). The only difference was it was all part of the rough-and-tumble style of play the Jets defined themselves with, and what led to much of their success last season.

This season, that hasn’t been the case, and with a record of 10-9-2 through 21 games this season, penalties have often come at a cost.

But a lack of discipline that comes with playing on the edge doesn’t tell the entire story either.

This season, the Jets have been subjected to a number of questionable calls, making it difficult at times to distinguish what exactly constitutes a call or where exactly the line in drawn.

Following a 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers earlier this month — a game in which all three goals came on the power play — Maurice showed a rare moment of frustration when he referred to the calls against his team as “jay-walking” penalties.

But in a league where complaining does little to boost your reputation, the Jets aren’t in the business of making excuses.

“It seems like it goes both ways at times, for the most part,” said forward Chris Thorburn, who scored the game-winner short-handed midway through the third period.

“It’s just a matter of, as tough as it is, staying positive and understand that if you keep your feet moving the refs are usually pretty good at giving you one back.

“You just got to work for it. There’s some out there tonight that we didn’t help ourselves with but at the same time it was good that we got the kills.”

Another cure to this issue would be an improvement on the power play, something the Jets have struggled with so far this month. In Novemeber, they have scored just twice in 36 opportunities, a stretch spanning 10 games.

“We’re going to have to clean up our special teams because our five-on-five game is right where we want it,” said forward Mathieu Perreault. “Sometimes we kind of force things and don’t make the right decisions, and it’s cost us.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @jeffkhamilton