Handcuffed Copp finally breaks free

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This article was published 02/03/2016 (3559 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE list of forwards who stay in the NHL without a goal for more than four months will be pretty short.

Take Winnipeg Jets rookie centre Andrew Copp off that list and put him in the relieved category after Tuesday night.

Copp, 21, scored on a breakaway at 7:55 of the second period against Florida goalie Roberto Luongo, slipping a quick move through Luongo’s pads for a 2-1 Jets lead.

It was Copp’s first goal since Halloween, snapping a 45-game drought.

“It’s been a little while and I feel like I’ve had some decent chances, especially lately,” Copp said after the Jets lost 3-2 to the outplayed Panthers. “It was just a matter of time in my head. I tried not to think about it too much.

“At the end of the day, a win is all that matters and we weren’t able to do that.”

Over the course of those four months, Copp admitted to some rocky segments mentally.

“I’d say a little bit up and down,” the fourth-line centre said. “You want to score goals. I feel like that’s an obvious way to contribute to the team. But I take a lot of pride in a lot of the other things I do, a lot of the little things, especially defensively. After all that time, I’m still a plus player and I still feel like I’m doing all right and playing my game.”

Copp, indeed, is plus, at plus-five.

A couple of weeks ago, when this streak was wearing on, Jets coach Paul Maurice was asked about his rookie’s game and his meagre production.

Maurice said simply he liked much about the rookie’s game, but that everyone has to chip in offensively.

“If you can get your fourth line to be plus players then you are pleased with that,” Maurice said Tuesday, elaborating after the slump-breaker. “And then there’s growth for more, that they can do more than just hold water and be plus three or four on low production. It just takes time.

“You get a little stronger, you get a little faster, they don’t process as much and their reads just become more instinctual. We think we’ve got a real good, solid player there. We use him to kill penalties now and as his confidence grows and he grows he’ll become a better player.”

Copp said his focus is clear where his coach his concerned.

“I was not aware of that comment (a couple of weeks ago),” Copp said. “I think he talks to you guys a little bit differently than he talks to us and I worry about how he talks to us.

“That’s something you need to do, chip in in spots and it’s been a little bit of an adjustment, playing so many minutes in school and before that.”

Copp’s recent addition to the penalty-killing unit — what he was doing on the ice when his opportunity to score came along Tuesday — has been a boost in several ways, he said.

“I take a lot of pride in what I can do defensively, so I think adding that part to my game has been huge,” Copp said. “I feel like I’ve been having a pretty good P.K., pressuring up ice and getting sticks in lanes and whatnot.”

In the end, despite outshooting the Panthers 32-22 and outchancing them, the goal had a kind of hollow feel.

“It was great to get the weight off (my) shoulders a little bit, but obviously we’re worried about winning in here and we didn’t get that done,” he said.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca