Depth, desire triumph over Jets’ injury woes

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/11/2016 (3552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dealing with injuries is a way of life for all National Hockey League teams, and the Winnipeg Jets have had their hands full early this season. But does it really make a difference over a small number of games?

With longstanding, strong beliefs on this, I decided to again track some games using this angle, starting with last Thursday’s game against the Washington Capitals. We heard throughout the day and night the Jets would be without six veterans (Bryan Little, Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, Shawn Matthias, Mark Stuart and expectant father Chris Thorburn).

However, the only two absences that caused me on-ice concern were Little’s and Myers’.

I was happy to see Marko Dano and Andrew Copp in the lineup. Joel Armia had usurped Stafford on my depth chart at that point and getting young, capable legs in the lineup is a good thing. Dano notched the tying goal that got the point in a 4-3 overtime loss.

But Mathieu Perreault and Armia were added to the injury list and not in the lineup the following night in Detroit.

Thorburn was back in the lineup, playing against a very ordinary Red Wings squad. The Jets overcame a slow start with some decent play and rookie Brendan Tanev was finally rewarded for his hard-working start to the season with a pair of third-period goals and a 5-3 win.

Two days later, the same lineup faced a hot New York Rangers team. The Jets’ speed had the Rangers’ defence looking somewhat discombobulated. They got beat 5-2 by better goaltending, but played evenly on the road against a top team.

Tuesday, the Jets played host to a Dallas Stars team missing six of its top nine forwards and welcomed Myers back on the blue-line, destroying the visitors 8-2.

Last Thursday’s doom-and-gloom injury forecast didn’t lead to catastrophe. I’m not suggesting playing without Little, Myers, Perreault and Armia doesn’t hurt; I’m saying many observers overestimate the impact on a few games.

People often look at a lineup on paper and compare the injured player to his substitute by past NHL performance only, forgetting they are getting an eager, excited player who needs to prove himself every shift.

Playing with that sense of urgency can — with talent and a bit of seasoning, in the case of recent call-ups Nic Petan, Dano and Copp — close the experience gap. Good puck luck on a given night can be the difference.

I’ve been in the room with a lot of call-ups, at times surprised by their speed, tenaciousness and skill. We were usually able to remain competitive on a game-by-game run on bad teams, and we lost a bit — at most — on good ones.

Players may talk about missing teammates earlier in the day, but as game time approaches, all the focus is on who you are playing with and who you’ll be matching up against.

Every team in this World Cup of Hockey-compressed NHL season will find itself hobbled at some point. Lots of back-to-backs and other scheduling quirks are the case across the league.

But team structure in all areas is what matters. The Jets are what their record says they are (7-7-1 going into Friday night’s game in Colorado), but they have been playing better lately, and I expect that to continue. No excuses.

•••

I need to chime in on the signing of Jacob Trouba less than a month before the NHL’s Dec. 1 play-or-sit deadline. His situation hit close to home for me.

I hired an agent at 17 years of age (the late Norm Kaplan, whom my parents and I trusted explicitly) and did exactly what he told me to do when it came to the business side of hockey. When my World Hockey Association team, the Houston Aeros, folded in 1978 and sold their players to the Jets, Kaplan contended there was a breach of contract and I could sign with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues (I was their first-round pick a year earlier), who were 100 per cent behind that argument.

Kaplan was also the agent for Morris Lukowich and Terry Ruskowski, and what stopped me in my tracks was when Jets owner Michael Gobuty threatened to tie us up in court all year. Kaplan thought we would win but couldn’t guarantee a timeline. It made me sick to my stomach to think about sitting out a year of hockey as a 21-year-old so, much like Trouba’s reported Nov. 4 internal deadline, I also had one that I’d extend my bravado to — 10 games into the season.

I played my part, refusing calls from the Jets, and particularly Gobuty, and stayed the course as I was instructed, but it was tough. Thankfully we received new five-year deals from Gobuty before it got close, but it could have turned into a situation very similar to Trouba’s.

While the reasons are different (will we ever know the truth?) the bottom line is he loves to play hockey. He hired an agent and trusted him for as long as he could without jeopardizing his career.

I understand that part well and welcome him back with open arms, just like I knew his teammates would.

Chosen ninth overall by the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and first overall by the WHA’s Houston Aeros in 1977, Scott Campbell has now been drafted by the Winnipeg Free Press to play a new style of game.

Twitter: @NHL_Campbell