Jets are men on mission

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This article was published 08/01/2015 (4019 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s time for an adjusted perspective where the leadership group of the Winnipeg Jets is concerned.

A little more than a year ago, Jets leaders — namely Andrew Ladd, Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little, Dustin Byfuglien and Toby Enstrom — were described in this space as being clubby, too comfortable and unwilling to challenge one another. While it was accurate at the time, it no longer holds water.

The Jets were in a dreadful funk at the time and they would eventually sleepwalk their way into the firing of Claude Noel and another season out of the playoffs.

Byfuglien was called out for playing a game more suited for the pond than the NHL.

Wheeler was criticized for playing a game that was soft and too often on the perimeter.

The entire group was accused of being too muted and not aggressive enough with one another.

To be fair, what was happening on the ice at the time led to these conclusions.

To be fair again, what has been seen on the ice this season leads to new conclusions.

Byfuglien was banished to forward last January in a last-ditch effort by Noel to get something positive from his most gifted athlete. He stayed there until new coach Paul Maurice was backed into a corner by injuries, and the Buff that resurfaced on the blue-line was a different player.

Physical, focused and effective at both ends of the ice, Byfuglien has kept the Jets afloat in their biggest time of need. Leadership? What Byfuglien is doing right now is Mark Messier stuff. He’s put this team on the broadest of NHL shoulders and carried it. Bravo, Buff. We didn’t think you had it in you.

Wheeler went on a tear last December and skated his way right onto the U.S. Olympic team. He used last summer to take an already fit body and push it to new limits. He arrived in Winnipeg this fall with a new edge to his attitude.

“Accountability. What you find as you get a little bit older in this league is actions speak louder than words,” Wheeler said on the eve of this season. “I mean, you can go on retreats all you want and say whatever you want to each other to make yourself feel good. But it doesn’t really matter if you’re not doing that on the ice. I think that’s what we learned last year.”

Wheeler has 30 points through 40 games and two fighting majors. When his team has needed a display of leadership on the ice, he’s provided it. There’s little to complain about with Wheeler’s game these days.

Ladd leads the team in scoring and Little is right behind him. They’re doing everything Maurice has asked of them. They’re leading on the ice and, Ladd says, off the ice as well.

“I think it comes with that relationship of being close. You know I can turn and tell Buff, or whoever, he’s being an idiot or not doing the right things, and he realizes that I’m not personally out to try to get him and that it’s just to try to get better and win hockey games,” says Ladd.

Down in Toronto this season we’ve seen the Leafs petulantly refuse to salute the fans who pay their salaries. We’ve seen the team’s best player — Phil Kessel — refuse to take responsibility for the on-ice meltdown of his team.

The Leafs’ core is beyond rotten. It’s toxic. They make the Jets of today look like a platoon of Messiers.

GM Kevin Cheveldayoff recently reminded me of last year’s scathing rant on his leaders, and rightfully so. He’s the master of this draft-and-develop exercise and certainly there’s been tangible development with his core.

I’ll stand by a lot of what was written last year. This team was rudderless. The steering wheel was spinning in a storm and no one seemed willing or capable of grabbing it.

I made an error, however, in stating they could never lead.

Maurice challenged this group to get better in so many ways and they have. Maurice often points to his team’s compete level. It’s consistently high and it’s the foundation of this team remaining in a playoff position despite a spate of injuries that could topple even the league’s deepest rosters.

Maurice says it comes from the room. He says it starts with his leaders.

What he doesn’t say is he found a way to unlock whatever it was that was holding this group back. They are not the same players today as they were one year ago. Just look at the manner in which they’re playing and how they’ve gone from being among the league’s worst defensive teams to one of its best.

Early this season when the Jets were dragging near the bottom of the league, Maurice aired out his dressing room. Accountability was the buzz word of the day. There were whispers all around the rink about a dressing-room torch job.

Maurice is big on saying he doesn’t spend much time in the room and that it’s the players’ domain. Fair enough. But what little time he’s spent in there has changed it. Transformed it, to borrow from Maurice’s book again, into a man’s room.

The Jets play like men these days, not like boys without intent and void of purpose. They put team ahead of all else. That comes from leadership. Only so much can come from the coach. At some point the players must pick up the torch. And this season in Winnipeg, that’s exactly what has happened.

The leaders are leading. The Jets have grown up.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless