Everything’s coming up ‘Rosie’ with Wheeler’s move to centre

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This article was published 02/12/2019 (2105 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sometimes the best ideas come in a time of crisis.

Take the Winnipeg Jets, who lost No. 2 centre Bryan Little to a serious head injury on Nov. 5.

Head coach Paul Maurice’s solution, to drop first-line right-winger Blake Wheeler into the middle between 23-year-old left-winger Nikolaj Ehlers and 22-year-old right-winger Jack Roslovic, has served the Jets well. The trio has been dangerous on offence and stingy on defence as Winnipeg has gone 8-3-0 in Little’s absence.

Roslovic’s transformation, from underused bottom-six forward to an all-round threat who looks at ease in a top-six role, has been the most dramatic. He has four goals and six points over the 11-game stretch and has looked like he belongs with Wheeler, the established star, and Ehlers, who has succeeded in taking his game to a higher level.

“I’m doing things without having to think about them,” said Roslovic following practice at Bell MTS Place Monday afternoon. “Skating hard first shift, being quick, not getting stuck in the mud early and playing the right game.”

Ehlers has noticed the progression.

“He’s skating all the time now, he’s getting on pucks and staying on pucks,” said Ehlers. “I think Rosie and I are pretty similar in our game and we’re both doing the right things right now. We’re skating, we’re getting the pucks deep and working their defencemen and not just turning off pucks.

“We stay in the battle, which is something I didn’t do my first couple of years and something I’ve been working on. He’s working on that now, too.”

You may be sensing a work theme here.

Maurice believes combining the young guns with the team captain has served up the results he would have predicted. Wheeler has been a catalyst for change with Ehlers and Roslovic reaching a stage where more of their shifts look like each other — and mostly in a good way at both ends of the rink.

“The impact that Blake’s had on those two guys is they are now playing the game more like Blake in terms of intensity,” said Maurice. “They’re in on defensive plays, they’re drivin’, they’re battlin’ and getting a young player not to come in and out of the game. Both those guys were possibly more perimeter players when they came into the NHL… Now they’re not.

“(They’re) involved in the play the whole time. Knocking pucks down, getting sticks on pucks — that’s the way you make plays. Those two guys are starting to look more like him even if they’re built differently. Because they’re so fast and so quick, now Blake can utilize his speed where he’s not slowing the play down.”

Although Wheeler is a willing teacher on the bench between shifts, Roslovic suggests the critical lessons are delivered more often on the ice.

“He’s doesn’t say much, he’s more a leader by his actions,” said Roslovic. “When he does say something, people, especially me and Fly (Ehlers), it hits hard and we want to see him succeed as much as he wants to see us (succeed).”

Maurice has been mostly pleased with the results, the lone exception being a Nov. 21 game in Dallas — a 5-3 loss to the Stars. The teams meet again Tuesday night at Bell MTS Place.

“All players, in truth, learn far more from the guy they’re sitting beside than the guy behind the bench,” said Maurice. “We do something different. My job is to get five guys to move together, right? All the small body position plays, all those little things, are handed down.”

Wheeler has taught his young proteges about intensity, work ethic and how to play off each other. Ehlers and Roslovic, in turn are helping Wheeler in his return to centre, a position he hasn’t played with any regularity since 2017-18.

“I don’t feel like a young guy anymore but he kinda shows us every single time we step on the ice,” said Ehlers. “For me and Rosie, it’s been trying to support him as much as we can defensively… We know what we want to do offensively but when you have a winger jump in as centre, you need to be more aware defensively, help him out… I think we’ve done a really good job since they put our line together.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14