Maurice has Jets roster all set

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This article was published 15/07/2020 (1880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Paul Maurice was being honest — he wasn’t all that impressed by what he saw from his troops during their first two days back on the ice. It was nothing personal, just a product of a four-month layoff due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the Winnipeg Jets head coach said any concerns he might have had were put to rest following a much more cohesive, up-tempo skate on Wednesday.

“Today was the first one I enjoyed,” said Maurice. “We got back to drills that they’ve done before, so it was way faster. We got to some banging. We’ll start to add players and lines to each group. When you put four lines on the ice like we did today, they can go harder longer. They got a better work-to-rest ratio, so they drive harder in all the drills.”

Maurice switched up the groups, with the early one comprised of just five skaters and two defencemen. It included forwards Jansen Harkins, David Gustafsson, C.J. Suess, Logan Shaw and Mark Letestu and blue-liners Sami Niku and Carl Dahlstrom, who are all competing for depth positions.

For the main group, the coach had 13 forwards, seven defencemen and two goaltenders — essentially his full lineup along with a couple of extra bodies. Goalie Laurent Brossoit and defencemen Anthony Bitetto, Nelson Nogier and Logan Stanley all missed a third straight day for undisclosed reasons beyond being “unfit to practice.”

“We’re going to have injuries, so all of these guys are going to get a chance. What they do between now and that opportunity opening up — the depth chart on that could change. But in terms of where we’re at right now and I say, ‘OK these are the 12 guys I’m most likely starting with up front, and these are the six guys that I’m most likely starting with (on defence),’ I’ve got that set. You would have to have that set when training camp comes. And then you are watching those extra guys very close. Who’s 13, right? Who’s the seventh defenceman? Well, that will play itself out here going into (playing) Calgary,” said Maurice. 

The Jets plan to skate again Thursday and Friday, take Saturday off, and then ramp up for week two, which will include scrimmages. They’ll head to the hub city of Edmonton on July 26, play an exhibition game against the Vancouver Canucks on July 29, and will start their best-of-five qualifying series against the Flames on Aug. 1.

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The Jets will be all over the map when it comes to playoff game times, with 9:30 p.m.,1:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. puck drops set for the first three games, which will be held over a four-day span inside an empty Rogers Place. That will make it difficult to get into a normal routine in a situation that is anything but typical. 

“We don’t even know the rest of the whole schedule, what our practice day times are, what morning skate times look like, so we aren’t right now able to build out what we think that final week is going to look like yet in terms of off days and all of it. We’re still waiting. We’re comfortable with that. We feel that that’s part of the challenge and we’ll use the word opportunity,” said Maurice.

Speaking of abnormal, the veteran bench boss had a good zinger when asked about the bubble atmosphere for the playoffs, where teams will be staying in the same hotel as their opponents.

“If you had laid that scenario out to me 20 years ago, I would say there’s a better chance of a fist fight in the lobby than a collective video game being played across team,” said Maurice, who turned to two members of the club’s communications team. Scott Brown and Greger Buer, for help during the Zoom interview. 

“Give me a video game that’s popular so I can finish this sentence. Fortnite is still good? There are three old guys in the room and we still think Fortnite is good. You know what, there could be this big tournament going on between teams, I don’t know is the answer. But it will be unique, I know that,” he said.

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They’re admittedly a bit biased, but members of the Jets have no doubt who the best goaltender in the NHL is. The three Vezina Trophy finalists will be announced Friday morning, and it would be a shock  not to mention a travesty, if Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck isn’t one of them.

“I think he wins the Vezina, no doubt. He’s a heck of a teammate and obviously a great goaltender,” defenceman Neal Pionk said Wednesday.

“Obviously Bucky’s going to be a finalist, for sure. He should take it home with the body of work he had this year,” added blue-liner Nathan Beaulieu. “This was my first skate with him today, but he does not look like he missed a beat at all.”

Hellebuyck was nominated for the honour following the 2017-18 season but was beaten out by Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators. This year’s winner will be announced in October following completion of the playoffs. The award is voted on by the league’s 31 general managers.  

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg