Morrissey more than rises to the occasion

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This article was published 26/05/2021 (1566 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey is coming off a standout performance in a four-game sweep of the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

He capped off the series with a team-high 41:54 of ice time in a 4-3 triple-overtime marathon Monday night, all while being tasked with defending arguably the two best players in the world in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. He also finished with a pair of assists, giving him four points through as many games.

Given the high expectations put upon the 26-year-old, including a hefty cap hit of US$6.25 million per season, some have even suggested it was a breakout performance for the Jets highest-paid D-man. Morrissey has starred for the Jets for years, but his play has been up and down at times since the departure of Dustin Byfuglien prior to the 2019-2020 season.

“I’m definitely happy with the series against the Oilers. I feel like it was an opportunity to play against two of the best players in the world. I thought as a team we did a really solid job,” Morrissey said. “(Dylan DeMelo) played awesome. And as a partnership, we found a new chemistry level that we haven’t had before. Not that it hasn’t been there, but I think it just went to another level.”

He added: “Individually, I’ve always said I’m just trying to work on my game, continue to get better every day and try to push myself to new elements and continue to improve. And that’s all I’m trying to do. It’s the playoffs, so everyone tries to raise their game. It’s the most important time of the year to be able to bring your best stuff.”

Morrissey was also a big contributor in the first three games. He was the minutes leader in all those games as well, logging 22:19, 27:17 and 28:16, respectively. Again, playing against McDavid and Draisaitl for most of the night. He also played a pivotal role in the thrilling come-from-behind Game 3, setting up the Jets third goal from Blake Wheeler before tying it 4-4 with a goal 16 seconds later.

Morrissey isn’t the only one with confidence in his game. Jets head coach Paul Maurice has had to lean on Morrissey throughout the season, including moving him to his off-side on the right, and with a number of different defensive partners. What he saw the last week was no surprise.

“You don’t have to go and convince Josh that he played well. He’s a veteran guy now that understands what he and Dylan were able to do,” Maurice said. “Just even some of the statistics of the series, he had seven shot blocks in the last game and produced offence as well. In the past playoff rounds, he and Jacob Trouba were tasked with the other team’s top line and that was almost all we could hope for from them and he delivered it. And then in this round, he did both. He and Dylan did just a marvelous job on two of the elite scorers in the world and also put some numbers up. We think he has a strong understanding of kind of the evolution of his game, where he’s able to do both.”

Odd men out

It was impossible not to notice the discrepancy in ice time between some members of the Jets in Game 4.

While most players logged more than 20 minutes, with others such as Mark Scheifele (40:13), Neal Pionk (40:08), Kyle Connor (39:40) and Blake Wheeler (36:56) finishing with significantly more, there were three forwards that didn’t get the same amount of looks.

In fact, the Jets fourth line, a trio that has been more than serviceable throughout the year, and has played a big role at times in the playoffs, was mostly kept stapled to the bench. Maurice was asked what went into limiting Mathieu Perreault (12:24), Nate Thomson (7:19) and Trevor Lewis (7:09) to such little playing time when the rest of the team looked gassed by night’s end.

“This is a really, really unusual set of circumstances and it has to do with McDavid and Draisaitl. The problem was, you know you either want Scheifele or you want (Adam) Lowry against them, certainly in a road game, and then they got locked into a rotation of three lines. They shut their fourth line right down. Your options then are to pull… You can’t really pull Lowry and you can’t really pull Scheifele out of that rotation because you go to four and they’re in three and you’re going to get those guys loose against a line you don’t want,” Maurice said.

“And those guys are playing those minutes too, so I know I’ve got Scheifele at a big number but he’s nine minutes less than those other guys. We’re hoping for the advantage will eventually come through with those guys. But that very likely won’t happen again.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @jeffkhamilton