GM just happy to be here

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This article was published 26/09/2011 (5118 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is putting on a lot of miles this weekend to watch his team play in the pre-season but insists you’re not going to hear any whining from the new kids on the NHL block.

The rookie GM was in Nashville on Saturday, here on Sunday and will spend much of his day today in airports so he can get to St. John’s, N.L., to watch the Kraft Hockeyville game between his Jets and the Ottawa Senators today.

“At this stage of it, you’re not going to hear us complain about one thing,” Cheveldayoff said Sunday. “We knew this going in, this schedule. We just put it into perspective and we’re just thankful because when we took over the team, we were thankful to have an exhibition schedule.

“Nashville and Carolina and Columbus all agreed to come in and play us — they agreed to play Atlanta — so we can’t be critical. It’s logistically tough but you won’t hear us complain about it. You have to do it and it’s what we’ve said in our meetings, that we’ll just deal with it.”

The Jets will play seven pre-season games, including last Tuesday’s split-squad affair in Columbus and Winnipeg.

At least the team gets something of a breather later this week with home games against Carolina and Nashville to wrap up the seven-game exhibition schedule.

Winnipeg’s pre-season schedule was done long ago, when the team was still the Atlanta Thrashers. With the relocation to Winnipeg, it bumped the team’s travel in the pre-season, including two instances with two teams on the go, to 23 travel hours.

The Jets, Cheveldayoff said Sunday, are already 80 per cent done on their exhibition schedule for 2012 and said it’s more likely to involve teams closer to Winnipeg, though he wouldn’t specify teams.

“From the standpoint that it’s easier on the charter costs and player wear and tear, yes we will,” he said. “If you have (teams) logically around you, it makes it that much more simple.”

Cheveldayoff also said he’s aiming to keep the Jets’ pre-season schedule at seven games for 2012.

“It’s a decent number,” he said. “It really all depends on how they’re spread out. But you can’t set everything in stone yet because you don’t know when the season starts and you don’t know when camps can start.”

Cheveldayoff said that while there are pros and cons to the Jets exhibition schedule this September, the biggest drawback is that head coach Claude Noel didn’t see two of the games because of the travel and the schedule.

So far in one week of the NHL pre-season, vice-president of player safety Brendan Shanahan has suspended five players.

Cheveldayoff likes the message that over-the-line hits and actions will be punished.

“Let’s face it, the players are our assets,” he said. “They’re the biggest single asset of the game.

“They’re who the fans come to watch and I don’t think anyone condones any kind of violence and I don’t think anyone wants any player to be hurt.”

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He said that his own players were shown the new NHL video about rule changes on boarding and hits to the head last week at a team meeting.

“The reality is that it’s your fellow players who are either administering or (receiving) the hits,” he said. “You want to play to win but there are certain parameters that have to be followed. At the end of the day, I’m all for player safety.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca