Defence-first policy crucial for Jets to gain ground in playoff hunt

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/09/2014 (4033 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

YOU can tell that his heart is into it, that Paul Maurice would like to promise results in one of the NHL’s regular playoff-free zones.

Whether it’s a two-step, six-step or 12-step program, Maurice made no guarantees at the official start of the Winnipeg Jets’ 2014-15 training camp other than they will go full bore into Step 1.

“You’re going ask me every day, ‘Are you going to make the playoffs this year?’ ” Maurice said Thursday, addressing reporters. “I know that’s coming. But I don’t have an answer. We’re going to know that somewhere in the early part of April.

“That can’t be part of the conversation today. I’ll tell you what we’re going to do. We’re going to work our butts off in training camp to get better. I’ll guarantee you that.”

The new coach, who took over from fired Claude Noel on Jan. 12, is well versed in what fans are looking for.

“They’d like to see a little hockey later in the year,” he said. “Wouldn’t we all? As far as an expectation, I know what we can say we’re going to deliver this year, that we’re going to compete and we’re going to look like we’re competing, too.”

The Jets franchise has gone seven seasons without a playoff appearance, including all three in Winnipeg. And they have been consistently deficient in key areas.

“We have to become a better defensive hockey team,” Maurice said. “That’s the one metric, if you look at the last five Stanley Cups, you can rank whatever your advanced stats tell you are important, but of the successful teams, no Stanley Cup champion ranks in the top 10 of everything but the one area that’s consistent is that they’re good defensively.”

Winnipeg allowed 237 goals last season, fourth-worst in the 14-team Western Conference. It’s no coincidence that wasn’t worthy of the playoffs, finishing in 11th place.

“We finished in the bottom third of the league last year in regulation and overtime wins and that’s where we are today,” Maurice said. “The work we put in starting tomorrow is the only way any of that changes.”

It’s obviously the biggest priority, but the coach declined to list others.

“That’s a legitimate question and I’m absolutely not answering it,” he said.

He added the list could include six or seven other items but said if you’re paying attention to training camp, “you’ll figure out what’s important.”

Maurice may have held back a little there, but he was very clear about a couple of other items.

One concerns the team’s draft-and-develop plan, in particular that a prospects pool that is becoming very well regarded around the league will have no sway with him on Day 1 of the regular season.

Players who make the team, he said, will earn their spots and it will have nothing to do with who’s the future of the franchise.

“Not if it means a short-term step back,” Maurice said, answering a question about any potential youth movement. “Age has nothing to do with it.

“I’ve never, ever put (a player) out the ice and said he doesn’t deserve to go out there and he’s not making us better but we’ll just let him go out there and go out and play.

 

“That’s the American League. This is about winning. You’re not developing a young man by putting him in a position that he can’t find some success.”

But the “youth card” is still very much in the coach’s arsenal about the job he has ahead of him.

“We have a younger group and interestingly enough we think we’ll be in that one to three range of youngest teams we also have a fair amount of experience in those young years,” he said. “So it’s an unusual dynamic.”

And some technical changes are coming to the Jets’ style, Maurice promised Thursday.

“Before we fully understand what we have, we’ve got to get them all flying in the same direction,” he said.

He said that three new systems for defence at even-strength are ready to launch.

“We’re going to play an exciting, very aggressive brand of hockey and that’s by design,” he said. The three major defensive even-strength systems… we are changing something. There’s going to be something that’s absolutely brand new to every player in that room.

“Because of that, we’re going to be (on that) just about every day. Repetition is a key piece to that. Other teams’ training camps are going to look different to ours.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca