Wheeler has no plans for further fistic forays

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This article was published 15/10/2014 (4372 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THIS isn’t the new Blake Wheeler. His nickname hasn’t been changed to Knuckles, Mayhem or Rocco.

But right there atop the National Hockey League penalty-minute leaders (heading into Tuesday’s games) was the Winnipeg Jets gifted right-winger with 22 minutes, courtesy two fights and a 10-minute misconduct.

To put that into context, Wheeler had three career NHL fights prior to dropping his gloves twice in the first three games of the 2014-15 season.

On Tuesday it was put to the big Minnesotan he might be more valuable to the Jets outside of the box than in.

His rebuttal?

“I would agree,” said Wheeler with a grin. “That’s all I got.”

Wheeler’s first fight came as part of his Gordie Howe hat trick in the season-opening win over Arizona (two goals, a fight and an assist) when he dropped the gloves with Shane Doan. And the second came against Los Angeles when he took exception to what he thought was a knee hit on teammate Mark Scheifele.

“That’s part of the game,” said Wheeler. “Scheifs is a valuable, young guy on our team. He’s been hit quite a few times already. He got hit last year in a similar hit and we lost him for the season. Looking back on it, I wish I would have done something about it last year, too.

“That’s really all there was to it. It’s not like I’m trying to assert myself as a tough guy in this league. Obviously, anyone that has seen me play knows that is not the case. You’re going to look back after 82 games and that (two fights) might be it. But you never know… I’m not going out planning to do those things, they just kind of happen.”

Clearly, the Jets don’t need their leading scorer to be regularly dropping the mitts, especially if he was to clang his hand off an opponent’s helmet and be injured. But there can also be a galvanizing component to one of the team’s elite players sticking up for a comrade.

“We don’t have him set up as the designated go-to guy in those situations,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice. “(The Scheifele shot) just happened right in front of him. More importantly, we have come to expect and appreciate (Wheeler’s) level of intensity in games. That’s going to happen at times. He’s playing hard. He competes every shift, he practises hard. That’s just great leadership by him and once in a while that happens.

“But he’s better when he’s not sitting in the box for 17 minutes. You certainly have to respect the level he’s playing at.”

NO NEWS IS… NO NEWS: Maurice provided a bit of an update on Evander Kane, who suffered a knee injury in the opener and will be out indefinitely. Kane will spend the next couple of weeks off ice recovering and then will be evaluated again by the medical staff. Even then, his return will be a week-to-week deal.

“Other than the fact I thought originally it was going to be month-to-month we took it as good news,” said Maurice. “We won’t have anybody look at him again until those two weeks are up. Then we’ll have a better idea of how long we think it will be before he’s back.”

The injury scuttled plans for the Jets to showcase Kane, Wheeler and Scheifele as an emerging scoring line, but Dustin Byfuglien has fit in well in Kane’s place.

“You’d like to get some time in with your whole group,” said Maurice when asked how the injury affects the lineup. “Every team would like to get some chemistry, some things set… It’s just such a rarity that you go into any game with your whole lineup. It’s part of the daily life in the NHL.”

Winger Michael Frolik did not skate Tuesday, but is expected back on the ice today in advance of Friday’s home opener against Nashville.

Meanwhile, the Jets also put centre Patrice Cormier on waivers for the purpose of reassigning him to St. John’s.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait