Pavelec not the problem

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This article was published 21/10/2014 (3983 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They are less than two weeks into the season and already exploring their own demons.

Given the 1-4 record five games into the NHL campaign, some will be surprised that so far, goal-scoring, not goaltending, may be the Winnipeg Jets’ biggest worry.

Monday, the day after his team lost its fourth straight, 4-1 to Calgary, and with another home game on the agenda for tonight, against Carolina, Jets No. 1 netminder Ondrej Pavelec said it wasn’t as simple as that.

“It’s not easy at all,” Pavelec said about scoring. “Sometimes (there are) days you feel like everything’s going to go in and you have those days where the goalie is making unbelievable saves and you have no luck.

“We have guys who can score goals. I think it’s just a matter of time.”

Pavelec was getting heat late last season and for most of the summer as the Jets’ weakest link.

Well aware of it, his answer so far has been a solid pre-season (2-1, 1.72 goals-against average, .927 save percentage) and four regular-season starts (1-3, 2.61, .906) in which he has done his share.

His teammates have given him just two goals in the last four games, but Pavelec said Monday at the MTS Centre the spotlight is on everyone, including himself.

“My (play), it can be better,” he said. “There’s room to improve every day, in practice, in the games. We’ve got two points. I don’t think anybody can be happy. It doesn’t matter how good you’ve played or not. It’s about the standings, and you look, and we have two points. It’s all that matters. That’s how I look at it.

“I don’t know what else to say. I feel really good in net. It was a good training camp, a very good one for us. But now we have the big games that we have to show how good we are. We have to put on the ice everything we’ve got every single day to win the games.”

The 27-year-old Czech also said he feels the pressure on him is constant, whether or not his team is scoring.

“Oh, yes, it’s always pressure for goalies, especially in this market, in Canadian cities,” he said. “But it is what it is. I’m not the only goalie who deals with it. I think every single guy has pressure on him.

“Everybody should feel the pressure. It’s not just hockey. You feel pressure in your job, I’m sure. Everybody else in life, too. So I wouldn’t use it as an excuse, not at all. This is passion. People like hockey. Love it. I’m not going to lie, this is hard sometimes, sometimes not. Sometimes you play good and they love you. When you don’t play well, they don’t. That’s just the way it is, not just Winnipeg.

“You have to learn how to deal with it. You have no choice. If you don’t, you can’t play and it will kill you for sure.”

“We have guys who can score goals. I think it’s just a matter of time.”

— Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec

What Pavelec sees from his crease in the team’s first five games of the season encourages him.

“There are not too many shots against me,” he said. (28.2 per game so far, down slightly from last year’s 30.1 average.) “It’s not like last year. It’s getting better. But it’s not enough. I think we realize we have to be better. It’s no secret.”

And he thinks his team’s offence could quickly catch fire.

“I think it’s a matter to keep things simple, like driving to the net and have traffic in front,” he said, asked what advice he might give shooters. “That’s a huge thing. If you look at goals around the NHL, there aren’t lots of pretty goals too many times. It’s simple shots, but you need the traffic. If the goalie sees the puck, it’s hard to score.

“I’m not saying we’re not doing it, but we have to keep doing it and be better at it.”

Overall, Pavelec was preaching a pro-active approach for himself and his teammates in the context of this early slide.

“It’s tough but we have to deal with it,” he said. “We have no choice. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. It’s up to us.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca