Goaltender tandem a big part of success

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This article was published 21/12/2014 (3936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PAUL MAURICE parsed it on Friday night so as to avoid a mild vulgarity.

The next morning, Ondrej Pavelec confessed he didn’t understand what the Winnipeg Jets coach had really said after defeating the Boston Bruins 2-1 on the strength of Michael Hutchinson’s goaltending.

Simply put, the coach said crap runs downhill and “It’s coming to Pav and Hutch.”

It was a nice way of saying that fair or not, the two Jets goalies will have a big say in getting the team through this injury epidemic on the blue-line that has the top four men on the depth chart — Toby Enstrom, Zach Bogosian, Jacob Trouba and Mark Stuart — in sick bay for the long term.

With the explanation, Pavelec did finally crack a smile

“Sometimes you’re playing good, sometimes you’re playing bad,” he said after Saturday’s workout at the MTS Iceplex. “We’ve got a lot of injuries and I think we’re dealing with them pretty well right now.

“You never know what’s going to happen, but our job’s going to be to make sure that the team gets the chance to win the game no matter what happens.

“Me and Hutch, whoever’s going to play, that’s our job and it doesn’t change. That’s our goal, me and him, to give the team a chance to win every game.”

Pavelec said he’s ready for whatever’s running downhill, and it’ll be his turn to block it tonight at the MTS Centre when the Philadelphia Flyers arrive for their only visit of the season (8 p.m., TSN3, TSN1290).

The Jets are into a clear rotation of Pavelec and Hutchinson and have been in this mode for the entire time of their 7-1-3 stretch that has boosted them to 40 points in 33 games.

It began after Pavelec played home games against Detroit and St. Louis in late November, losing them both though neither he nor his team played poorly.

Maurice said the evolution of the plan was natural and it will continue — for how long, he doesn’t know.

“No. I have no idea,” he said. “So the reason is that it wasn’t a plan to do it. We talked early about shortening the duration that Mike was out and that his play was so good that he has to go. Each goalie now deserves to go back in the net after their performance. And now that it’s gone for more than just a couple of games of rotation, one off night doesn’t take him out of that rotation.

“So they’re playing well and I’m really concentrating on not over-thinking it.

“We’ll go with it as a long as it feels good and as long as it works.”

Pavelec, who has been the team’s mainstay in goal since 2010, has probably been overplayed — he saw 44 of the 48 games in the lockout season, for instance. The 27-year-old native of the Czech Republic voiced no objection to a method that has not been part of his routine for years.

“Your job is to be ready whenever the coach tells you to go in,” he said Saturday. “No player’s going to tell you it’s fun to be on the bench. I don’t know any goalies that like to be on the bench. If we go every second time, well, it’s a lot of games in a busy schedule now. I think it’s working out very well.

“I’m absolutely fine with it and I think Hutch is fine with it as well. It’s the coach’s decision who’s going to play. And even if you don’t play for 10 games, it’s your job to be ready to go. That’s your job and that’s why you get paid. And that’s how you win in the NHL.

“This is working out really well for us right now. We’ll see how it’s going to keep going.”

Since the true rotation began, both men have held up their end of the bargain.

Pavelec has had five starts (3-0-2), given up 11 goals, has a goals-against average of 2.17 and a save percentage of .911.

Hutchinson, who has been the busier goalie in his six starts (4-1-1), has given up 12 goals, has a goals-against average of 1.99 and save percentage of .934.

“Sometimes the team plays well in front of you, helps the goalie to get the win,” Pavelec said. “And sometimes the team needs the help from the goalie.

“That’s the way it is. I don’t think it’s only here. It’s like that everywhere.”

Pavelec said Saturday his team’s confidence is “way high.”

“You could see it last night,” he said. “We played a really good game. It wasn’t an easy game, and Boston played really well. They’re a tough team to play against, they pushed, and especially that they’ve got some players back after injuries.

“It was a great win for us.

“You just never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Our confidence is really high and we have to keep pushing ourselves.”

— — —

Maurice said he had no updates on any of the team’s injured defencemen, Toby Enstrom, Zach Bogosian, Jacob Trouba or Mark Stuart.

The Jets have said Enstrom and Bogosian are out until January and Trouba and Stuart are done until February.

“(Nothing) other than things are OK,” Maurice said. “Things are going the way they’re supposed to as of right now. They’re not getting checked every day, X-rayed every day, all those tests.

“They kind of have their milestones and we’re not at the second milestone with any of them. Everything’s going as planned.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca