Winnipeg Jets Notebook

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This article was published 23/12/2014 (3923 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NO further insight was available a day after Philadelphia Flyers coach Craig Berube nearly sparked a postgame incident on the ice by chirping at Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien.

The Flyers had just defeated the Jets with a goal 10 seconds into overtime at the MTS Centre and Berube, while walking across the ice, was seen saying something to Byfuglien. Game officials quickly stepped in to keep it only to words.

Berube wasn’t talking to Philadelphia reporters about it on Monday and Byfuglien wasn’t available in Winnipeg after the team’s meeting.

So Jets coach Paul Maurice was the only one left to respond to a question on what may have caused the postgame words on Sunday.

“It’s that time of year,” Maurice said. “Everybody’s feeling jolly.

“There’s lots of emotion behind the bench, on the bench. It’s a pretty wired place back there. And it’s Christmas.”

 

Hutchinson to start

MICHAEL Hutchinson will be in goal for the Jets tonight in Chicago, continuing the goaltender rotation Maurice said last week will continue indefinitely.

“I’m playing more than I did at the start of the season, and more consistently, so it’s always easier to be more consistent when you’re playing,” Hutchinson said Monday. “I think it’s been good, been working pretty well. Pav’s been playing really well as well. The team’s been winning games and that’s the only thing that matters — it doesn’t matter who plays. That’s been working out well.”

Pavelec said Saturday he had no problem with Maurice’s plan.

Having played in a dozen games, Hutchinson has the NHL’s top save percentage (.940) and goals against average (1.73).

“I don’t think statistically this is what I expected,” he said Monday. “But I felt after my little taste of the league last year that I could come in and help the team win games. That was my goal coming into this season.

“Everything else kind of takes care of itself after that. I’ve just been fortunate the team has scored key goals when I’ve been in net and I’ve been able to make some saves and help them win games.”

 

Buff a different D-man

MAURICE said Monday he, his players and Jets fans are seeing a different Dustin Byfuglien on defence this season.

Byfuglien was thrust into this emergency duty eight games ago — and has played big minutes — when Toby Enstrom and Zach Bogosian both went out of the lineup with long-term injuries. Since then, defencemen Jacob Trouba and Mark Stuart have also gone on the injured list.

“We’re learning about Dustin Byfuglien, because the guy we see on defence is not the guy on video (from the past),” the coach said. “And a different game. When you’re chasing the game, your offensive defencemen play differently. And they (the Jets) were in a situation where they were chasing the game a fair amount. Because of his skill set and his style, he’s jumping into holes and making a lot of things happen, but because of that they’re happening in both ends of the rink.”

The Jets are playing more tightly, and in tighter games now, making a big difference in Byfuglien.

“There’s a lot of intelligence in his game,” Maurice said. “I’ve never coached a player you think could have a really important impact on the game, whether he’s playing forward or defence.”

 

Defence staying strong

THE Jets are well into a second month of sustaining a game of better defence and better control.

They haven’t won them all, but only on one or two occasions in two months — and even those are by no means black-and-white — has the team not been in a game to the finish, to the extent where Winnipeg remains in the NHL’s top five in goals against.

“I think we’re prepared to start games,” winger Blake Wheeler said Monday. “We have a pretty close group in our room, too, so we’re able to put aside some of the tough times. It’s an 82-game season and you’re going to have to your highs and you’re going to have your lows.

“We’ve had our experiences with the low side of things here, too, and I think we know how to bounce back from those things. We just have confidence in our ability to play the game right now. The way we’re playing has given us success.”

 

Hawks a legit powerhouse

TONIGHT, the Jets face the Central Division leaders.

Winnipeg, since beating the Hawks 1-0 in Chicago on Nov. 2, has gone a respectable and competitive 11-5-6.

The Hawks have gone a few steps better than that, 17-4-1 in the time since being shut out by Michael Hutchinson.

Jets coach Paul Maurice says nobody should be surprised.

“The marketing brochure on that team is going to be their offence,” Maurice said. “Why wouldn’t it be? There’s skill and talent there. But statistically, defensively, they’re fantastic. That’s what you saw of the Detroit Red Wings in their heyday, when they were winning. You talked about Yzerman, Fedorov. I think they had 11 Hall of Famers on that team. That’s all anybody talked about.

“And then there was (Dominik) Hasek, right? Defensively, they were so much better, but nobody ever talked about that, about (Nik) Lidstrom on the back end, (Chris) Chelios. They weren’t short of big names.

“I think Chicago has done that. They’ve put a hard grind into a team that has great offensive skill, which makes them very tough. If you cheat on it because you’re not getting your offence, they just tear you apart.”

 

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca