Jets sticking to Maurice’s plan

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This article was published 14/01/2015 (3891 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Winnipeg Jets may have been more erratic in the last couple of weeks than fans were getting used to in the first half, but some consistency of competitiveness has remained as the team adjusted to its injury woes.

That’s a new quality inside the Jets’ locker-room and recently returned leftwinger Evander Kane said Tuesday it’s one of the most important.

“With the players we have, I think Paul (Maurice) recognized what our strengths were and he reiterated that to us at the beginning of the year and we kind of bought what he was selling a little bit,” said Kane, having returned to action after a five-game absence caused by a shot block on Dec. 27.

“That competitiveness, obviously, has proven to us that if we’ll compete like that we’re going to win games, So far it’s worked out and I think guys have stuck to it because it’s worked so well so far.”

So while their coach has channeled them to move in the same direction, it’s the team that’s driving the effort in this direction.

“As a group, you get sick and tired of losing,” Kane said. “When you kind of figure out what works for you, you want to stick to it. It’s no different than your off-season training. If you had a good year before, you’re going to do the same thing in the summer time. With us, we want to do the same thing every night and I think we realize it’s up to us, that we’re the ones on the ice performing so we have to do it.”

Maurice, now through his one-year anniversary of calling the shots behind the bench, has seen some markers that the Jets are headed in the right direction.

“I’m pleased at what I believe are the starting points to an identity for our group,” Maurice said. “We’ve been a good-starting, very consistent team.”

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Moments after he fired his first goal in 11 games Sunday night in Anaheim, Jets centre Mark Scheifele’s reaction suggested the drought wasn’t that big a deal.

“I don’t really worry about the points and goals as much,” Scheifele said about his seventh of the season. “It’s a matter of when I know I’m playing a good game, that’s really what matters. When you go over it and watch the game after, that’s what you feel like, that if you had a good game, a bunch of good chances, that’s the thing.

“Goals and assists come as they come.”

Scheifele admitted goals and points used to be more of a priority.

“Probably a little bit more in junior, because you felt if you didn’t have two points in a game, you were rattled,” he said. “Now when you watch guys like Laddie and Litts and Wheels, see how they approach each game and how they can tell if they had a good game or not, well, that’s what I’ve learned, that it’s not about the points, it’s not about personal achievements, it’s all about the team.

“I think if I play my best each night and see that in my game, that’s helping the team and that’s all that matters.”

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If you were inclined to think that the “old” Dustin Byfuglien had emerged late in Sunday’s game in Anaheim, when he tried to reverse the flow in the Jets’ zone and the puck was picked off and turned into the Ducks’ game-tying goal, you can be forgiven for the thought.

That’s not a consideration for head coach Paul Maurice, nor is there any concern the team’s oft-used strategy of the reverse to get away from forechecking pressure and to maintain control of the puck is becoming too predictable.

“I think when you divide it up, we’re not kicking it back and slowing it down in a game like that,” Maurice said. “I think it was our best out if we made the play and we don’t want to throw pucks away. So I’d rather have us, believe it or not, turn a puck over on a play we’re trying to make in our end and have it in the back of the net than throw it up the wall in the neutral zone and giving it back to them. I think that’s far more dangerous and I think we’ve done that in the past.

“You want to be in control of your own fate and you eventually want to make those plays. And for the most part we have. We’ve done a pretty good job of it. We want the puck. And we want to make a play.

“Philadelphia and Colorado were the two games where we stopped making plays and just ripped it off the wall and banged it out. There’s a time in the game for it and there’s a place on the ice for it but I’d much rather develop the idea that it’s on our stick now and we can do something with this even with the pressure we’re under.”

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And even Maurice has been marvelling at how much he’s been getting out of Byfuglien on so many fronts.

“I find him to be an incredibly clean hitter,” he said, “It’s just what happens after the hit, it just doesn’t look normal. So something strange must have happened, right? He just drives through people so strong. He’s been all pieces of our game for us.

“He’s been big and physical, he’s making plays down low, generated a bunch of offence for us and eventually when you handle the puck as much as he does, you’re going to have a turnover like he had the other night that’s going to go against you.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca