Buff pours cold water on clothing accusation

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This article was published 07/02/2015 (3868 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dustin Byfuglien denied having anything to do with the events that led to Evander Kane being sat out by Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice last Tuesday in Vancouver.

Reports have said this week Byfuglien was the party who put Kane’s clothing in a shower or cold tub in Vancouver after Kane showed up for a morning team meeting in a track suit. That attire is a violation of team rules.

Later in the day, Kane was not on the team bus and didn’t make contact with the team until not long before the scheduled 7 p.m. local start time.

“No. That wasn’t my call,” Byfuglien said Friday night, asked if he was in any way responsible for Kane being scratched from the lineup that night. “I’ve got a job to do. Everyone’s got a job to do in here and we just have to go play as a team.”

Asked if there was an incident on Tuesday, Byfuglien said: “I have no clue.”

Thursday, the Jets put Kane on the injured reserve list and said he was being checked out for an injury.

Friday they announced he will undergo surgery to repair a left-shoulder injury, something that will likely keep him out four to six months.

“He had an injury to take care of,” Byfuglien said after the Jets’ 2-1 overtime loss to Chicago. “He did it. Whoever’s putting the jersey on, we’ve got to stick together and it sucks to see a guy go like that, but we’ve got to worry about our games.”

Friday was a second game this week for Byfuglien as a forward. With Kane’s absence, the Jets are not deep up front.

But they played the Hawks close, an effort that Byfuglien said can be a positive for the Jets going forward despite a sixth straight loss (0-4-2).

“Absolutely,” Byfuglien said. “There’s a lot of good things we can take out of that. During the stretch we’ve been in, I thought we’ve battled all throughout the night and we stuck together.

“We played a good game. I think we’re getting back on the right track, where we need to be, going into the end of the year here. I thought we played good tonight.”

‘He had an injury to take care of. He did it. Whoever’s putting the jersey on, we’ve got to stick together and it sucks to see a guy go like that but we’ve got to worry about our games’

— Dustin Byfuglien

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Friday marked the first time since Dec. 3 the Jets — the most shorthanded team in the NHL this season — limited their transgressions to one power play for their opponents.

“I don’t do this very often. I thought the referees did a really good job tonight, of the way I kind of remember the game,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said after the game. “I hope I don’t get them in trouble but I thought there was a little bit of a ledger out there.

“There were some hits that got close to being from behind along the wall that they didn’t call, and then they didn’t call the next one. And it looked like both benches (went), ‘Oh, I remember this.’ You keep a little balance there, handled the benches right and there wasn’t any complaining by both benches. Some good hits, some hard hits and I thought they did a real good job managing that game, especially because it could have… they let the fight (between Daniel Carcillo and Chris Thorburn) happen, to get it out of the way and that settled the game down.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca