Jets vexed by suddenly AWOL penalty killing

'We just weren't very good,' Maurice say of floundering club

By: Tim Campbell Posted: 3:00 AM CST Friday, Feb. 20, 2015

WASHINGTON -- OK, the penalties are the penalties and none of the 247 minors so far will be rescinded.

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WASHINGTON -- OK, the penalties are the penalties and none of the 247 minors so far will be rescinded.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/02/2015 (3919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON — OK, the penalties are the penalties and none of the 247 minors so far will be rescinded.

And the penalty killing is, well, on vacation.

What to do?

The Associated Press
Nick Wass / the associated press
Washington�s Troy Brouwer collides with Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec during second-period action. — The Associated Press Nick Wass / the associated press Washington�s Troy Brouwer collides with Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec during second-period action.

“Myself included, you have to stay out of the penalty box,” said Jets defenceman Jacob Trouba, one of the team’s five trippers on Thursday night in a meek 5-1 loss to the Washington Capitals.

In all, the Jets provided six opportunities to the Caps, extending their lead as the NHL’s most short-handed team.

The Caps obliged with three power-play goals, one of them during a comical four-on-one rush when the Jets had only two — yes, that’s right, two — skaters on the ice when they were entitled to four.

There was no argument after the game from Jets’ quarters that something’s got to change.

The Jets have killed just 33 of 50 opposition power plays since the all-star break.

“I think we’ve been struggling a little bit on the penalty kill,” said Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec, who gave up a softy on Nicklas Backstrom’s first of two advantage goals. “The key is stay out of the box. It’s not helping that this team, Washington, they have (Alex) Ovechkin and a lot of skilled guys on the power play. They can hurt you if you do bad penalties.

“And that’s exactly what happened. It’s disappointing, frustrating. Penalties happen in every game. Beginning of the year, first half, we were really comfortable with it but for some reason we’re really struggling in the penalty killing right now. If I know why, it would be easy to fix. But we have to figure that out.”

Pavelec said the Jets ARE talking among themselves about this penalty issue.

“All year long,” he said. “That’s the key in this game right now in this NHL. It’s special teams that win games. We’ve talked about it all year long. We just can’t do it right now. We have to. We have no choice if we want to make the playoffs.”

Jets coach Paul Maurice said a few weeks back he was reluctant to start harping on his team about the high penalty totals because on a couple of occasions that he did, it made them less aggressive.

And that’s not what he wants.

“We made it a point (and) we stopped being physical,” the coach said after the penalty-killing bloodbath became nine power-play goals against in the last four games. “We took five tripping penalties tonight. I’ve never seen that. It’s a first for any team I’ve ever seen. Which either we’ve got really, really heavy sticks or we were really behind it. And I think we were behind it on a couple of them.

“We just weren’t very good.”

The coach was both non-specific and damning when it came to the penalty-killing problems lately.

“Just about everything,” he said. “From faceoffs to blocks to energy to quick reads to good sticks to saves. It’s all missing.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca