Maurice agrees 4 games fair price

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This article was published 04/04/2015 (4186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WinnipegJets coach Paul Maurice said Friday he accepts the NHL’s decision to suspend defenceman Dustin Byfuglien for four games.

In the same answer, the coach also stood up strongly for his big blue-liner and distributed a few darts, some aimed at the league’s inconsistency in applying supplemental discipline and another at New York Rangers coach Alain Vigneault.

Byfuglien will not be eligible to return until April 11 against Calgary. His suspension begins with today’s game here against Vancouver.

“I know the person,” Maurice said after Friday’s practice at the MTS Centre. “I know the man. The event, it wasn’t a retaliatory thing. At the end of the day, we are responsible for our own actions and it was a cross-check and it was a dangerous one. I have no problem with the suspension. I’ve said that here and even before I got here (that) I have no problem with any of the suspensions that happen in the league. And that’s true of Evander Kane and Adam Lowry’s suspension earlier.

“The rub is that we will always disagree with the weight of those suspensions. Is it two (games)? Is it four? Is it 10? I have no problem with what the league decides on that. Where I’m going to disagree at times is which hit is worse. Is the (Antoine) Roussel hit (Feb. 12 to Adam McQuaid’s face) worse than that?”

Maurice acknowledged the difficulty the department of player safety encounters with each case. It didn’t stop him from voicing some second-guessing and mocking some of the outrage over Byfuglien’s case.

“I’ve seen two hits from behind that in my mind that are worse than the two that our guys got suspended for,” Maurice said. “But that’s my job. I’m going to protect my guys and always see them in the best possible light.

“I mean, Alain Vigneault wanted the electric chair. And I’ve got a lot more time for Dustin than that.”

“So we will always be a little agitated by what we feel is the unfairness of it. From my point of view though, I think you can hand out heavier suspensions on all these events and the players will make the adjustment.

“The tough part is being consistent with it. And it is tough. It’s not an easy thing to get right. So we take the four games and we did something we shouldn’t do and we pay the price and move on.”

It’s not the first time Maurice has fired off at a rival coach. Last month, he mocked Tampa Bay boss Jon Cooper, who had suggested Jets’ Toby Enstrom was responsible for his own injury when forward Nikita Kucherov left his feet and drove Enstrom’s head into the dasher.

Byfuglien did practise on Friday with the Jets but will not be doing any interviews until his suspension is complete.

“He’s not feeling too good about himself right now,” Maurice said. “Dustin Byfuglien’s been great for our team this year. It wasn’t a situation that (he said), ‘I’m going to cross-check this guy in the back of the neck and see if I can get away with it.’ He threw a cross-check that went way too high on a guy that was on his way down and it cost us.

‘At the end of the day, we are responsible for our own actions and it was a cross-check and it was a dangerous one. I have no problem with the suspension’– Jets coach Paul Maurice

“What Dustin Byfuglien owes this team is for that Calgary game to be the best game that he can possibly play.”

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The Jets are prepared to move on without Byfuglien for the next four games.

“I think we’ve dealt with it all year, with absences and injuries to various key members of our team,” said Jets centre Adam Lowry. “I think you saw it when Zach Bogosian and Toby Enstrom were out for extended periods of time and we had other guys step up.

“Obviously it’s a big loss losing a guy like Dustin Byfuglien, but we’re confident in the group we have in here that there are other guys who will be able to step up and minimize that loss.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca