Tale of two teams in the Twin Cities

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This article was published 28/09/2015 (3692 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Two teams at cross purposes met in an NHL pre-season game Sunday at Xcel Energy Center.

The home team, the Minnesota Wild, lined up with most of its real team and got plenty of what it wanted, especially goals, in an 8-1 trouncing of the Winnipeg Jets.

The visitors, not much of the real Jets to be certain, played a bunch of young prospects and hopefuls, as well as six players who appeared for the team in last spring’s playoffs, and got some lumps for their trouble.

And some evaluation, no matter how badly it went.

“There’s no level of disappointment,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said after the thumping. “You learn something every time you come to the rink.

“You probably get better (evaluation) in some ways, right? You have some adversity. It gets real quiet on the bench. When things go bad on you, you have a tendency at times to revert to poor habits, I guess. Some did, some didn’t and it’s all part of it.”

Even though his main purpose was to try to sort out who’s going to earn the open jobs in the forward ranks, defeat just never sits well with most pros.

Maurice was annoyed and sarcastic after the game about the Wild pouring it on.

“You get into those games and you know they’re going to keep putting out good players… like when they got an 8-1 lead and they got a power play,” he said. “The best is coming out. In an exhibition game.”

Minnesota did send out its top unit with the man advantage and the score 6-0 in the second period.

Asked to clarify his frustration, Maurice said: “No, no. I thought it was just an honour to be in the same building with them tonight.”

End of press conference.

 

Two sides

The Wild were in different circumstances than the Jets Sunday.

This was their fifth exhibition game (now 3-2) and they have just one left, that on Thursday here against Buffalo.

So head coach Mike Yeo was obviously looking for more of a regular-season rehearsal than the Jets.

He said he had little, if any, annoyance at the weak NHL-calibre lineup the Jets iced.

“That’s a little bit of what goes on around the league,” Yeo said. “To be honest with you, that’s what we did a little bit last night (in Saskatoon, against Edmonton, a 3-0 loss). It’s pretty common… most teams, and understandably, want to dress a good lineup in front of your home crowd.

‘You get into those games and you know they’re going to keep putting out good players… like when they got an 8-1 lead and they got a power play. The best is coming out. In an exhibition game’

— a sarcastic Paul Maurice on the Wild appearing to pile on

“You quite often you don’t want your veteran players playing every game, so the road games are quite often an opportunity to get a lot of young kids in there. This being our second-last exhibition game, our players were pretty determined to make sure we had a pretty strong outing. So we have no problems with what went on there.”

Presented with Maurice’s words about the Wild power play at 6-0, Yeo said: “Well, I was pretty upset that (Anthony) Peluso was running around.”

Matt Dumba had two goals and four points for Minnesota, while Zach Parise and Nino Niederreiter had three points apiece.

 

Two goalies

The debacle allowed the Jets to get Connor Hellebuyck some more playing time.

Michael Hutchinson started the game and was behind 4-0 after one, and with the 6-0 goal going in at 10:16 of the second, Maurice made the switch.

 

Three to go

If Maurice is done evaluating most of the contenders for roster spots, then there are likely to be some assignments and cuts today.

And the Jets are likely to have a much stronger lineup for Tuesday’s home game against Ottawa.

Their remaining pre-season games are then Thursday at home vs. Calgary and Saturday in Calgary, before their regular season begins Oct. 8 in Boston.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca