Jets’ policy of deterrence

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This article was published 21/10/2015 (3631 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Who has the most difficult job on the Winnipeg Jets?

It’s probably Ondrej Pavelec or Michael Hutchinson — the nature of the goaltending beast, you know? — but a close runner-up might well be right-winger Anthony Peluso.

The 26-year-old from North York, Ont., who played his first game of the season Sunday against the St. Louis Blues, gets limited minutes and is never asked to produce the glamour stuff like power-play goals.

But when it’s time for the unsavoury business of dealing with opponents who have been deemed to have crossed a line, Peluso is likely to be en route, if not already on the scene.

A local radio host likes to refer to the Jets’ heavyweight as “the nuclear option.”

“In terms of that and in games like that, that’s my role and I’m still trying to develop in that role,” Peluso said after Tuesday’s practice at the MTS Iceplex. “To say I’m just a nuclear bomb, I don’t think that’s necessarily fair. I work a lot on my game, controlling pucks down low and being physical and creating momentum with a physical edge.

“I think the players on the Jets feed off of it, when I’m going in there first on the body. It’s ongoing, that we can feed off that.”

As for being the muscle and the deterrent, Peluso is a determined sort when it comes to the perception of on-ice justice.

“There are clichés about just playing your game but in that part of the game, I know when I need to do it and when I don’t need to do it,” he said. “I’m there because when something needs to be done, there will be no questions about it.

“Everybody knows that I’ll hold the other team accountable for any dirty plays. There were times Sunday that it was pretty chippy out there and I was being pretty vocal, I thought.

“I think at times, I calmed the game down pretty good. It was just making a presence felt, and that’s what I have to do. I think I can do that.”

The heat of the hot games, such as Sunday’s, is where Peluso must earn his keep.

“You say, ‘minding everyone else’s business,’ well, everyone’s business that’s on the ice that’s wearing a Jets logo, that’s my business and I take exception to all of that,” he said. “Whenever a guy like (Robert) Bortuzzo makes a hit on (Nikolaj) Ehlers on the boards near the bench, you know that I’m giving him an earful. And I’m letting him know he can only do that once and that if he does it again, there will be answers and I’ll take it up with him at that spot.”

Jets coach Paul Maurice sounded more than satisfied Peluso did his job correctly Sunday.

“He was physical when he needed to be,” Maurice said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of chirping after the whistle and while the hits were hard, nobody got really taken advantage of.”

‘To say I’m just a nuclear bomb, I don’t think that’s necessarily fair. I work a lot on my game, controlling pucks down low and being physical and creating momentum with a physical edge’

— Anthony Peluso

But there was chirping in this game, the coach was reminded.

“Between the benches for sure,” Maurice said. “But the scrums, there weren’t long scrums. That’s usually when the game’s getting nasty. With two teams playing that hard, they’re going to meet and there will be five or 10 guys barking at each other. But they dispersed fairly quickly. That’s usually the sign; it didn’t boil over too often.”

Peluso, who was in the Jets lineup 49 times last season (one goal, one assist), and 53 times (two goals, three assists) in 2013-14, had to be patient for his turn at the start of this season. Nic Petan, who turned pro this fall, had an excellent camp and made the team in a fourth-line spot.

“Yeah, of course you always want to get in there and play,” Peluso said. “But in the other sense, our team was 4-1 and I understand Mo (Maurice) didn’t want to change the lineup. I put a lot of faith in the coaching staff that the coaching staff will make the right decisions and develop us the right way.

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“They’re going to put me in the best position to succeed, as well. I have complete faith in them. I’m still only 26 years old and I have a lot of life left in the tank.”

Peluso said patience and maximum daily effort will continue to be his dual focus.

“Of course I want to play, be a part of the team every night,” he said. “Those are the things you have to do as a good professional. This is a job. I have to come to work every day and if it’s not in the cards for me to play on a given day, then I have to keep it in my mind to keep going, to be a good teammate.

“You can’t walk around here when you’re not playing without a big grin on your face and be happy-go-lucky. That’s my personality. As long as the team is excelling, it’s a good thing for everybody.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca