No substitute for hard work

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/01/2016 (3541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Paul Maurice skated them at the start, in the middle and at the conclusion. He drew up some ideas on the whiteboard. He coaxed and cajoled, then did some barking, too.

What unfolded at Winnipeg Jets practice Sunday wasn’t a whole lot different from many other sessions this season, even with a three-game skid and shrinking playoff hopes serving as an ominous backdrop. It’s quite clear there is no magic potion to fix things, otherwise this crew would be swallowing it by the vat.

Instead, the only solution is to cross their fingers and pray their depth doesn’t get hammered again by injury. And then up the sweat equity.

“I know there’s no magic potion,” head coach Maurice said Sunday. “I have a pretty good understanding of what we’ve got in our lineup right now and how it’s going to look. There’s not a speech, there’s not one guy moves into one slot and all of a sudden we’re running 15 games (wins) off.

“It’s going to be scratching and clawing every single night.”

The Jets were without Mark Scheifele and Adam Lowry in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils and lost Mathieu Perreault after the first period. For a team that has been goal-starved — Saturday marked the fourth consecutive game and 10th time in the last 16 they managed a goal or less — that kind of hit to the forward depth is mammoth.

But while the start was so-so, the Jets did hold the Devils to just 16 shots and only six over the final 40 minutes. That’s why Maurice wouldn’t throw his squad under the bus the day after. There are 34 games left, after all, and a public tongue-lashing is the last thing a team that appears so beaten down mentally really needs.

“Big picture, you give up six shots in two periods of a National Hockey League game… I don’t care who you’re playing and what your lineup is, that happens very, very rarely,” said Maurice. “There’s a whole lot of good there. I’m not losing three in a row at home and saying that we’re… I always hold out the idea here that our job is to win a Stanley Cup this year. It’s not to talk about developing. I know we talk about process, but not use that as a marketing plan.

‘There’s not a speech, there’s not one guy moves into one slot and all of a sudden we’re running 15 games (wins) off.

It’s going to be scratching and clawing every single night’

— Jets coach Paul Maurice

“I have a really good grasp of what we look like when we’re really good and what we look like when we’re off and that band’s fairly narrow.”

The Jets, 21-24-3, are last in the Central, second-last in the Western Conference and 26th overall. The Arizona Coyotes are here Tuesday in the final contest before the National Hockey League All-Star break then there are two more at home to end a stretch that will have had them at the MTS Centre for nine of 10. They are 2-5 through the first seven, with just one win at home.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

The Warm-Up

Winnipeg Jets Game Days

On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.

Sign up for The Warm-Up

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The players insist the resolve that defined this team a year ago still exists, although that sounds hollow when the results aren’t coming.

“We still believe in what we have in here and that if we play well we can beat anybody in this league,” said blue-liner Mark Stuart. “It’s not the funnest of times right now, but we’ve got to stick with it. I mean, it’s the NHL… nobody feels sorry for you. Teams go through it. You’ve just got to turn the page the next day and go back to work.

“You look at our last five games. The good things are there, it’s just that little extra to get us over the hump. It’s not like we’re going out there and not competing, or our heads aren’t into it.

‘I have a really good grasp of what we look like when we’re really good and what we look like when we’re off and that band’s fairly narrow’

— Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice

“The energy is there. The passion is there. It’s just a matter of putting it together. Sometimes that’s a small step, it just takes a little bit extra.”

Ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait