Making up for lost practices

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/12/2017 (2831 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is one of the all-time great rants in sports history, one that spawned numerous internet memes and GIFs. Allen Iverson, then a star with the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, delivered a sound bite for the ages when asked about his penchant for missing practices.

“We’re talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice? We’re talking about practice, man,” an incredulous Iverson said as part of the memorable 2002 monologue in which he would go on to use the word “practice” 22 times.

Well, with apologies to the hall of famer, we’re here today to talk about practice. Or, in the case of the Winnipeg Jets, the lack thereof.

By our count, the Jets have had 11 practices scheduled since the beginning of November. But only four of those proceeded as planned, the last one occurring Nov. 23. Three others became sparsely attended optional skates and the remaining four were cancelled by the coaching staff.

Now, nobody is accusing the Jets of being lazy. They just wrapped up a gruelling part of their schedule in which they played 15 games in 28 days, spanning all four time zones. They went 9-4-2 during that span, so they’ve clearly been doing plenty of good things.

Following Monday’s 5-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks, the Jets enjoyed a day off on Tuesday. With their first back-to-back days without a game in more than a month, they’ll return to the ice today for their first team practice in almost three weeks.

But unlike Iverson, several players say they’re actually looking forward to it. Veteran centre Bryan Little said some bad habits have started to creep into their game, magnified during last week’s disappointing road trip, when they went 0-2-1 in Detroit, Sunrise, Fla., and Tampa.

“It’s always nice to get a good practice in once in a while. We’re trying to manage rest right now. When we do get a practice in it’ll probably be beneficial for us, because we haven’t had one in so long,” Little said on Monday. “You get to work on things you might need tuning up, and we’ve got a couple things we could work on right now.”

Defenceman Josh Morrissey said getting enough rest and avoiding rust is a bit of a balancing act. In a month of games every second day and occasional back-to-back contests, players have turned to off-ice teaching to help keep them sharp.

“On off days and days between games when we’re playing every second day, sometimes it’s best just to get the rest,” he said. “Sometimes you miss out on some practice time. That’s where we have to take advantage of some video and some of the teaching we can do off the ice.”

Following Monday’s win, head coach Paul Maurice said the past month has been about survival for his squad. While there have been some bumps along the way, he doesn’t believe the lack of practice is to blame.

“I think where we’ve been a little off at times is with our hands… we’re not hitting the net as much as we’d like,” he said.

“We’ve been a bit loopy in some of our defence. I think maybe that’s sometimes in your legs, stopping and starting and grinding. But none of it is far enough off for me to say that’s the deciding factor. So we just deal with it the best that we can and we keep them off the ice a little bit. The guys will tell you they don’t miss the practising.”

Maurice said his team will have spent 35 or 36 days either on an a plane or on the road in a block between Nov. 5 and Christmas, when they’ll already pass the halfway point of their road schedule. Things lighten up in the new year, with plenty of home games, including 10 straight at Bell MTS Place in February.

“Everybody gets tired, everybody gets fatigued. We’re actually happy about our schedule,” Maurice said. “It’s still way better than it was a year ago when we did this for two months with six sets of back-to-backs at 12 time-zone changes. So I’m not complaining about the schedule. Because I’ve seen it be a lot worse. It’s just what we have to deal with in Winnipeg.”

Little said fatigue is certainly an issue. “(It) feels like we’ve been on the road constantly for the last month-and-a-half,” he said.

That might explain why the Jets are winless in their past five games away from home (0-3-2). Fortunately, they’ve been red-hot in Winnipeg, winning seven in a row and collecting points in 11 straight (10-0-1).

“I don’t know what it is. We don’t really talk about it. We have that energy at home,” he said.

Winnipeg will try to keep that streak going when they host the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg