Defencemen step up when two stalwarts go down

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

It’s far from an ideal situation for the Winnipeg Jets, with veteran defencemen Dustin Byfuglien and Toby Enstrom on the shelf with injuries, but the first test without the big-minute blue-liners went about as smoothly as possible.

The Jets held the Vancouver Canucks to just one goal on 26 shots in Monday night’s victory, with the rest of the defence stepping up to play bigger roles. It was the kind of collective effort that will be needed going forward if they are to maintain their hot start to the season.

Tyler Myers led the team with 23:24 in ice time and continued his run of strong play, chipping in an assist and going plus-three. Right behind him was Jacob Trouba, who logged 23:14 on the ice and dished out a team-high four hits.

Josh Morrissey was also relied on more than usual, playing 21:21 and scoring a beautiful goal on a three-on-one rush. He and Trouba were matched up for much of the night against Vancouver’s top line of twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin and Brock Boeser, the team’s leading scorer.

Myers’ partner, Dmitry Kulikov, scored the game’s opening goal and played 18:31, while the new-look third pairing of Ben Chiarot (15:51) and rookie Tucker Poolman (13:33) more than held their own against the Canucks. For Poolman, it was just his fourth NHL game and the first in two months.

“I thought they were good. Tucker looked smooth, he didn’t show any nervousness out there. He moved the puck, he played the same game that he played for us at the start of the year, so I liked that a lot,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice said following the game. “I thought Morrissey and Trouba got stronger as the game went on. Those guys got some miles on them, they play against the other team’s best every night and it’s a challenge every night. I thought those guys got stronger, like our team did.”

Morrissey said everyone realizes they need to pick up the slack, especially with Byfuglien expected to be out until at least after Christmas with a lower-body injury suffered Saturday in Tampa Bay against the Lightning. Enstrom has been sidelined more than three weeks and is at least another month from returning.

“You can’t replace (Byfuglien), obviously, and that’s not what we are going to try and do as a back end. We all want to pick up some of those minutes. I thought, as a whole, (Poolman) came in and played awesome, and that’s one of those things where you try to pick up those minutes. Everyone has to try and do a little bit more and help collectively as a back end,” Morrissey said.

The Jets will likely recall another defenceman from the Manitoba Moose in the coming days to give them some additional depth, as they currently have no other healthy bodies for their blue line.

Options could include off-season free agent signing Cam Schilling, who has put up three goals and 17 assists for the Moose this season. That puts him third among all American Hockey League defencemen in scoring and his plus-21 leads the league. Veteran Julian Melchiori is another possibility, having previously been with the Jets. He’s got four goals and eight assists. Rookie Sami Niku is also off to a terrific start, with two goals and 14 assists, which is second-best among first-year defencemen in the AHL.

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