Jets need top centre Dubois to take charge

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This article was published 05/06/2021 (1558 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets can’t afford to wait much longer for Pierre-Luc Dubois to get going, not if they want to extend their playoff run beyond a couple more games.

With Mark Scheifele lost to a four-game suspension and Paul Stastny yet to make his North Division final debut due to injury, the onus has fallen on the 22-year-old Dubois to pick up the considerable slack down the middle. And in a low-scoring, tight-checking battle with the Montreal Canadiens, the hope is the Quebec native can re-discover his lost touch around the net and be a difference-maker as the series shifts to his home province.

Dubois has now gone 22 games and two full months since last lighting the lamp, a two-goal effort against Ottawa way back on April 5. He went scoreless in the final 17 regular-season contests and has been been blanked in his first five playoff appearances with the Jets. He has just seven assists in that span, including three in the postseason.

That would be tolerable if he was playing a bottom-six checking role without power play time. But Dubois is now the No. 1 centre by default, flanked by captain Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor in Friday’s 1-0 loss to the Habs that has put the Jets in a 2-0 hole in the best-of-seven series.

“I don’t like putting numbers on anything, but it’s a process,” Dubois said when asked to assess his current confidence level following Saturday’s optional skate at Bell MTS Place. “It’s been a long season, it’s been a season of ups and downs, but I think I work hard just so that confidence doesn’t go down even if you’re not scoring or doing as much offensively as you want. It’s a building process, it’s building blocks here and there, not just results, but also the work that goes into it.”

Time may be quickly running out on that long season, with Game 3 set for Sunday in Montreal and Game 4 to follow on Monday night. Whether Winnipeg can extend it beyond then remains to be seen. The Jets have yet to enjoy a lead at any point in the series, trailing for a whopping 94:49 of the 120 minutes played. The other 25:11 was tied 0-0.

“I think that first goal, especially against a team like this, is crucial,” said Dubois. That was certainly the case in the latest loss, as the Jets coughed up a shorthanded tally to Tyler Toffoli early in the second period, then couldn’t generate anything against a defensively-responsible group that smothered them with a blanket.

“Getting that first goal, I think, opens up the play a bit for them and it’s a team, as you saw (Friday), once they got that lead, they close down the middle of the ice and then they have a really good goalie, if they make a mistake, who can stop the puck for them,” he said.

Jets coach Paul Maurice said Stastny remains an option for Game 3. He participated in Friday’s morning skate, but wasn’t part of the pre-game warmup. It’s not clear what’s ailing him, as the injury happened in practice prior to the start of the series.

Scheifele can’t return until Game 6, if it gets to that point, and the Jets are also without top shutdown defenceman Dylan DeMelo, who got hurt on his first shift of the series in Wednesday’s 5-3 loss marred by Scheifele’s ugly charge against Canadiens forward Jake Evans that led to his lengthy ban.

“It’s more minutes against what will be a heavier shutdown line. That didn’t really happen very much here in the first two, it’s going to happen more in the next two,” Maurice said of what’s being asked of Dubois.

“And then, in as much as we win our first two games of the Edmonton series and Mark’s not on the board for those, you don’t give anything up. And at some point you’ve got to be one better than the line you’re playing against. That’s all.”

Dubois, who is six years younger than Scheifele, doesn’t see himself as “filling in” for the suspended star centre.

“He’s a fantastic player, he’s his own player. I’m my own player. If I try to play like him I’m not helping my team, not helping my teammates out,” he said.

“I have to do what I do best and I don’t see it as shoes to fill. I just see it as doing what I do best, doing what I can to help this team win. I put a lot of pressure on myself but at the same time I know when to relax and just go play. There’s nothing you can do to control the surroundings or the circumstances. The only thing you can do is just try to bring your best game to the table.”

Winnipeg has been in this position before, down 2-0 in a playoff series after dropping the first two on home ice. That happened in the spring of 2019, and they responded by going into St. Louis and winning the next two, only to ultimately drop the next two and be eliminated in six by the eventual Stanley Cup champs.

“I think it’s kind of the belief in our group. We’ve been a pretty solid road team this year,” Jets forward Adam Lowry said prior to his team boarding the charter to fly east.

“It’s going to be important getting the lead. You saw what the Canadiens were able to do when they get the lead, they’re able to sit on it, they’re able to really slow the game down and make it hard to get to the net and make it hard to get any kind of sustained pressure. That’s going to be one of those things. I think with the experience we have in this group, we’re comfortable about going in and playing on the road.”

Lowry stressed two core principles on Saturday — patience, in terms of not getting sucked into making critical mistakes by trying to cheat the game in the name of offence. And persistence, specifically when it comes to scoring the kind of goals you often see this time of year, especially on a future Hall of Famer like Carey Price.

“I think the way Carey’s playing right now, it’s important we find a way to get a little more net-front traffic, we find a way to make it a little more uncomfortable on him. That’s not bumping him, but that’s getting people in his eyes, that’s getting some tips on pucks, creating some of those scrums where there’s a scramble in front,” said Lowry.

Easier said than done, of course, especially with Montreal’s big top-four on the blue-line of Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson and Jeff Petry all logging huge minutes.

“We have to give them some credit, they’ve got a real big back end. They’re really big and strong and they do a great job of boxing guys out and pushing guys to the outside to let Price see the shots from the side. It’s about moving in and out and trying to get body position and when you do have it, fighting to maintain it,” said Lowry.

“That’s one of those things against those big D-men, if you can get the body position and force them to maybe take a penalty to put you out of there. It’s a challenge but you’ve got to be ready to battle and you’ve got to be willing to sacrifice and pay the price to get to the net.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg