Scheduling quirk lets Jets regroup

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This article was published 21/10/2017 (2883 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The regular season is barely underway, but the Winnipeg Jets have been forced to hit the pause button as part of an early scheduling quirk that essentially gives them a second crack at training camp.

“It’s actually longer than training camp. You never get five days (between games),” coach Paul Maurice said on Saturday, following an up-tempo, hour-long practice at the Bell MTS Iceplex.

That’s the reality facing his team these days. After beating the Minnesota Wild 4-3 on Friday night, the Jets won’t play again until Thursday in Pittsburgh, then the next night in Columbus.

It would likely be an unwelcome break if they were on an unstoppable roll, but the first seven games of the season have been a mixed bag, exposing several areas that still need work. Sure, the Jets are above .500 at 4-3-0, but nothing has come easy.

There’s been inconsistent special teams play, defensive breakdowns, some ugly second periods and almost no scoring outside their top two forward lines.

Maurice said there are two things he plans to focus on before they return to action: getting healthier and getting quicker.

“We’ve felt that in our last let’s say five games, there’s been a lot of good things to it, but we’d like to try to play a little faster here. So we’re going to use it to try and focus in on that. Cut the duration down a little bit and try to get really as high a pace as we can in every single drill. So we’ll keep our drills real simple and try to focus on that speed,” Maurice said.

“It’s hard to do sometimes in training camp because you’ve got systems working, you want to get the grinding in and the battling because they haven’t done it all summer. We feel we can transition into more speed work here.”

There was some potential good news at practice on Saturday, as forward Matt Hendricks and defenceman Dmitry Kulikov shed their yellow no-contact jerseys in favour of regular sweaters.

“Yeah, that yellow didn’t look good on me. I’m feeling good. I’m glad to be back in practice,” said Kulikov, who missed the past two games after suffering a lower-body injury last weekend.

Kulikov has a history of injury over his career and there were initially fears he could be out several weeks. Instead, he’s likely to be ready for the next game.

“Just a couple of games and I’m glad we don’t play for five days. I’m pretty happy about that. I’ll get some reps and get myself feeling good again on the ice,” Kulikov said.

Tucker Poolman and Ben Chiarot have each played a game in his place. Both would likely be relegated to the press box upon his return.

“Nice to have the depth. It keeps you on your toes too, because you’ve got to play the best you can every game or you might not be in the lineup. Eight guys are capable of playing in the NHL. You’ve got to be on your toes,” Kulikov said.

“On the other hand, it’s good that if one guy goes down, you know we have a guy that can step in and do the exact same job.”

As for Hendricks, he has yet to play a regular-season game after getting hurt during the pre-season. The veteran is expected to provide some depth, likely centring the fourth line while helping win some key faceoffs and killing penalties.

Unlike Kulikov, Hendricks is currently on the injured reserve list. Activating him would likely force the Jets to send a forward down to the Moose.

Adam Lowry, who missed the past three games with an upper-body injury, is also expected to return to practice on Monday and could also be activated soon off the injured list, meaning two decisions would need to be made.

That would leave just Mathieu Perreault left as the only wounded player. He’s expected to miss at least three more weeks.

Maurice said the end result of getting healthy is more competition among his bottom-six forwards. 

Added to the mix is the addition of forward Brendan Lemieux, who made his NHL debut on Friday night and didn’t look out of place. Maurice had him out in the final minutes to protect a one-goal lead, and repeated on Saturday how much he liked his game.

Lemieux brings a compelling combination of grit and skill, which could extend his stay.

“It was really fun. I’m just really happy we came out with a win. Coach said before the game you can win a bunch of Stanley Cups and MVPs and score a million goals, but you only get one first game,” Lemieux said about his first NHL game.

“I kind of just took that to heart. It was kind of surreal. I thought about that my whole life. Everyone in my family was hoping to get here and I’m here.

“Now it’s just a matter of sticking and contributing. (Friday) was incredible and I’m blessed to have had the opportunity.”

Mark Scheifele and Shawn Matthias both missed Saturday’s practice. Maurice said they’re dealing with minor aches and should be “100 per cent” when the team returns to practice Monday.

“It’s nice to have some practice time. Last year, we had no practice time, and this year, with the schedule, that extra practice time — if you use it effectively — helps,” defenceman Josh Morrissey said.

“Sure, if you have a couple of bumps and bruises and things like that, it’s nice to sort of get healed up a little bit over that time.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg