Armia's Recent Performance Paved His Way Back Onto the Roster After Rocky Start to Season
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Winnipeg Free Press https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/armias-recent-performance-paved-his- way-back-onto-the-roster-after-rocky-start-to-season-459150203.html Armia's recent performance paved his way back onto the roster after rocky start to season By: Jason Bell LOS ANGELES – Joel Armia didn’t like the view from the proverbial doghouse, and, although his stint was brief, he’s been taking all the necessary steps the last five weeks to avoid another frustrating stay. The Winnipeg Jets right winger was relegated to the press box for a pair of games early in the season, not because of a specific injury but because of his sub-par play. He wasn't the lone struggler in lopsided losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames, but his performance as a bottom-six forward was, in a word, uninspired. Head coach Paul Maurice chalks that up now to the fact Armia was hobbled early in training camp by a nagging groin injury and, when the season began, simply wasn’t in 100 per cent game shape. Armia has participated in 15 of the last 16 games and has been a valuable contributor on the fourth line and special teams, including registering three assists in his last two games. Did Maurice’s attempt to send a message to the 24-year-old Finn strike a chord? "It's always tough to not play. You want to be out there every night," Armia said, earlier this week. "I'm starting to play better and better, I try to work hard every day and play at the best level that I can." Armia set up Mathieu Perreault's rather sneaky third-period goal, a purposely played bank shot off the back of goalie Pekka Rinne's leg with less than four minutes left, but the Jets (7-3-0 in the last 10 games) had to settle for a 5-3 loss to the Predators, signalling a quick end to their four-game winning streak. Winnipeg had an off-day in Los Angeles Tuesday but returns to the ice Wednesday against the Kings (3-6-1 in the last ten matches). Game time is 9:30 p.m. at Staples Center. Armia, thoughtful and soft-spoken, says he understands why his services weren’t required against the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks during the second week of October. "I know I didn't play good the first couple of games and I knew I could do a lot better. It was a good thing I didn't play those games, it was a good thing for me," he said. "In practice, I worked my way back into the lineup. "(The key is) hard work, every time I go on the ice or in the gym I try to do a little extra something to get better. When it's in your head that you know you're working hard, you get more confident, too." Armia might finally be poised to shed the footnote that accompanies just about any assessment of his play, past or current. The knock on him since he was drafted in the first round (16th overall) in 2011 NHL Draft by the Buffalo Sabres, subsequently traded to the Jets in 2014 as part of the mammoth Evander Kane deal, and a member of the Winnipeg organization? Inconsistency. A driver on some nights, a passenger on many others. Newcomer Matt Hendricks says he’s only seen one side of his linemate. The veteran centre has come to trust the reliability of Armia’s contribution not only to a recently assembled trio that includes Perreault but the club as a whole. "Night in, night out, and every day at practice, he continues to work hard to get better. I look at him almost as that Swiss army knife of a player," commented Hendricks, on the value of Armia’s versatility. "He's pretty darn good on faceoffs on his strong side, he's playing on the power play but he could easily be thrown out on the penalty kill more and more. He's done a heck of a job five on five. "What I like about him… you can tell he's a Finnish player. He’s very defensive in terms of always being above the puck, always being above their offensive guys. So, if I get caught in a vulnerable position on the forecheck I know he's always going to be back there backing me up because he seems to keep his head on a swivel and knows where his players are. He's got a very cerebral feeling for the game of hockey." At 6-3, 205 pounds, Armia is a big body and has demonstrated he can protect the puck while making the occasional shifty move. Just the other night at Bell MTS Place, he orchestrated a pretty goal, threading a saucer pass through Philadelphia defenceman Brandon Manning's legs to Perreault's stick blade. Defensively, he’s taken big strides, and his name is appearing on NHL scoresheets with some regularity. He has a goal and four assists in his last five games and three goals and five helpers in all. "I just try to get to those places where I can make plays.. when you work hard and you have confidence in what you do, you get more chances," said Armia. The Hendricks-Perreault-Armia unit has provided five goals in Winnipeg's last three games. Perreault was inserted onto the line as a way of managing his minutes after he returned from a foot injury that shelved him for a dozen games, but chemistry has kicked in. Maurice says he'll keep the trio intact for the time being. Perreault and Hendricks previously played on a line together in Washington and their familiarity is producing results. Armia, with only 118 NHL games under his belt, is complementing the wily veterans – for now. Maurice said the young pro responded well to being scratched and has pushed to keep a forward job in the starting 12. With depth in the organization – Marko Dano and Shawn Matthias are the extra forwards in Winnipeg, while Nic Petan has NHL experience and Brendan Lemieux proved in a recent stint he's nearly ready – Armia can't afford to coast for even a shift. "If you're out of the lineup, you need to be a little nervous, a little worried. So, when you come back in, make an impact, steal someone's job, fight for the ice time," said Maurice. "Maturity, finding his game... (Armia's) kind of gone from originally when he was drafted and then finding his way to the fourth lines and into the grinding roles and killing penalties because he does have a very good defensive stick. But power play and some skill plays are where he can excel. "His game has gotten faster. Now he's moving, now he gets the time, so everything snowballs for him, he's feeling confident so he's playing better." https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/manitoba-moose/moose-sock-it-to-rocket- with-3-2-shootout-win-459225383.html Moose sock it to Rocket with 3-2 shootout win By: Mike McIntyre There's an old adage that you don't mess with a winning lineup. But don't hold Manitoba Moose coach Pascal Vincent to that – he continues to mix things up despite a recent run of success for his club. Manitoba's 3-2 shootout win over Laval Tuesday night at Bell MTS Place was their fourth victory in a row and eighth in the past nine games. The team has only lost twice in regulation in their past 14 games (10-2-2) and are among the American Hockey League's top teams so far this season with an overall record of 12-5-2. It's an impressive start, especially for a team that was well out of the playoff picture the past two seasons. But Vincent said they can't lose sight of the fact the Moose are a developmental club looking to get players ready to take the next step, namely a promotion to the National Hockey League. "The organization is trying to find ways to get better. learning your game, learning your team, the combination and the synergy between players. We're still early in the season. It's the right time to do it," Vincent explained of his line juggling. Nic Petan would be a prime example. Demoted by the Jets earlier this season, Petan has seen time playing different positions with different players. Last week he was on the left wing with Patrice Cormier as his centre. On Tuesday, he was in the middle of a line with fellow top prospects Jack Roslovic and Brendan Lemieux. Roslovic, the team's leading scorer, has played both centre and right wing recently. Mason Appleton, named the AHL's player of the week on Monday, hasn't been slowed by the fact he's bounced around playing both left and right wing over the past week. His linemates have included Michael Spacek (who has also rotated between different lines playing both centre and right wing), Chase De Leo (who has played left wing and centre in recent games), J.C. Lipon, Buddy Robinson and Michael Sgarbossa. "When things are going well, you're winning some games, you can't be standing still. Once you start doing that, I don't think its the right way to approach success or failure. So it's just trying to find different ways to get better and find synergy between players," said Vincent.