Winnipeg Free Press https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/chiarot-ready-to-play-his-role- 452647823.html

Chiarot ready to play his role Added depth on blue line limiting opportunities for defender

By: Mike McIntyre

He’s become a bit of a forgotten man around these parts, pushed aside in favour of a high- profile free agent signing and highly touted prospect turned pro.

As the began their season, Ben Chiarot found himself parked in the press box instead of patrolling the blue line.

He wasn’t even the first choice when injury opened up a spot, as rookie Tucker Poolman drew into the lineup for two games in place of Dustin Byfuglien. Poolman then got a third game last week — playing on his off-side no less — when off-season addition Dmitry Kulikov went down.

Chiarot, 26, finally got his shot Friday in his team’s seventh game of the season, taking Poolman’s spot on a pairing with Tyler Myers in a 4-3 win over the Wild. He played a clean and tidy 16 minutes and looked solid, dishing out three hits.

"When you’re coming in like that, after sitting out a while, you just want to get in the game pretty early on. Once you get your feet under you it’s like riding a bike," Chiarot said following Monday’s practice.

However, Chiarot might not want to get too comfortable. With Kulikov expected back in the lineup as early as Thursday when the Jets travel to Pittsburgh to play the Stanley Cup- champion Penguins, he’s likely going to go back to being the healthy scratch with no idea of when his next opportunity may come.

"You just worry about yourself and doing your job. You get paid to come here and play hockey. You’re not paid to decide where you go out," Chiarot said. "I just do my job and do whatever I can to help the team win. Whatever I’m asked to do, I do. I don’t really whine or complain."

Chiarot has played a variety of roles in his three full seasons with the Jets, including being pressed into top-four duty many times. He dressed in 59 games last season, scoring two goals and adding 10 assists while going plus-two.

He likely won’t come close to as much action this season, barring some major injuries in the defence corps.

"This is probably the most depth we’ve had. We’ve got a really good top six, and this year we’ve got eight guys that can play a lot of minutes," Chiarot said. "So depth is good, it’s good competition for ice time and pushed everyone to be a little bit better, so that’s a good thing."

Chiarot praised the play of Myers, who missed most of last season with an injury.

"He’s obviously a really good player in our league. You can see the effect not having him had on our defence last year. He moves so well and defends so well with how long he is and his arms and his reach," Chiarot said. "Having him back, and especially being my partner, it makes things a bit easier for me."

Chiarot believes his team is finally ready to take the step they’ve been talking about for a few years when it comes to better defensive play. He pointed to the game against Minnesota, when the Jets entered the third period tied 3-3 and only surrendered four shots on their way to victory.

"I think as our younger guys get older, you get a better understanding the game is more than just run-and-gun and trying to score the whole time. When you’re up a or two, you don’t need to. It’s better to put a puck deep," he said. "You see those good teams do that. You shut it down and play a tight defensive game. And I think we’re learning to do that." https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hendricks-lowry-kulikov-could-be-back-in-jets-lineup- against-pens-thursday-452593363.html

Hendricks, Lowry, Kulikov could be back in Jets lineup against Pens Thursday

By: Mike McIntyre

Some roster decisions are looming for the Winnipeg Jets.

Matt Hendricks, working his way back from a pre-season injury suffered while blocking a shot, looks to be ready to return in time for Thursday’s game in Pittsburgh.

"To be out there battling with these guys is the most exciting thing," he said following Monday’s practice. "I’m close. I’m feeling good. I’m feeling comfortable and confident on my foot now. In the back of my head there’s not an issue. So if I had to get in front of a shot again I’d do it."

Coach Paul Maurice said he won’t hesitate to insert the veteran centre into the lineup immediately.

"What he has, we don’t have a lot of. Now he’s going to have to fight like every other player to stay in the lineup every single night. But if he’s healthy I’m going to find a way to get him in," Maurice said.

And that spells trouble for at least one player currently on the roster. Once Hendricks is activated off the injured reserve list, the Jets will have to send someone down to the Manitoba Moose to stay at the 23-player maximum.

Adam Lowry is also nearing a return from the IR, meaning two moves may be necessary. The centre has missed the past three games but skated Monday on his own. Maurice said he may join Tuesday's full practice.

Defenceman Dmitry Kulikov is also expected back from injury as early as Thursday, although he wasn’t placed on IR, so that wouldn’t impact the numbers.

Once Hendricks, Lowry and Kulikov are all back, the Jets will be carrying two goalies, eight defencemen and 15 forwards. Mathieu Perreault, expected to miss at least three more weeks, would be the only remaining player on the injured list.

It may be early, but the Central Division is already shaping up to be a major force this season.

A quick glimpse at the NHL standings shows all seven teams are currently at or above .500. No other division can make that claim.

St. Louis, who many expected to take a step back due to injuries, is off to an impressive 6-2-1 start. Chicago is right behind them, showing no signs of slowing down at 5-2-2. A revamped Dallas has come out strong at 5-3-0, while Stanley Cup finalist Nashville is at 4-3-1. Colorado seems to have put last year’s nightmare season behind them and are 4-4-0, while Minnesota has started 2-2-2.

"We would expect that, straight through. No easy nights," Maurice said Monday.

The expected tough battle makes divisional games so important. Winnipeg has played just one so far, the 4-3 win last Friday against Minnesota.

Last year the Jets were an impressive 19-8-2 in their own division and still missed the playoffs by seven points.

"We’ve played well there, for whatever that’s worth. Last year is last year, but we have some comfort against these teams," said Maurice. "It’s going to be a grinder."

At least two NHL teams are in need of immediate goaltending help. And you wonder if Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff might be fielding calls these days about Michael Hutchinson.

The Vegas Golden Knights are now without their top two netminders in Marc-Andre Fleury and Malcolm Subban due to injury. And the Pittsburgh Penguins just put back-up Antti Niemi on waivers Monday after his terrible start to the season, including a 7.50 goals-against average and .797 save percentage.

Hutchinson lost his NHL job once the Jets signed Steve Mason to partner with Connor Hellebuyck. He’s currently splitting duties on the Moose with Eric Comrie and is off to a nice start, sporting a 2-1 record with a 2.70 GAA and .918 SV%.

The Jets would love to get Comrie more starts with the Moose, and they also have prospect Jamie Phillips waiting in the wings for a promotion from the ECHL, where he was an all-star last year.

Winnipeg risked losing Hutchinson for nothing when they placed him on waivers near the end of training camp. You’d have to think Cheveldayoff would jump at the chance to get something — even a draft pick or prospect — if it made sense.

Speaking of Vegas, they’ve opened many eyes around the league with a 6-1-0 start to their inaugural season.

But Maurice said Monday he’s not surprised that coach Gerard Gallant is getting the most out of his troops.

"There’s more to that than just hard work. They have a pretty good structure of a group in terms of having the roles filled for what they need. And they’re quick," he said. "I’ve watched them play a few games. They’ve earned their wins."

Winnipeg Sun http://winnipegsun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/winnipeg-jets/veteran-hendricks-close-to-joining-jets- lineup

Veteran Hendricks close to joining Jets lineup

By Ted Wyman

“Yeah, I want him in the lineup. What he has, we don’t have a lot of. He’s going to have to fight like every other player to stay in the lineup every single night but if he’s healthy I’m going to find a way to get him in,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice.

Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice believes veteran centre Matt Hendricks has a lot to offer and plans to give him a chance to show it soon.

Maurice said Hendricks could be in the lineup on Thursday night when the Jets visit the Pittsburgh Penguins. The 36-year Hendricks was signed as a free agent by the Jets after spending the last four years with the .

“Yeah, I want him in the lineup,” Maurice said. “What he has, we don’t have a lot of. He’s going to have to fight like every other player to stay in the lineup every single night but if he’s healthy I’m going to find a way to get him in.”

Hendricks could slot in as the Jets fourth-line centre, where his ability to win big faceoffs and kill penalties will be valuable. He won 56.9% of his faceoffs last year and has four career short- handed goals.

Hendricks was injured in the pre-season and has been on injured reserve for the first seven games of the season.

“Getting injured in camp … that was frustrating,” Hendricks said. “I came in and I felt good, I felt comfortable right away with the guys. They were very welcoming to me early. I had a good camp going.

“To have that happen at the beginning of the season, when you put in all that work in the off- season, to come in in shape and be ready to go and have a good start, it’s tough. I’ve got to put that behind me in the rear view and start focusing on what lies ahead.”

Hendricks has 49 goals and 100 points in 521 NHL games. What Maurice likes about him is he does the little things right and has made a career out of that. He can also be an example to younger players.

“Those guys become drivers and they set the tone and they become a part of the culture of your team,” Maurice said. “If they spend enough time with your young players, your young players make that who they are and they don’t have to be pushed every day to do it. It makes my job a whole lot easier.”

Hendricks has had a chance to evaluate the Jets from above while out of the lineup and he believes the team has taken a step forward from last season. Everyone’s a little older, a little more mature and playing with a little more poise.

“This is a highly offensive team, a very talented team, a young team, a growing team,” he said. “We need to continue to work on our details, our defensive details. That’s where we find ourselves, if we end up getting down by a goal or two, we try to step on the gas and get outside of our game plan.”

CONNOR’S STRONG START Kyle Connor has a goal and a beautiful assist in his first two games of the season with the Jets after starting the year with the Manitoba Moose.

The second-year pro, who was called up to replace the injured Mathieu Perreault, scored in his first game, against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and set up Blake Wheeler’s winning goal on Friday against Minnesota.

“I liked his games,” Maurice said. “I’m going to judge it from the 30-minute mark of his first game when he changed lines. He’s got such good speed. He’s not a guy that you have to show a lot of video to in terms of positioning. Most of the year of improvement for him is in the fact of what happens when he gets there. He’s a pretty smart player.”

Connor started out on a line with Bryan Little and Patrik Laine, but changed spots with left- winger Nikolaj Ehlers and moved onto a line with Mark Scheifele and Wheeler midway through his first game.

Getting a couple points right off the bat can only be a good thing, the Jets captain said.

“He’s got a little bit of confidence and I think it helped popping in a goal in that first game back up,” Wheeler said. “He’s a guy that’s used to being an offensive player and sometimes you need that early on to get the juices flowing a little bit and feel good about yourself.

“He’s just feeling a little bit better about himself and playing with a little bit of confidence. In this league, you can’t be out there without confidence. It doesn’t matter if you are a rookie or a 10- year vet. If you’re not feeling good about yourself, it makes it pretty tough.”

WINNING IN VEGAS Maurice is impressed with what the expansion Vegas Golden Knights have been able to do so far, rocketing out to a 6-1 record to start the season.

“There’s more to that than just hard work,” he said. “They’ve got a pretty good structure of a group, in terms of having the roles filled for what they need. They’re quick. They work for their wins. They’ve had a couple of nights of really good goaltending.

“I don’t necessarily see this as an aberration. (Coach) Gerard (Gallant) does a real good job, they’re structured really well. I’ve watched them play a few games and they’ve earned their wins.”

600-WIN CLUB Maurice became the 17th coach in NHL history to record 600 wins on Friday night but he’s not much in the mood for making a big deal about it.

“I don’t think anybody on my side of the family contacted me,” he said. “We have a few friends on my wife’s side, but that’s about it. The puck is sitting somewhere on a desk. It’s nice.”

It should be pointed out that with 572 losses, Maurice is third all-time and will soon be first. He is just one behind Scotty Bowman and five behind Al Arbour.

Perhaps that tempers his excitement about winning a lot of games.

Maurice was asked about the group of coaches ahead of him on the wins list, which includes Bowman, Joel Quenneville, Ken Hitchcock, Arbour and Mike Babcock, and how thinks he fits in with them.

“They’re all older than I am,” the 50-year-old said.

Does he consider himself a part of that group?

“Not yet. You’re in a group of a lot of games. And then there’s the group of guys who have won Stanley Cups. That’s the only group worth being in.”

INJURY WATCH Centre Adam Lowry skated on his own Monday as he recovers from a lower body injury. Though Maurice previously indicated Lowry should be back for games this week, he sounded more like the Jets are taking it slow.

“It went reasonably well so we’ll see how he gets to it tomorrow,” Maurice said.

Defenceman Tyler Myers was absent from practice but he is not injured.

“He had a scheduled appointment with his son today and my understanding is all is good,” Maurice said. http://winnipegsun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/winnipeg-jets/hellebuyck-deserves-credit-for-off- season-improvement

Hellebuyck ‘deserves credit’ for off-season improvement

By Ted Wyman

Connor Hellebuyck has looked confident, poised and consistent through his first four starts for the Winnipeg Jets this season, which is something you couldn’t often say in his first full year with the team.

The 24-year-old was all over the map last year, at times looking like a No. 1 goalie of the future, at others looking like the pressure and barrage of pucks were getting to him.

He won 26 games and had four shutouts, but also got yanked eight times, en route to a pedestrian 2.89 goals against average and .907 save percentage.

Hellebuyck recognized his need for improvement, put himself through a rigorous off-season training regimen, bettered himself physically and has rediscovered the confidence and playing ability that made him a hot prospect for the Jets.

He is 4-0 this season, with a 2.32 goals against average and a .927 save percentage. It’s a small sample size, but it’s fair so say he couldn’t be off to a much better start.

“He deserves the credit for this,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said Monday after practice at Bell MTS Iceplex. “He did what he needed to do in the summer. He made changes in how he trained and sought out the proper work environment for him and improved his game.”

It’s not that Hellebuyck thinks he had a particularly bad season last year. He just knew he could be better.

“I won more than I lost,” he said. “You can take good out of it. Obviously that’s not the level that I like to hold myself at though, so I went and improved my game and made sure there was no weak points.

“I had a really good off-season. I brought nutrition into play and, not that I was doing those things badly, but I made it top-notch now. It was clear to me that I needed to change somewhere and get something back.”

That something is confidence.

Hellebuyck often said last season that his confidence was high, even when things were going wrong, but now admits it was a constant elevator ride.

“There were times it was high but there were times it got knocked down and it was just a constant battle going up and down with it,” Hellebuyck said.

“I think now I have it where it’s not going anywhere. Even if the worst thing happens, it’s still not going anywhere. I like my game, I like where it’s at and I’m going to continue to improve it.”

The Jets signed veteran goaltender Steve Mason to a two-year contract that pays him $4.1 million a year on July 1. The notion was he’d be the No. 1 goaltender and a mentor to Hellebuyck.

However, things have not gone at all as planned in that area. Mason is 0-3, with a 5.96 goals against average and .846 save percentage, while Hellebuyck has been in net for all four of the Jets’ wins.

Instantly, the goaltender who was maligned by fans for his performance last season is Mr. Popularity and many are urging Maurice to run with the hot hand as long as possible. It would be a surprise if Hellebuyck is not back in net when the Jets take on the Penguins on Thursday night in Pittsburgh.

“Right from training camp you could tell he worked this summer,” Maurice said. “He went and he put the time in that he needed to, at his age and where he is at, to get physically stronger.

“That’s the biggest thing. The mental game, it’s all subjective from a coach or anybody from the outside, what a player is thinking. Physically, he’s stronger, and because of that, to me, he’s square to the puck, he can hold his position longer, he’s more powerful going across the net and under control when he does it. He just looks like a stronger man in the net.”

Jets captain Blake Wheeler said it hasn’t hurt that the Jets have played their best hockey in front of Hellebuyck this season.

“Goalies are no different from other players … if a goalie is shell-shocked and seeing two-on- ones and breakaways all game, it can be tough for him,” Wheeler said. “We’ve tried to do a little better job in front of him and that has helped his confidence a bit.

“He’s patient and he’s seeing the puck better. You can tell he feels good in there. He’s making some nice saves. He seems poised in there right now.” http://winnipegsun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/winnipeg-jets/mason-had-no-expectations-coming-in- with-jets

Mason had no expectations coming in with Jets

By Ted Wyman

This is not the way Steve Mason envisioned it.

The veteran signed with the Winnipeg Jets in the offseason to bring stability between the pipes and serve as a mentor to young goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.

So far, Mason has been bombarded in his three starts and has lost all three, while Hellebuyck is a sparkling 4-0.

Naming a No. 1 goaltender on this team is already a gray area.

“There was no expectation when I signed here other than I had to come in and work hard and that’s what I’ll continue to do,” Mason said Monday. “Helle is playing well right now. He just looks confident out there. He’s making the saves that he has to make.”

Jets captain Blake Wheeler said it doesn’t matter which goaltender gets the job done as long as they keep pushing one another to do so. He said it’s good for Hellebuyck to be able to look down to the other crease and see a player who has been around as long as Mason, working hard every day.

“I think it pushes him to try to match that level,” Wheeler said. “It’s a great situation when the two guys are pushing each other every day. It makes for a great competition and is just going to make that position even stronger.”

As for Mason, an old cliché applies: It’s a long season.

“I’ve played three games,” he said. “They haven’t gone well, but I will continue to work hard and it will get better.”

Global Winnipeg https://globalnews.ca/news/3820559/winnipeg-jets-forward-matt-hendricks-hopes-to-play-on- thursday/

Winnipeg Jets forward Matt Hendricks hopes to play on Thursday

By Russ Hobson Sports Anchor/Reporter

WINNIPEG – Forward Matt Hendricks could be in the lineup for the Winnipeg Jets when they start off a brief two game road trip later this week.

Hendricks, 36, has yet to appear in a regular season game for the Jets after he injured his foot in the pre-season.

“I’m close, I’m feeling good,” Hendricks said on Monday after practice. “I’m feeling comfortable, I’m confident on my foot now. In the back of my head there’s not an issue, so if I had to get in front of a shot again, I’d do it.”

“I want him in the lineup,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “What he has, we don’t have a lot of.”

“He has a career of doing all the little things hard and right. We have such a young group here, that from the coaches of view, there’s a value above and beyond the statistics of what will happen on the ice for this group.”

Hendricks would have liked to be in the lineup already, but with the Jets having five days between games the timing was perfect to get his conditioning back up to where it needs to be.

“I was pushing to get back a little bit earlier,” said Hendricks. “But with the way the schedule worked out, it was probably smarter to wait here and have a few days now to continue to get in shape, and to get a little bit better with my timing.”

After sitting out all of their first seven games of the season Hendricks is hoping to make his Jets regular season debut on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“He’s going to have to fight like every other player to stay in the lineup every single night,” Maurice said. “But if he’s healthy, I’m going to find a way to get him in.”

“To be out there battling with these guys is the most exciting thing for me,” Hendricks said. “Get back out there and start playing, start grinding.”

The Athletic Winnipeg https://theathletic.com/135469/2017/10/23/which-jets-depth-forwards-deserve-a-larger-or- smaller-role/

Which Jets depth forwards deserve a larger, or smaller, role?

By Murat Ates

In Part 1 of this series, we dove into the difference between the Winnipeg Jets' top six vs. depth forwards and arrived at this:

Paul Maurice has kicked off the 2017-18 season by renewing his commitment to these distinct usage differences. Heading into Winnipeg’s five day break, the results have not been good:

After seven games, Winnipeg ranks 28th in the league in 5-on-5 shot attempt percentage.

Zooming in a little, Mathieu Perreault, Patrik Laine, Bryan Little, and Nikolaj Ehlers are the only Jets forwards above 50 percent shot attempts so far this season (Kyle Connor, after two games, is at 50 percent on the nose). If you skip past Adam Lowry’s injured 47.9 percent, the highest shot attempt percentage among healthy/regular bottom six forwards belongs to Brandon Tanev, at 43.8 percent. This is not good.

If you decide to ignore these numbers altogether and go strictly by what your eyes are telling you, you’ll probably come to the same conclusion. Winnipeg has played most of the 2017-18 season in its own end and hasn’t looked good doing so. Bad giveaways, bad clearances, and goaltending that hasn’t often been able to make up for it.

Suffice to say, Jets fans are beginning to feel a great deal of anxiety.

With all of that just-in-time-for-Halloween horror out of the way, today’s piece is a search for silver linings.

It is way too early for a 4-3 team to be #fallinfordahlin – especially one which missed last season’s playoffs by just seven points despite being addled by many of the same obvious (and therefore addressable) problems it faces today.

With that in mind, today’s questions are about what has historically gone well for Winnipeg’s forwards, especially those outside of its top two lines. Are there players on this team who can help?

In what contexts have these players been successful?

And what about Billy F’s questions I quoted at the end of Part 1 – which of Maurice’s “role players” are good enough at their roles to make up for the lack of 5-on-5 offense?

I hope you have a good cup of coffee with you.

Even Strength: Inspired in part by a question on TSN 1290’s Afternoon Ride, I decided to better compare Winnipeg’s forwards to the rest of the league.

I wanted to be able to do things like compare Blake Wheeler’s shot attempts or Lowry’s high danger scoring chance percentage to other NHL forwards – IE, we know Wheeler is good, but is he good for a first line forward? We know Maurice depends on Lowry, but is Lowry good for a third line player?

It would be really easy and wonderfully clean, math-wise, if each team employed 12 and only 12 forwards for all of last season. That is obviously not how things work so, to choose a data set, I took all 434 forwards who played at least 200 5-on-5 minutes in 2016-17 and looked at three stats:

5-on-5 Points-per-60 minutes 5-on-5 Shot attempt % 5-on-5 High Danger Scoring Chance %

For each stat, I sorted all 434 forwards into first, second, third, and fourth quartiles in an attempt to show what kinds of results can be expected from players on the first, second, third, and fourth lines.

With me so far? Let’s have a look at Winnipeg’s results.

2016-17 5-on-5 Scoring: All six of Winnipeg’s best forwards produced even strength offence like you’d want from a first line. This is a terrific result – the kind you’d expect a very potent offense to be built from – and, as a whole, the Jets scored the 11th most 5-on-5 goals.

Aside from the big six, the Jets got impressive results from Marko Dano whose 1.55 5-on-5 pts/60 was the rough equivalent of a lower tier second liner. Andrew Copp and Shawn Matthias look good for third liners, while Joel Armia, Lowry, and new acquisition Matt Hendricks rank in the back half of third line production.

Kyle Connor and Hendricks show poorly based on expectations, while Tanev looks absolutely miserable – his 0.53 5-on-5 pts/60 gives him old school grit players like Jared Boll and Jordin Tootoo for company.

Strictly speaking, Winnipeg was a good offensive team at 5-on-5. This is something to be happy about, with Dano, Copp, and Matthias looking better than I expected them to.

2016-17 5-on-5 Shot Attempts: Notice how the SAT% range is bigger at the high and low ends. Also note how the 50 percent mark is very close to, but not exactly the same as the bottom edge of the second line.

With that out of the way, this chart looks a little bit more like you might expect. Wheeler is a puck-possession force. Perreault is also very good and the rest of Winnipeg’s top six (with the exception of Laine, the rookie) is perfectly within range.

Compared to his low point production, Nic Petan jumps up the shot attempt list. To me, this suggests bad finishing or bad luck – I’ll let you decide – by Petan and his linemates.

Matthias, Copp, Lowry, and Dano are all quite fine for third line equivalent SAT%, while Laine’s numbers are the mirror image of Petan – by this I mean his great finishing (or was it great luck?) outperforms his lower-than-expected shot attempt rates.

Armia looks like a decent fourth liner by this metric, Hendricks wasn’t impressive at 5-on-5 in Edmonton, and Connor disappoints for a second time. Call it youth or call it linemates – one again, this is up to you – while I move on to Tanev, once again ranked last.

2016-17 5-on-5 High Danger Scoring Chance %: With the exceptions of Tanev-the-disappointing and Connor-the-fish-out-of-water, the majority of Winnipeg’s roster ranked disproportionately highly when it came to High Danger Scoring Chance %. To me, this could be for either one of two reasons:

Flaws in the stat Coaching effects

To guess at No. 1, I did a quick correlation between Shot Attempt % and High Danger Scoring Chance %. The result? 0.69 – reasonable, in my opinion. Then, to double-check, I compared the HDSC% and SAT% for each team to their number of wins. HDSC% predicted last season’s win totals better than SAT% did – 0.55 to 0.42 in terms of correlations.

My conclusion? It strikes me as entirely possible that the Jets were very good at 5-on-5 by design.

I am saying this explicitly because, unless this can be ruled out, Maurice deserves credit. The 11th best 5-on-5 offence last season was built on the 21st best SAT% and, via Natural Stat Trick, the 11th best HDSC%.

To be clear: even if Winnipeg’s success at generating High Danger Scoring Chances is real and even if Maurice is the reason for it, his artificial divide between top six and bottom six players is not necessarily supported by this data. For example, Dano and Copp – Maurice’s 12th and 14th ranked players in terms of even strength ice time per game – are exceptional in terms of HDSC%.

5-on-5 Summary: What should we make of all of this, then? Should Tanev’s role be reduced? Can we vindicate Maurice’s faith in Lowry and Matthias? And is success as simple as elevating Dano and Copp, whose points per hour, HDSC% and SAT% are all disproportionately higher than the bottom-of- the-roster ice time they received?

This is where common sense and the eye test come in. I’ll summarize my own thoughts on all nine of Winnipeg’s depth forwards at the end of this article, but what do your eyes tell you?

Do they believe in Copp and Dano? Do they think Lowry and Matthias are adequate third liners?

Mine do, at least for the moment, but let’s move on to special teams.

Hold on a minute. Who draws penalties?

Here you have Winnipeg’s forwards sorted by their minor +/-. Three thoughts:

This isn’t sorted by game state but I assume most of these penalties were drawn and taken at 5- on-5. That’s why we’re looking at it in this section.

If you accept that NHL teams score roughly one goal for every five power-play opportunities, Ehlers earned the Jets almost four goals. Mark Scheifele, Tanev, and Perrault earned them roughly two goals each, and Armia probably earned them a goal as well.

Tyler Dellow has shown that +/- three goal differential corresponds to approximately one point in the standings. Hence, if you’re into this stuff, you might thank Ehlers for just over a point and Scheifele/Tanev/Perreault roughly two-thirds of a point each. This isn’t mind blowing, but it isn’t insignificant either.

A fourth, bonus thought: Winnipeg’s penalty problems have been the stuff of much conversation as well as this excellent piece, by Dellow. A look at the chart I’ve included will tell you (probably confirming what you’ve seen with your eyes) that the defense is mostly to blame.

Coffee still warm? Onto the PK: To compare Winnipeg’s penalty killers to the rest of the league, I took a similar approach to the 5-on-5 work above. This time, I looked at all 190 NHL forwards who played at least 50 minutes on the penalty kill last season – six and a third players per team.

To measure penalty killing effectiveness, I looked solely at two stats:

Goals against, expressed per 60 minutes, while each player was on the ice, and: Shot attempts against, expressed not as a percentage but as a raw total per 60 minutes of ice time.

Once again, I divided league-wide results into quartiles. Given most teams use six forwards on the PK, this doesn’t correspond perfectly to lines, but as an evaluation tool it still proves useful.

2016-17 Penalty Kill: Goals Against per 60 Minutes On-Ice: Well, no wonder the Jets ran the NHL’s 29th ranked penalty kill last season.

In this piece, Dellow suggested that “the tactics v. talent equation is tilted more heavily in favour of tactics on the penalty kill than in anything else in hockey.” In other words, when so many good players rank so disproportionately poorly, blame the coach.

Before we look at shot attempts, notice that the Jets top six forwards are among their worst penalty killers in terms of goals against. Early this season, Maurice has been using guys like Wheeler and Scheifele to kill penalties once again, citing the inability of his role players to get the job done. In a certain light, you can hardly blame him, but Maurice’s skill players aren’t helping here, either.

2016-17 Penalty Kill: Shot Attempts Against, per 60 Minutes On Ice: Oh boy. Once again, the entire team is ranked disproportionately toward the bottom. Another way of putting it: don’t blame the goaltenders.

This will warrant a deeper dive specifically into the tactics and positioning of the penalty kill but, for now, Copp (by shot attempts) and Matthias (by goals against) are the only Jets with a recent history of top-end PK success.

Unfortunately for Jets fans, this includes Hendricks whose grittiness, work ethic and previous usage on the PK convinced Winnipeg to sign him this summer.

Maybe the Power Play is Better?

To dig into the Jets’ power play, I used a similar method to my work on the PK. Looking only at the 259 forwards with at least 50 GP, I compared:

Points per 60 minutes of power play time, and: Shot attempts for, expressed not as a percentage but as a raw total per 60 minutes of ice time.

There is a subtle difference here that I want you to be aware of. With the PK, using On-Ice goals against faulted all four players for what went wrong while here, on the PP, using Points/60 credits 3/5 of the power play unit at most.

2016-17 Power Play Points / 60 Minutes On Ice: Winnipeg’s power play was the NHL’s 26th best last season.

On this chart, the Jets come off looking mediocre but not quite that bad. Little and Wheeler are in the top quartile as you might hope for; Perreault/Petan/Lowry/Scheifele all fit respectably into the second.

Ehlers and Laine didn’t score nearly as many power-play points as you might hope they would. Given that Laine’s power play shooting percentage was average, you might like to think of this as bad luck.

Let’s move on to shot attempts.

2016-17 Power Play Shot Attempts / 60 Minutes On Ice: As much as I loved his 5-on-5 and PK results, Dano probably isn’t the best choice for power play time out of Winnipeg’s bottom six. Instead, that honour goes to… Lowry? (Don’t worry – I see that Petan looks respectable here, too.)

That Lowry stands alone in the top quadrant for shot attempts strikes me as odd and probably warrants a deeper look into Winnipeg’s systems. Refresh my memory – was Lowry a primary shooting option on the second unit last season? I’d love to know what commenters think of this.

I don’t think it’s fair to say I’ve exorcised the Jets’ power play demons with these charts. I’ve completely ignored Winnipeg’s defencemen and we haven’t busted out even one X or O.

What do you think? Have we vindicated Maurice’s dedication to Adam Lowry’s power play TOI column? Or, given how few Jets players make it into the top quadrants for shot attempts and points per 60, is the whole system broken?

Conclusions: Who can help, how? Well.

That was a whole pile of charts, no? So who can help, and how? Here is a list, ignoring the big six and sorted by 2016-17 even strength ice time per game.

Joel Armia: 5-on-5: Armia was a poor third liner by points / 60 and a good fourth liner by shot attempts. Curiously, like most Jets forwards, Armia looked more impressive by high danger scoring chance %. I think the fourth line is a fine place for him to succeed at even strength. As an added bonus, he drew five more minor penalties than he took, likely winning the Jets an extra goal over the course of the season.

PK: Armia was the second best of a bad bunch, both when it came to goals against and shot attempts against per 60 minutes ice time. Obviously, the whole team needs to be better but relative to that team, Armia provides value here. Finally, I can’t finish this section without mentioning Armia’s four shorthanded goals. He already has one this season – may they keep coming.

PP: Armia fares poorly here by points and by shot attempts. Winnipeg has better options.

Adam Lowry 5-on-5: A third liner by points and by shot attempts, Lowry improves to the second quartile in terms of high danger scoring chance %. He looks like a good third liner from where I sit.

PK: Middle of the Jets pack, poor by league standards at goals against and shot attempts against. Worthy of continued use but the problems persist. Are they systemic? I vote yes.

PP: Fifth among Jets forwards by points per 60, first by shot attempts per 60. What’s going on here? I’d love to know your thoughts. For now, I’m more than happy to think he is worthy of the Jets second unit.

Shawn Matthias 5-on-5: A good third liner by all three of points, shot attempts, and high danger scoring chances.

PK: The best of a bad bunch when it comes to on-ice goals against and middle of the pack in terms of shot attempts, I think Matthias is a valuable member of Winnipeg’s troubled penalty kill.

PP: A non-factor.

Kyle Connor 5-on-5: Kyle Connor was a fourth liner by all three metrics I looked at for 2016-17. Obviously Connor will be more than that going forward and, so far this season, he is rocking a (beautiful, unsustainable) point per game at 5-on-5.

PK: A non-factor. I have no problem if this never changes.

PP: A non-factor. You might reasonably expect 2017-18 to tell a different story here when all is said and done.

Andrew Copp 5-on-5: Andrew Copp comes off looking like an excellent third liner at 5-on-5 in terms of points and shot attempts, and somehow managed to dominate high danger scoring chances. Could be a little bit of luck involved re: how his HDSC% came to be so high but Copp looks well worth a more thorough look from here.

PK: Fourth best of a bad bunch by goals against, best of the lot by shot attempts against. Whatever ails the Jets PK, it isn’t Copp.

PP: Copp is a non-factor on the Jets power play. Should he get a shot? (No. There are too many better options, including Petan and Connor, ahead of him.)

Marko Dano 5-on-5: Marko Dano is the second candidate on this list for an increased role. A poor second liner by points, an average third liner by shot attempts, and a bewitchingly dominant 56.78 HDSC% – I like everything I see here from Dano.

PK: A non-factor.

PP: Dano was the worst of the Jets forwards in terms of points as well as shot attempts last season. I don’t see a case for an increase in his role with the man advantage.

Matt Hendricks 5-on-5: Hendricks did not play major minutes for Edmonton last season. When he did, he was a poor third liner and good fourth liner in all of points, shot attempts, and high danger scoring chances. I came into this study assuming he was a spent force at even strength – Hendricks may yet have a story to tell this season.

PK: This is why he was signed, isn’t it? It’s dubious to do this but if you’re willing to take Hendricks’ goals against and shot attempts against and just move them over to the Jets from last season, he’d have been their third best forward on the PK. The Oilers as a whole? Their PK was almost as bad as Winnipeg’s, ranked two spots ahead at 27th.

PP: A non-factor.

Brandon Tanev 5-on-5: I do not like Tanev by any of points, shot attempts, or high danger scoring chances. He was a mediocre fourth liner by all three metrics. The only point in Tanev’s favour was his excellent minor penalty differential – the 10 extra power plays he created for Winnipeg would have earned them roughly two goals over the course of the season. That’s almost a standings point, but is it enough?

PK: Second worst by goals against and second worst by shot attempts against. In my mind I tend to assume players who draw penalties are good at killing them but this is not the case for Tanev.

PP: No.

Nic Petan 5-on-5: Petan was probably the Jets’ most curious player at 5-on-5. I read on Twitter that he made skilled players better and gritty players worse – could there be something to that? In any case, Petan’s fourth line results in points/60 came on the back of shot attempts more common for a third line player. As a team, Winnipeg really does seem to have won the HDSC% battle and Petan is no different – his 51.75 percent placed him in the second quartile among NHL forwards. All in all, I have time for Petan playing with better linemates this season than last.

PK: A non-factor.

PP: Second quartile by points / 60 minutes, third quartile by shot attempts, Petan is well worthy of a second unit power play role.

Another person who can help Winnipeg get better in all three game states is the youngest person to coach 1,000 games in NHL history.

TSN 1290 (AUDIO LINKS) http://www.tsn.ca/radio/winnipeg-1290/matthias-good-to-have-a-few-days-to-recharge-1.893632

Matthias: Good to have a few days to recharge

Winnipeg Jets forward Shawn Matthias joins the Afternoon Ride in the middle of the team’s 5- day break between games. Matthias discusses the advantages of having an amount of time to practice after 7 games played, and the challenges in switching from wing to centre as required. http://www.tsn.ca/radio/winnipeg-1290/wiebe-puck-management-has-been-a-concern-for-the- jets-1.893505

Wiebe: Puck management has been a concern for the Jets

Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun joins Kevin Olszewski and discusses the Jets win on Friday night vs. Minnesota, and what the lineup may look like for the upcoming road trip to Pittsburgh and Columbus. www.winnipegjets.com https://www.nhl.com/jets/news/rested-jets-focus-on-pace-before-returning-to-action-thursday/c- 292201106

Rested Jets focus on pace before returning to action Thursday Lowry skates before practice, Hendricks nears return by Jamie Thomas @JamieThomasTV / WinnipegJets.com

WINNIPEG - After a day off, the Winnipeg Jets got right back to it on Monday with a high tempo practice ahead of their next game which is still three days away.

"I thought it was a great idea after the day off," said forward Nic Petan. "It's always nice to rest the body, but it's nice that we pushed the pace today."

"It's good we were able to get a block of days like this and skate after a game and then take a day off," said head coach Paul Maurice. "You actually get more rest this way."

Adam Lowry and Tyler Myers did not take part in practice at Bell MTS Iceplex. Myers was at an appointment, and Lowry took to the ice before the rest of his teammates started practicing.

"(Lowry) skated this morning and it went reasonably well," added Maurice. "We'll see how he gets to it tomorrow."

So the line rushes looked like this without Lowry and Myers.

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler Ehlers-Little-Laine Tanev-Copp-Armia Lemieux-Matthias-Petan

Morrisey-Trouba Enstrom-Byfuglien Kulikov-Poolman Chiarot

Marko Dano and Matt Hendricks were the extra forwards and were mixed in throughout practice. Hendricks is eager to get in for his first regular season game with his new team, and even though the schedule is allowing him to heal, his patience is running out.

"I was pushing (to get back into the lineup) a little bit earlier," said Hendricks. "But the way the schedule worked out it was probably smarter to have a few days here and continue to get in shape, and to get a little bit better with my timing.

"You want to get out and start playing games," added Hendricks. "You don't want to just sit here and keep grinding. You want to get back out there and start playing and helping the guys."

Maurice was asked if he wants the 36 year old in the lineup Thursday in Pittsburgh.

"What he has, we don't have a lot of," said Maurice. "He's going to have to fight like every other player to stay in the lineup every single night, but if he's healthy I'm going to find a way to get him in."

The Jets will practice again on Tuesday at Bell MTS Iceplex. https://www.nhl.com/jets/video/practice--paul-maurice/t-277437442/c-53786603

PRACTICE | Paul Maurice

Jets Head Coach Paul Maurice talks about having three straight days of practice before heading to Pittsburgh on Wednesday