Winnipeg Jets Jets fall to Sens, 3-1 By: Judy Owen, The Canadian Press Posted: 12:25 PM Last Modified: 9:53 PM Rookie goaltender Andrew Hammond made 35 saves and Kyle Turris had a goal and assist as the Ottawa Senators upset the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 on Wednesday. Bobby Ryan and Erik Condra also found the back of the net for Ottawa (28-23-11), which was coming off a 3-2 shootout loss the night before in Minnesota. The Senators are now 6-0-1 in their last seven games and battling for a playoff spot. Their 67 points puts them four points out of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Michael Frolik was the only Winnipeg player to beat Hammond early in the third period after the Sens had mounted a 3-0 lead. Hammond, who is 6-0-1 since his first start Feb. 18, was starting his seventh straight game because Craig Anderson is still nursing a hand injury. Michael Hutchinson got the nod for his fifth straight start for Winnipeg (32-21-12), but was replaced by Ondrej Pavelec with 8:06 left in the second period after Condra's goal made it 3-0 for the Sens. Hutchinson had stopped 14 of the 17 shots he faced. Pavelec only had to stop three shots in relief. Winnipeg defenceman Dustin Byfuglien also left the ice after Condra's goal and didn't return because of what the team called an upper-body injury. He appeared to be favouring his right arm during Condra's scoring play. The loss ended a four-game homestand for the Jets (2-1-1). Turris scored the only goal of the first period, his 16th goal of the season, with a sharp-angle, high shot that beat Hutchinson at 4:59. Hammond, 27, made 15 saves in the opening frame, including a stellar one after he quickly moved back into position and stretched out his right pad to deny an Andrew Ladd shot. Ottawa, which had five shots on goal in the opening period, went up 3-0 when Ryan and Condra scored within a three-minute span midway through the second. Ryan's 17th of the season was scored on the power play at 9:07 of the second with Jets defenceman Jacob Trouba in the penalty box for slashing. Condra made it 3-0 at 11:54 with another one-timer that sent Hutchinson to the bench. Frolik solved Hammond when defenceman Tyler Myers made a backhand pass across the front of the net to Frolik for his 14th of the season at 5:46 of the third. Newly acquired forward Lee Stempniak picked up an assist in his Jets debut. Ottawa begins a three-game homestand Friday against Buffalo. Winnipeg heads out for a four-game road trip, starting Saturday in Nashville. Winnipeg Free Press LOADED 03.05.2015
746457 Winnipeg Jets Jets prospects get top grade from Hockey News By: Tim Campbell Posted: 3:00 AM: THE Winnipeg Jets have received another strong endorsement this week for the young talent pool they're assembling. The Hockey News published its annual Future Watch issue Tuesday and gave the Jets a grade of A for their prospect list and NHLers 21 and under, the highest grade it awarded among the NHL's 30 teams for 2015. The Jets' grade was given for NHL regulars Jacob Trouba, Mark Scheifele and Adam Lowry, and six players who landed in THN's list of top 75 prospects overall -- Nikolaj Ehlers, Josh Morrissey, Joel Armia, Nic Petan, Connor Hellebuyck and Brendan Lemieux. "As an organization, we're proud of the group of prospects that we've been able to assemble over the last few years," Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said Tuesday. "Our scouting staffs have worked very hard and put in countless hours to get us to the point that we are now. We're honoured to be recognized like this by The Hockey News." Having six players in the top 75 prospects isn't common. "It's very unusual," said Future Watch and Hockey News senior editor Brian Costello. "In the last 20 years, I think I've seen it five or six times. And it actually happened twice this year. Detroit has six guys in the top 75 but they didn't have any 21-and-under NHLers and the Jets had three, so that was the difference." After the world junior, Costello and his staff contact all 30 NHL teams for a top-10 list of prospects. With a master list of 300, they send it back to one representative from each team, a GM, scout or player-personnel director, requesting letter grades, and also grades for each team's 21-and-under NHL players. High and low marks are factored out. Interest in the issue has been high in recent years, Costello said. "And feedback from scouts and teams is picking up," he said. "We used to rely on four or five scouts, now we have 13 (responses) this year and in some cases it's been 17 or 18 recently. It's pretty authoritative. We're not just a bunch of guys in Toronto saying, 'Oh, Buffalo looks good, let's put them at the top.' We're actually going to the guys who watch the players." The Feb. 11 trade that sent Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian and prospect goalie Jason Kasdorf to Buffalo for Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, Armia, Lemieux and a first-round pick this year likely clinched the Jets' place atop the Future Watch grades, given that scouts and GMs graded Armia and Lemieux in the overall top 75. Last year's Future Watch edition gave the Jets a grade of B, which ranked them eighth of 30 teams. The new list got some attention from the team Tuesday. "Everyone's excited about the way we've drafted and the way we're developing players," said Blake Wheeler. "You've seen the impact some of our guys have already had with Trouby (Trouba), with Scheifs (Scheifele) and Lows (Adam Lowry) coming in. That's going to be the way this franchise lasts through the long haul. And with some of the guys who have performed well on the big stages it creates some excitement around our organization." Jets coach Paul Maurice was also asked about recognition and quipped: "We can't even pick the weather tomorrow. I don't think there's a person in that room, including the coaches and management, that has a contract that runs that long. So... we've got to work real hard here now to hope that everyone's around for it." Scheifele, Trouba and Ehlers grace the issue's cover under the headline 'Meet your 2019 Stanley Cup Champions' with a subhead that says 'Yes, We Mean The Winnipeg Jets.' "It's a little far in the future and so you don't really want to pay too much attention to that," Scheifele said Tuesday. "But I think it's just we have a lot of guys in our system and playing already. Obviously it's a good thing looking forward to see the guys that are coming up and the guys that are developing in the system. "It's just more of a compliment. You can't really look too far into that. It's a cool thing to see and it just makes you work a little harder and more excited as well." Costello said the cover was designed for reaction. "We're always looking for something provocative for our cover and with so many good, young players already in Winnipeg's system plus a deep list of prospects, maybe about four years from now might be their time," he said. "So we took a couple of their good players already (Trouba, Scheifele) and added their top prospect (Ehlers) and went with that. We're trying to sell magazines, so we mentioned the Stanley Cup for 2019." Winnipeg Free Press LOADED 03.05.2015
746458 Winnipeg Jets Can Poolman be another Buff? By: Tim Campbell Posted: 3:00 AM Comments: 0 Last Modified: 6:45 AM GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- He's a big body who has impact. He scores. He moves like a gazelle. He prefers defence but has been employed extensively as a forward. Dustin Byfuglien? Yeah, him, too. Jets Scores Ottawa 3 Winnipeg 1 FINALBoxscore Powered by Sports Direct Inc. Tucker Poolman Age: 21 Measurements: 6'3", 210 pounds Position: D, LW Home: East Grand Forks, Minn. Team: University of North Dakota (NCHC) Drafted: 2013 by the Winnipeg Jets, 127th overall 2014-15 stats: 31 games, six goals, six assists, plus-seven. 2013-14 stats (USHL): 58 games, 15 goals, 26 assists, plus-20. Meet Tucker Poolman, the flexible freshman on the men's hockey team at the University of North Dakota. And he just happens to be a Jets draft pick, chosen out of the United States Hockey League as a defenceman in the fifth round of 2013. In so many ways, there's much that is familiar about his story. "Obviously I'm a defenceman but I'm happy to play forward, whatever they ask," Poolman said between a pair of home victories last weekend against the St. Cloud State University Huskies. In those games, he played a regular turn at left wing but saw duty at the point on UND's power play and even killed penalties as a defenceman in the second game. "I think I just try to keep it simple at all those different positions," Poolman said. "At the end of the day, it's just playing hockey for me. I've been doing it since I was four or whatever. Just trying to make smart, simple plays. "I just want to help the team win. I'm trying to have fun with it, too." Some believe there may be a future NHL player inside the 6-3, 210-pound native of East Grand Forks, Minn. Less imposing when he was younger, Poolman was on the bubble but didn't quite make it onto the Jets' top-10 prospects list, graded Tuesday by The Hockey News as the best in the NHL. "I think he is a bit of later-bloomer," said Jets assistant GM Craig Heisinger. "He grew late and his body is now catching up to the rest of his game. The big thing is that he skates well. This situation that he's in has allowed him to learn two positions in his freshman year and judging by the injury they had on the weekend (his centre, Mark McMillan, will have surgery today for a lower-body injury), he'll probably remain at forward for the foreseeable future. "At the end of the day, still feel we drafted a big, thick, puck-moving defenceman, with the ability to play forward." Poolman is a late bloomer by many standards, and certainly a late grower but at 21, he's already the biggest member, by both physical measurements, on the UND team. He has found the transition from the junior USHL to college hockey as you might expect. "It's definitely a little higher in speed and everything's more crisp, like the focus is higher, but mentally the speed's a little higher," Poolman said. "Last year I could have skated by a guy or bowled over a guy but... everyone's faster, strong, good sticks, good shots." Poolman said on the weekend he was a forward when he played high school hockey because he was small.
"Yeah, first year, second year, I was smaller back then," he said. "I seemed to get crushed on the forecheck so they threw me up front to help me out a little." Not a problem anymore, though he is again a forward, placed there for the last couple of months because UND has had injury issues. UND head coach Dave Hakstol, currently has the top-ranked team in men's NCAA hockey. His team is deep, experienced and excellent on the blue-line. Using Poolman up front led to a shuffling of lines and resulted in a balance that just a week ago former Winnipeg Jets, Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues coach Andy Murray, now at Western Michigan, said is nearly impossible to combat in terms of matchups. Poolman, with his big shot and hockey sense, still goes back to the point for power plays -- a la Buff -- and has scored five of his six goals this season with the man advantage. The matter of him staying as a forward for the time being has nothing to do with trust, or that he's a freshman, Hakstol said. "Absolutely not that," Hakstol said. "Probably more the other way -- we do trust him. It's 180 degrees from not trusting him. Our group is pretty good and he's one of that group. We're looking at how we can improve our team and he's done a heck of a job in providing that versatility." So how does the coach decide how to use Poolman? "Whatever the game happens to bring that night," Hakstol said. "We put him up front earlier in the year out of need. We had injuries. We have a pretty good group on the back end and for sure he fits into that group, and very well. But we thought maybe his skill set was one that could translate up front. "His first couple of nights he played on the right side and then we had a need on the left side and we thought there was a good chance he could do the job." Hakstol said there was nothing to read into the fact Poolman stayed in the USHL an extra year before going to college. "There's no rush," he said. "He's had to earn everything. He went to the North American league (NAHL) and had to fight to make a hockey team. He did that. Then the next year he went to Omaha and he was a real good player in the USHL. "He probably could have come in (here) last year but he chose to stay the extra year and he was the captain and the unquestioned leader in that locker-room and sometimes we overlook that part of a player's development and it was so important for him to really feel that in a lockerroom and to have that responsibility. That was a big part of his growth. "There's no negative to him. When he got here, he was absolutely ready to be here. That's why you're seeing him do the things he's able to do." Winnipeg Free Press LOADED 03.05.2015
746459 Winnipeg Jets Jets' future yet to be written By: Ed Tait Posted: 03/4/2015 10:38 PM They are on the latest cover of the Hockey News Meet Your 2019 Stanley Cup Champions, screamed the cheeky headline praising their prospect pool and were fresh from spanking the defending Stanley Cup champions. At the same time, GM Kevin Cheveldayoff was getting hugs from all over the planet for his wheeling and dealing in the month leading up to the NHL trade deadline and, as a result, the mood surrounding the Winnipeg Jets heading into Wednesday night s matchup with the Ottawa Senators was all rainbows, puppy dogs and lollipops. So it was Paul Maurice roughly seven hours before the Jets were beaten 3-1 by the Sens who unwittingly ended up perfectly describing what unfolded at the MTS Centre Wednesday night: "Momentum," he noted, "changes every time the puck is dropped." No, one loss at the end of a solid run at home doesn t mean it s time to bust out the black arm bands and throw up the white flags on the push for a playoff spot. And, given this team s recent ability to flush losses, regroup and move on, now is hardly the time to reach for the panic button. Still, Wednesday night was a not-so-subtle reminder of just how tenuous the Jets grip on a playoff spot is right now. And just how nutty this game is sometimes. Consider that the Jets not only lost their MVP Dustin Byfuglien in the second period with an upper-body injury, they were beaten by a 27- year-old rookie making his seventh start in Andrew the Hamburglar Hammond he s now 6-0-1, including consecutive shutouts in Anaheim and L.A. last week and saw their own netminder yanked in the second period, ending a 5-0-3 run for Michael Hutchinson. Hutchinson, like the rest of the Jets, vowed to flush this one and move on quickly. "You have a couple choice words when you come into the dressing room and then after that, probably two minutes later, I m fine and pretty much over it," explained Hutchinson. "You realize these things happen. We ran into a hot goalie... he made some unbelievable saves to keep their goalie in the game and when their team had chances they were able to find the back of the net. You ve got to tip your hat to their goalie and move on." That s one of the simple, but important takeaways for the Jets in a game like this: the sport can be cruel and unfair sometimes. Yes, sometimes a career AHL netminder blindly flashes a pad to make one save, backs it up by taking another off the forehead and then watches helplessly as Jiri Tlusty whiffs on a yawning cage from just outside the blue paint. But if Maurice s team and the rabid fan base that religiously follows every shift needed any reminders to put loss No. 21 of the season into perspective, it came after the game when they gathered at centre ice for a group photo with members of the armed forces on Military Appreciation Night. "It s a great reality check, isn t it?" said Maurice. "Especially with the emotions and the pressure we think we re under every game to win and how important every win is and the importance of competing hard. I ve been very, very careful of using the word warrior to describe a hockey player or an athlete. I work really hard at never, ever using that. I spent a lot of years in North Carolina with Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, Pope Air Force Base and the front page of the newspaper in town always had caskets and flags coming back from overseas. "It s a real strong reminder that our job s not that tough." The most important lesson from a game like Wednesday, might simply be this: The best story about Jets this season won t be written about their pool of prospects or their handiwork before the deadline. It s the one they author themselves on the ice. Winnipeg Free Press LOADED 03.05.2015
746460 Winnipeg Jets Just one of those nights for Jets By Paul Friesen, Winnipeg Sun First posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 10:55 PM CST Paul Maurice s mind games didn t work. Or else he was right about the Ottawa Senators being the toughest test for his Winnipeg Jets on this four-game homestand. The head coach went out of his way the last couple of days to point out how good the boys from the nation s capital have been playing even though the Sens were out of playoff position in the NHL East. Yup, they were going to be harder to beat on Wednesday than the St. Louis Blues and even the red-hot, defending Stanley Cup champion L.A. Kings, the coach told us. Presumably he told his players that, too, in an attempt to prevent a let-down. So what happens? The Jets don t manage a goal until the third period, fall behind, 3-0, and squander a very valuable two points in the race for a spot in the West, in a 3-1 loss. There will alway be in a loss things you don t like... but we didn t take them lightly, Maurice said. Final shots, 36-20, would suggest they didn t. Funny thing is the Sens are now 5-0 in Winnipeg. Maybe it was just one of those nights. As one press box wag noted, nobody said there wouldn t be a few bumps on the road to the 2019 Stanley Cup. HUTCH GETS THE HOOK? Cue the goalie controversy. Just kidding. But Michael Hutchinson allowed at least one he d like to have back. Given just a tad too much space by Dustin Byfuglien, Kyle Turris beat Hutchinson from an angle five minutes into the game. By the time the rookie had yielded two more goals by the midway mark of the second period, Maurice got out the hook. It s the third time this season he s spared Hutchinson any further embarrassment by taking him out early, a bit of a kid-glove treatment of the 24-year-old. If that game s at 3-2, I don t take him out, Maurice explained, saying Hutchinson wasn t getting any breaks. But at 3-0 I m looking to change the momentum... he also doesn t need to be in there for more if it keeps going in that direction. FELLOW ROOKIE ROCKS Ottawa s own rookie story between the pipes rivals Hutchinson s. Undrafted 27-year-old Andrew Hammond, filling in for the injured Craig Anderson and playing his seventh straight game, stood on his head and left the Jets shaking theirs. His cross-crease move to stone Andrew Ladd on a rebound off the end boards was a thing of beauty. But the Hamburglar, as they call him, had some breaks, too, notably when Jiri Tlusty stared at a wide-open net only to slide the puck off the post in the second. And then Lee Stempniak gets him on the forehead off a two-on-one, with all that mesh staring at you, Maurice lamented. Then you ve got a big concern. Seems the snake was biting on this night. Those three pop up pretty quick, Ladd said of the chances. And make it a different game. NO. 33 WOULD BE MISSED The Jets resilience will be tested if Dustin Byfuglien is out for any length of time. He s only been the team MVP this season. Byfuglien left the game midway through the second period and didn t return, after an innocent-looking play, given the violent collisions he s been involved in. Checking Ottawa s Erik Condra on the end boards in his own zone, Byfuglien began favouring his right arm. That allowed Condra to get open and score Ottawa s third goal.
EMERGENCY MEASURES Like most who saw what happened to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, when both their goaltenders were injured and they flirted with the idea of putting in another player or even their goalie coach the Jets were also looking at the issue, Wednesday. Maurice said before the game he ll have to find out if anyone besides Hutchinson and Ondrej Pavelec has ever strapped on the pads. I haven t gone through the team, Maurice said. At some point I guess you will, now. Who is the next guy in? Maurice raised the possibility of using goalie coach Wade Flaherty in an emergency, much like the Panthers considered Robb Tallas when Roberto Luongo and Al Montoya went down. CASE FOR REVIEW Maurice also made the case, pre-game, for video review of goaltender-interference plays, saying officials can t be expected to make many of those calls in real time. It's so difficult for the referees to make this call, because there isn't a defenceman in the league that is allowing the forward free reign in front of the net, the coach said. That is the area that I would love to see the guys upstairs be able to step in and weigh in on that call. SOME PERSPECTIVE The Jets paid tribute to the Canadian Armed Forces, Wednesday, the entire team meeting personnel on the ice after the game. You re not feeling too good, Maurice said. And then you go shake hands of all those men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces, and you realize we ll be all right. We ll come back tomorrow and work hard. Our job s not that tough. Winnipeg Sun LOADED 03.05.2015
746461 Winnipeg Jets Hamburglar steals game from Jets By Ken Wiebe, Winnipeg Sun First posted: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 09:37 PM CST Updated: Wednesday, March 04, 2015 10:53 PM CST Michael Hutchinson has left the opposition shaking their heads in disbelief on numerous times this season, but on this night, it was his Winnipeg Jets teammates that were frustrated by a rookie goalie. Andrew (The Hamburglar) Hammond continued his ridiculous roll on Wednesday night, making 35 saves to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 3-1 triumph over the Jets at MTS Centre. Hutchinson, meanwhile, was pulled for only the third time this season after giving up three goals on 17 shots in just under 32 minutes of action. Their goalie played really well. If it wasn't for (Hammond), it would have been a different result, said Hutchinson. With the loss, the Jets slipped to 32-21-12 on the season and saw their home-ice point streak end at seven games (5-0-2) as they finished this four-game homestand with five of a possible eight points. Currently at 76 points, the Jets remain in control of the first wild-card in the Western Conference, though the surging Minnesota Wild are one point back and hold two games in hand and there's a logjam of Pacific Division teams currently sitting four points back. The Jets also lost All-Star defenceman Dustin Byfuglien to an upper-body injury just before the 12-minute mark of the second period. Byfuglien was seen walking around the Jets' dressing room and he wasn't in a sling, though head coach Paul Maurice didn't provide an update on his status during his post-game address. Since the Jets are taking Thursday off, the extent of Byfuglien's injury might not be known until Friday. Obviously, losing Byfuglien (who has 15 goals and 42 points in 65 games) for any stretch of time would be a blow to a Jets' club that has battled injuries to key personnel all season long. Hammond's story, much like Hutchinson's, has a Hollywood feel to it. After spending four seasons with Bowling Green State University, the undrafted goalie signed an American Hockey League deal with the Binghamton Senators. Last March, Hammond signed an NHL deal with Ottawa and made his NHL debut in relief. And when the Senators lost both Craig Anderson and Robin Lehner to injuries this season, it was Hammond who has carried the mail and moved his team within four points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, going 6-0-1 as he's made seven consecutive starts, posted a 1.35 goals against average and.957 save percentage. Hutchinson, who made his fifth consecutive start, wasn't as sharp as usual especially in the early going when Kyle Turris beat him with a long shot from the top of the circle at 4:59 of the first period. The Senators added a power-play marker from Bobby Ryan after a brilliant pass from Mika Zibanejad and an even-strength tally by Erik Condra, who buried a one-timer after a smart play by Winnipegger and former Brandon Wheat Kings captain Mark Stone at 11:54 of the second period. It's always tough to get pulled in a game. It's one part of goaltending that isn't too much fun, said Hutchinson. You have a couple choice words when you come in the dressing room and two minutes later, I'm fine and pretty much over it. You realize those things happen. I know I can play better and make a couple of those saves. Maurice talked about why he got out the hook and replaced Hutchinson with Pavelec, who stopped all three shots he faced. I don t have any problem with the goals that beat him, said Maurice. He had a few adventures with the puck and it s a tough game to play. You re sitting for long blocks of time. I didn t think he looked comfortable. He s played a big block of really fine hockey. To be really good you also have to have some breaks around the net and there was nothing that said those breaks were coming for him tonight. The Jets created plenty of golden opportunities of their own, including a shot off the post by Jiri Tlusty when he was all alone in front and a blast off the mask of Hammond from newcomer Lee Stempniak. I got the puck up in the air and it was a good shot, he just made a nice save, so you try not to beat yourself up over stuff like that, said Stempniak, who chipped in an assist on Michael Frolik's goal at 5:46 of the third period. The Jets don't need to overreact to a loss like this one, but it was another reminder that sometimes even when you come up with a strong effort, an opposition goalie can play well enough to leave you with nothing to show for it. Winnipeg Sun LOADED 03.05.2015