National Post (National Edition)
Big Buff’s uniqueness paying off for Jets
Merry ‘prankster’ expands tool set in playoff run
NASHVILLE•DustinByfuglien busted out his dance moves for a little celebration of his latest big goal, which may have caught many people by surprise.
Not his teammates. “He’s so loose before games,” Winnipeg centre Bryan Little said. “He’s a joker, definitely the prankster on the team. It’s strange for me to see him talking to you guys in front of the camera. It’s like, ‘That’s not who I know.’ ”
The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Byfuglien is making a big impression on the NHL playoffs at both ends of the ice. Timely goals, rugged defence, leadership — it’s all part of his game. He dropped jaws during the second-round series against the Predators by literally manhandling two Nashville players, one in each hand.
His journey back to the post-season has been a long one, but the 33-year-old Byfuglien has made Winnipeg his home and is a key reason the Jets are Canada’s last surviving team this post-season. The last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup was Montreal in 1993, and the 25-year drought is a painful one in the home of hockey.
Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler considers Byfuglien a “great equalizer” and unlike anybody else in the NHL.
“Having him on our team gives us an advantage no matter who we play,” Wheeler said. “That’s the type of player he is and from Game 1 of the playoffs, he has just dominated. You can’t stop it.”
Byfuglien is making the most of his deepest post-season run since helping Chicago win the Stanley Cup in 2010,
Not only has he been a strong counter to Nashville by outplaying a group often considered the NHL’s best top four defencemen, Byfuglien is leading all defencemen this post-season with four goals. He’s also averaging 26 minutes, 25 seconds on the ice per game.
Byfuglien started the Jets’ rally in Game 3 against Nashville from a 3-0 deficit by scoring the first goal and his tying goal prompted his little dance. He wound up with the game-winning goal in Winnipeg’s 6-2 victory Saturday.
“What makes him unique is he can, I don’t know if ‘take over’ is right, but he can make an impact in a game in just about every single way possible,” Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said. “He can defend, he can play real physical, nobody wants to drop the gloves with him, and then there’s an offensive side, it’s a perfectly placed shot, quick hands, all the other things that he can do offensively.”
And Chicago gave all that potential up in 2010. Byfuglien switched from defence to forward for the Blackhawks and scored three game-winning goals in a sweep of San Jose in the Western Conference final for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup Final since 1992. He had
HE CAN MAKE AN IMPACT IN A GAME IN JUST ABOUT EVERY SINGLE WAY.
a hat trick against Vancouver in the conference semifinals.
But the Blackhawks were strapped for salary cap space after contract extensions for Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith on top of pricey deals for Marian Hossa and Brian Campbell. Byfuglien was traded away to the then-Atlanta Thrashers, a franchise that relocated to Winnipeg in 2011.
“There’s only one Dustin Byfuglien, and you want him on your team,” Little said. “You can’t imagine what it would be like playing against him. There’s only one of him. You can’t really compare him to anyone out there.”