Big, bad Jets not as tough in track meet
Two-game set telling test for new Leaf way
The Winnipeg Jets are enormous.
They bring to the table the best collection of talented big men in the game these days. When the Jets play well, when they win, that’s a theme that tends to dominate. The skill that goes with all that size can, when its functioning on all cylinders, be overwhelming.
Sure, the Jets have other elements but the size of the team is what almost always catches the eye. Their best players are big, Blake Wheeler and Patrik Laine and Dustin Byfuglien, all six-foot-five. Ask coach Paul Maurice about sixfoot-five centre Adam Lowry’s role and you’ll walk away thinking he’s indispensable.
Mark Scheifele might be Winnipeg’s best forward, but he’s a relative peewee at just six-foot-three. Tyler Myers, six-foot-eight, probably calls his teammate “Tiny.”
Last March, the Jets walked into Toronto in the final days of 2017-18 season and all that might and size was on display. The actual score, 3-1 for the Manitobans, wasn’t one-sided, but it was impossible to walk away from the rink that night and not think the physical superiority of the Jets had been the deciding factor. It just seemed the Leafs were too small, too easily discouraged, too easily leaned on.
Interestingly, the reaction of Mike Babcock to that particular defeat was telling.
“You’re quicker if you don’t play the night before,” sniffed Babcock, noting his club had played 24 hours earlier in Long Island.
The next month, Toronto went out in the first round of the playoffs against Boston, while the Jets played deep into the spring. So the widespread impressions of that March 31 game — strength and size of the Jets a necessary element lacked by Leafs — seemed even more correct.
Many figured the Leafs would also reach that conclusion and try to beef up in the off-season. So what did the Leafs do? Well, to a significant degree, they went the other way. They got smaller and faster. John Tavares, of course, can play any way you want to play. But beyond Tavares, the Leafs ditched James van Riemsdyk, Roman Polak and Matt Martin, and brought in Tyler Ennis and Par Lindholm. Defenceman Igor Ozhiganov may be six-foot-two, but he’s no bruiser.
It was a statement that the Leafs — and rookie GM Kyle Dubas, a young
exec with cutting-edge views on the game — had no intention of following the crowd. “You get bigger, good luck with that, we’ll get faster,” seemed to be the Toronto motto.
Wednesday night gave the Leafs their first chance to take on Winnipeg since that game last March, to test whether they would again be overwhelmed by the towering Jets. It was a game that might not have had any particular importance in the standings, but it sure got a lot of attention on both sides of the border.
The result? Speed won out this time, not size. The postgame impressions after a 4-2 Toronto victory were entirely different than last March. The Leafs were smart and fast; too fast, it seemed, for the Winnipeg big men, who seemed to lumber more than they leaned on the Leafs. The tiny Ennis scored, and Mitch Marner, unlikely to be a bouncer in his spare time, outmanoeuvered Byfuglien to set up Tavares for Toronto’s fourth goal after Winnipeg had cut the margin to 3-2.
“If you want to play right and you want to play hard, suddenly you look fast again,” said Babcock afterwards.
It was one game. Saturday night’s return engagement in Toronto may yield a very different result, although this time it’s the Jets who will have played the night before, having stopped in Motown Friday night. Often, scheduling influences NHL results more than many believe.
But what Wednesday’s result did seem to indicate is that the Leafs might be able to find better success against the Jets and other elite teams not by copying them and adding bulk, but by outskating and outsmarting them.
You know, like when Rocky fought Clubber Lang the second time. Or like when Detroit swept favoured Philadelphia and the Legion of Doom in the ’97 final, using quickness and guile to leave the Flyers dazed and confused.
We’re barely one-eighth into the 2018-19 season, so we’ll see how this plays out. You do wonder, as the Jets try to deliver a Cup to Winnipeg, if they might have to consider ways to add even more zip, even if it means getting a little smaller. Most observers concede the Jets haven’t played particularly well this season despite their record, and they almost never lose at home like they lost to the Leafs on Wednesday.
Montreal and Carolina are two NHL teams doing better than most expected this sea- son, and they didn’t improve by adding size. They’re two of the league’s smallest teams, but man, are they quick.
Look, it’s not like big hockey players have no value any more, and every other NHL team, including Toronto, would love to have any of those Winnipeg big men. But this small snapshot of two games between the Jets and the Leafs, one last March and the other earlier this week, seemed to be an indication of the warp speed at which the NHL is moving away from its former physicality toward a track meet every night.
Some people hate that, but it’s happening.
Last March, the Leafs looked like they couldn’t stand up to the Jets and got sand kicked in their faces.
On Wednesday, it looked like their response wasn’t to push back but to challenge the Jets to keep up to them.
What we know for sure is standing still in the rapidly evolving NHL just isn’t an option. For anyone.