Sun

For the second time in three games, Paul Maurice sent a message to one of his leaders, though he wasn't about to publicly take him to task.

After sitting down defenceman Dustin Byfuglien for a good chunk of the second period against the Chicago Blackhawks last week after taking a pair of minor penalties, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets took captain Andrew Ladd off the top line for most of the third period in Friday's 5-2 win over the New York Rangers.

Ladd had an otherwise effective game, chipping in an empty-net goal and an assist while his line was in on four of the five goals.

However, after taking a tripping minor late in the first period and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during the second period that eventually led to a power-play goal from Dan Boyle, Ladd found himself bumped to the third unit with Alex Burmistrov and Nikolaj Ehlers to start the third period.

“Just some housekeeping,” said Maurice, when asked about the rationale behind the decision. “That's the word I used and I'm sticking to it too.”

Ladd was asked about the change in linemates as well.

“It's something that's between me and the coach,” said Ladd. “I'm sure he wasn't happy about that penalty.”

For what it's worth, Ladd didn't sound off to the officials on the play and actually slashed Rangers defenceman Marc Staal behind the play on the way to the bench, which led to the penalty call.

Either way, it's the type of undisciplined penalty the Jets are trying to eliminate from their collective game.

Thorburn, meanwhile, earned the promotion on a night he became the franchise leader in games played at 595, passing Ilya Kovalchuk for top spot.

ken.wiebe@sunmedia.ca

Twitter.com/WiebeSunSports

Thorbs has  played on all 4 lines now...

Bit of a message being sent to our captain. Armia seemed to do well.

Now.....where is that guy that said that Maurice has lost control of the room?

watched a bit of the game, armia reminded me of Lowry last year..... except maybe a bit more speed and shiftyness.....

 

once again, the Jets overwhelmed the other team in the first period.... seen that a few times this year

 

They obviously have enough good players to be a  good... winning team, coaches just have figure out how to  get it together for a whole game.

To me it was not only the stupid penalties he took(great example for a captain) it was a game that displayed that Ladd is too slow, and makes too many no look passes almost every game. Signing him to a six year extension would be a huge mistake in my opinion.

The game could of been a big blowout , we missed on a few breakways, a 5-3 pp, some open nets that we fanned on.

Let Ladd go (sign Buff with the money), bring up the youth and stick with it. Ehlers on the first line looks pretty good to me.

Little and wheeler dominating. And their line mate just sort of there

Besides the penalties, I honestly didn't mind Ladd's game last night. A big reason Little got the first goal was his pressure and didn't seem as slow to me. I'd really like to see him on a different line and put someone else on the first not named Thorburn.

I don't want to break up PSS but I would love to see Ehlers Scheif Wheeler.

Perreault does too many great things with Sceif. Although swapping him with Ladd might be interesting.

Nah, I don't want to see Ladd on Scheif's line. I am really looking to see Connor play with the Jets.

 

Connor Scheif Wheeler

              or

Connor Scheif Ehlers