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Was Maurice's tirade against Tkachuk about rallying the Jets? It worked |
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When Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice was vilifying Matthew Tkachuk over the past two days he was undeniably sending a message to his own players more than he was trying to get a reaction from the Calgary Flames forward.
The Jets responded favorably to Maurice’s not-so-subtle prodding by raising their level of play Monday and posting a 3-2 win against the Flames to tie their best-of-five qualifying series at 1-1.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored a game-winning goal on the power play at 10:34 of the third period. He had also played a role in the Jets’ spirited start by laying a hit on Calgary star Johnny Gaudreau. After the game, Maurice implied that Ehlers had also challenged Tkachuk to fight late in the third period
Maurice said Ehlers is “sneaky tough.”
The winning goal was an atonement for Ehlers who had committed a turnover that led to Calgary’s first goal. He also was flagged for an ill-advised third period penalty. This was the first playoff goal of his career.
“Nikki is just a huge part of our team and we are not going to go anywhere without Nikki’s best,” said Jets captain Blake Wheeler
It was an impressive performance by the Jets who were playing without injured forwards Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine.
In terms of importance and grit displayed by his team, Maurice said it was one of the best playoff wins he has ever had.
“Those kind of backs against the wall games don’t happen very often,” Maurice said. “ ...It’s top five for me. I felt the tension coming to the rink. Those are key players (we lost).”
In hindsight, Maurice’s verbal attack on Tkachuk now seems like a psychological ploy to rally his team more than anything else. Maybe he was hoping the NHL would suspend Tkachuk or that referees would keep a closer eye on him.
But the likely reason Maurice went after Tkachuk was to stand up for his player and to create a villain for his team to unite against. Isn’t that coaching philosophy 101?
“I’m proud that we won the game in the manner we did, with the injuries we had, because it will give people that are not familiar to our season a little glimpse to what we’ve been doing all year," Maurice said.
The general consensus around the NHL was that Maurice overreacted to Tkachuk’s role in an injury suffered by Mark Scheifele that forced him out of Game 1 and to miss Game 2. His status moving forward isn’t being revealed.
Maurice said Tkachuk intentionally kicked Scheifele in the back of the leg. He described Tkachuk’s action as a “filthy, dirty kick.” He added that if Tkachuk had connected with Scheifele’s Achilles he could have ended Scheifele’s career. He said the play was “disgusting.”
The next day Maurice said he had no regrets about what he said, even though Tkachuk wasn’t penalized and the NHL’s Department of Player Safety passed on giving it a second look. Hockey analysts also didn’t see anything on the video that screamed that Tkachuk’s actions were intentional.
That’s why everyone assumed Maurice, a masterful communicator, was trying to throw more logs on the fire to fuel the Jets’ rage.
It obvious the Jets’ plan in the opening period was to play physical in retaliation for the loss of Scheifele, but not take any foolish penalties. They were driven and effective.
Blake Wheeler had no points, but recorded five hits for the Jets.
Jansen Harkins, one of the players inserted to take the place of an injured player, scored a breakaway goal on a nifty shot over Cam Talbot’s glove to give the Jets a 1-0 first period lead. The Jets built a 2-0 lead only to have the Flames tie it with two second period goals.
“It’s not a great situation when you are filling in for Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine,” Wheeler said. “...Harks brings a lot of speed to our lineup. It was a huge goal for a young kid to gain some confidence and for our our team to get a boost and pick us off the floor from the last game.”
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