NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Dustin Byfuglien 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 center 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 on both ends of the ice as the Jets have muscled their way to within one win of Winnipeg’s first berth in the Western Conference Final. Timely goals, rugged defense, 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 postseason 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 postseason. 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 postseason 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 defensemen, Byfuglien is leading all defensemen this postseason with four goals. He’s also tied with Boston’s Torey Krug for most points with 12 while skating an average of 26 minutes, 25 seconds a 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 night that put the Jets on the verge of clinching only their second series – all this postseason.
”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 defense to forward for the Blackhawks and scored three game-winning goals in a sweep of San Jose in the Western Conference finals for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup Final since 1992. He had 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.”
Winnipeg has become home to Byfuglien. The town is just 115 miles as the crow flies from where he grew up in Roseau, Minnesota. Since the franchise moved to Winnipeg, Byfuglien married, and has three children. The Jets rewarded him in February 2016 with a five-year, $38 million contract to make him a key piece of the Jets’ future.
He just isn’t a big talker. Asked where his dance came from in Game 2, Byfuglien said he didn’t know.
He sure is talking to his teammates, trying to share his experience from that 2010 Cup run and offering advice on how to handle what they hope is a two-month run.
”We’ve obviously talked as a group,” Byfuglien said. ”It’s not going to be an easy ride. It’s just take one game at a time, one shift at a time, and just believe in each other.”
Having Big Buff around certainly provides a confidence boost,
”Any time he’s on the ice, it’s dangerous,” Little said.
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