Among leaders in points by defencemen, Pionk focused on team success

TORONTO - Neal Pionk doesn't look at the stats page very often, but if he did after last night's three assist performance, he'd see his name high up on one particular leaderboard.
His 21 points through the 25 games the Winnipeg Jets have played put him behind only Victor Hedman (28), Quinn Hughes (23), and Jeff Petry (23) for points by a defenceman so far this season.
"I knew I was in the vicinity, but I'm not refreshing the page after every game," Pionk said with a grin. "Maybe I'll check it once in a while, but it's not a primary focus of mine."
Last night's multi-point performance was just the second of the season for the 25-year-old, which means he's not relying on a few big nights to pad his stats.

His number four has been listed on the stat sheet in 18 of the 25 games this season. He posted a career-high 45 points in the shortened regular season in 2019-20 and while this campaign is scheduled to be even shorter, he's nearly halfway to that point total again.
"I've always had that internal belief," said Pionk. "When you go through the ups and downs of the season, then you hit those downs, you maybe lose that belief a little bit. Ever since coming here, the confidence has been growing day by day. It's been pretty good. I always credit having good teammates to getting those points. If you don't have good teammates surrounding you, those points don't happen."
His assists came at big points of the game on Tuesday as well.
The first came on the power play in the opening period to tie the game at one. His sixth power play point of the season came on a slapshot deflected by Andrew Copp in front of the Toronto net.
"They were kind of giving (Pionk) a wide lane to shoot the puck," Copp said.
"They were kind of spread out on (Nikolaj Ehlers) and (Pierre-Luc Dubois), so (Pionk) was able to get some slap shots and we were able to get screens in front and puck recoveries every time. When those killers are so wide like that, and (Pionk) has such a good shot, we like where we're sitting when he's teeing it up back there."

A high switch in the Toronto zone between Pionk and Josh Morrissey led to Morrissey's first goal of the season to tie the game a second time.
His third came in the final period with the Jets up 3-2. He stepped up in the neutral zone to pick off a pass, gained the Toronto zone, then hit Copp in the middle of the ice in space. Copp's backhand flip pass to Mason Appleton ended up in the back of the net after a strong net drive from Appleton.
That goal stood up as the game-winner.
"You have a confident man when he puts it on Nikolaj Ehlers' stick, or Mark Scheifele, or any of those offensive players that we have, he gets a lot of positive results," said Maurice.
"That opens the door for a player who only viewed himself as one kind of player, that he has success in a different area, values it. For Neal, there is offence there, but he came in as a really good, gritty defenceman.
"What we're trying to do is get the other part of their game rounded out without trying to change who they are."
Overall, Jets defencemen have scored just five times this season. They'd love to contribute more, but Pionk has said since arriving in Winnipeg for his first training camp in September of 2019 - getting the puck in the hands of the team's talented forwards is the top priority.
"As defencemen, our job is to play defence first, obviously. It's a bonus when we can add to the offence," Pionk said. "As long as we're creating chances and getting shots through and giving our forwards the best opportunity to score - that's more of a focus of ours."