Depth on the blue line helping Jets handle key injuries

WINNIPEG -As the game days in the month of March continue to pile up, so too does the amount of games the blue line has endured being without Dustin Byfuglien and Josh Morrissey.
Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice says both are progressing - he added that Byfuglien hopes to get on the ice soon - but he likes what he's seen from the defensive group that has helped the Jets go 4-3-0 in the month of March.
"Those two players are unique," Maurice said of Byfuglien and Morrissey. "They're not your average two-way defencemen that does everything kind of well but doesn't excel necessarily. They both excel in certain areas and they're extreme with it.
"We're asking guys that are now playing against different people for longer stretches of time. That's a major challenge.
"But in each block we've got a guy that's maybe a two-way defenceman - (Tyler) Myers, (Dmitry) Kulikov who was injured a month ago and played, you've got (Ben) Chiarot and you've got (Jacob) Trouba… They've done really well. I think we can do a far better job up front helping that."

Getting four wins in seven games this month wouldn't have been easy regardless of who was available on the blue line.
All seven of Winnipeg's opponents this month currently sit in a playoff spot. Offensively, the Jets have 29 goals since Mar. 1, tied with Pittsburgh for the most in the National Hockey League in that span.
Of course the forwards are responsible for most of it - Blake Wheeler has eight of them by himself - but defencemen play a big role in that offence.
Against San Jose, point shots from Chiarot and Myers were deflected by Andrew Copp and Mathieu Perreault to light the lamp.
Then in last night's win over the Boston Bruins, Trouba broke a 2-2 third period tie by joining the rush.
"(Mark Scheifele) just got the puck right behind their centre. I jumped up there and (Zdeno) Chara filtered into Scheif and he kicked it back to the outside and it ended up going in," Trouba said of the goal, adding a lot of factors went into his decision to jump into the play off a defensive zone face-off.
"It's who you're on the ice with, the time of game, the score, everything goes into it. Obviously you don't want to take unnecessary risk or risks that aren't worth the reward. But I'd say they're calculated risks."

Trouba was averaging 22:52 of ice time this season prior to his partner Morrissey's injury against the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 24, just a day before the trade deadline.
Since then, Trouba's average ice time has grown to 25:04 with responsibilities on the power play, penalty kill, and even strength. During those eight contests, he's also been getting used to having Nathan Beaulieu as a partner.
Role changes are common when injuries plague a roster. Chiarot is also an example of that. His average ice time has increased modestly, but his partner Sami Niku's career is only 24 games old.
"I feel good about how I'm playing," said Chiarot. "They've put me with Sami and asked me to be a mentor, a veteran guy to help him into the league. I take a lot of pride in that and trying to help him out."

Throughout his 293 NHL games (all with the Jets) Chiarot has seen injuries before.
He was part of the group that made the playoffs in 2015, a group that survived having five regular defencemen out of the line-up during the final couple of months of the regular season. He also pointed to the Jets enduring the absence of Mark Scheifele up front for 16 games in 2017-18 - a stretch that saw Winnipeg win 11 times.
The 27-year-old has set career highs in goals (five), assists (14), and points (19) already this season and feels he's playing some of his best hockey of his career this season, which has been important given the increased role he's taken on.
"You're going to have your ups and downs all the time," said Chiarot. "Things have been going well for me. I find as the team goes I kind of go. I'm happy with what I've been doing."
With a one-point lead over the Nashville Predators for the Central Division lead, the Jets will welcome the Calgary Flames to Bell MTS Place on Saturday night.
The Flames have bested the Jets twice this season and are battling with the San Jose Sharks for the Pacific Division lead.
"They're a good team. (Flames coach Bill Peters) came in and put in a good system for their team," said Chiarot. "They have good skill up front and they've also got some grit and a back end that's considered one of the best in the league. It's a deep team that plays fast with that new system. They're comparable to us I find.
"But we haven't seen them for a long time, so it should be a different story tomorrow."