Pittsburgh Penguins' Kris Letang backhands a goal past Winnipeg Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec Feb. 11, 2012.
When Winnipeg Jets coach Claude Noel says he doesn't get involved in the team's trades, he's not kidding.
"I'm not involved there that much at all," Noel said Monday after the Jets practised. "Maybe when it gets closer [to the trade deadline]they might ask, I'm not sure."
A few minutes later Noel was asked about a trade the Jets had completed that morning involving two minor league players; Riley Holzapfel of the Jets going to the Anaheim Ducks for Maxime Macenauer.
"What is that? We made a deal today?," Noel responded when asked about the deal. "I'm going to go around to [Jets General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff]right now and give him shit. I didn't know about it."
In fairness to Noel, the deal was hardly a blockbuster, involving two players who won't likely see much ice time with their respective clubs. Holzapfel, a second-round pick by the old Atlanta Thrashers in 2006, had eight goals and seven assists in 29 games with the St. John's Ice Caps while Macenauer had one goal and three assists in 29 games with the Ducks this year.
Noel has far more pressing concerns anyway.
He has to figure out how to get the Jets to bounce back from a humiliating 8-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday.
"I didn't like the game for a lot of reasons," he said Monday, still smarting about the loss. "I wasn't quite sure what we were doing. I didn't get it. Watch a game like that and you wonder, you're kidding me, what is this?"
He wasn't the only one trying to get over Saturday.
Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec said he spent Sunday, a day off for the team, staying far away from hockey.
It was the second time this season Pavelec had allowed eight goals in one game, although the Jets won the last time, beating Philadelphia 9-8.
"Of course it wasn't fun, it wasn't fun at all to play that game," he said Monday. "I don't know what to say. Of course I was disappointed. You have to move on."
When asked what he did on his day off, Pavelec replied: "I did absolutely nothing. I woke up, went for lunch, watched some movies."
One movie he decided to watch was The Bodyguard starring Whitney Houston. Pavelec said he downloaded the movie on to his computer without knowing the singer had died.
"I downloaded that movie because I haven't seen it for a while and then I turn the TV on and heard she died. O my God."
Paul Waldie