Dustin Byfuglien named to All-Star Team

[Jacquie]

From the Sun:

 

Dustin Byfuglien has always been a unique player who does things differently and his coach thinks he’s about to break more new ground by taking the hybrid position to the NHL All-Star Game.

 

“I wonder if that’s happened before,” Paul Maurice said Saturday before the Jets took on the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center. “A guy starts the season and plays the bulk of the time at one position, then moves to another and becomes an all-star. That’s pretty impressive, that he gets that kind of acknowledgement for the quality of his play.”

 

Byfuglien started the season as a forward for the Winnipeg Jets and looked entrenched at right wing before injuries to four of the team's top-six blue-liners forced him to move back to defence.

 

Since the move happened about six weeks ago, Byfuglien has been nothing short of brilliant, playing a physical game, leading breakouts with precision, seeing time on the power play and penalty kill and boosting the team’s offensive production from the back end.

 

Despite such a limited time on the blue-line, Byfuglien was selected for the All-Star Game, Jan. 25 in Columbus as a defenceman.

 

Byfuglien is fourth on the Jets in scoring with nine goals and 22 points and has played some of the best hockey of his career in recent weeks.

 

“It’s a privilege and an honour to represent your team and to get to hang out with some different teammates will be good,” Byfuglien said. “I’m excited. I’ve still got a job to do here though and I’ve got to keep working.”

 

It’s the second time Byfuglien has been named to the All-Star Game since the Jets moved to Winnipeg in 2011-12. That season he was forced to miss the game because of an injury.

 

“It kinda sucks when you miss it but hopefully I’ll stay healthy till it happens and we’ll get to go,” he said. “It will be fun.”

 

Byfuglien’s teammate Evander Kane said everyone on the Jets is happy for the big defenceman, who has been a leader so far this season .

 

“It’s awesome,” Kane said. “Maybe you’ll some more forwards-slash-defencemen coming up in the future. It’s good to see and good for him.”

 

Byfuglien doesn’t feel like this changes anything in terms of where he will play the rest of the season. He plans to play wherever the Jets need him but knows he wants to stay on defence and will have to keep working to make it happen.

 

“We’re starting to get our numbers up around here, so I’ve got my work cut out for me,” he said. “I’m still on a tryout it feels like.”

 

Maurice said that attitude is part of what has made Byfuglien such a special player this year.

 

“It was a tryout ... it really was,” Maurice said.

 

“He’s a player who wants to play defence and he’s done what was asked of him. He’s a very smart guy. He knew what we were talking about when we asked him to fit in to what we were trying to do.

 

He’s picking spots and using offensive gifts that he clearly has at the right times. He’s a big physical force so he played a good solid game of defence for us.”

 

Maurice talked about how perceptive Byfuglien is, how well he understands the game and can break it down even without the benefit of video.

 

“There are players that have no idea,” Maurice said. “He can sit on the bench and tell you what’s going on during the games. There are some players that can do it in incredible detail, sit down and without even watching the video, explain momentum shifts, what the other team is doing, adjustments. And Dustin’s a guy that reads the play and he reads adjustments by the other team. He does it naturally during the game, so when you sit down and have a discussion about hockey with him, it’s obvious he has a very high hockey IQ. It makes coaching him really easy.”

 

Maurice was then asked if that would make Byfuglien a good coach someday.

 

"If they figured out a way to put an ice-fishing hole in the middle of the rink, I think you might see Buff out on the ice.​"

 

 

 

[Mr Dee]

BEE-foog-LEE-an 

And that, my friends, is how you pronouce this all-star's name.

It comes from Norwegian ancestry and is very olde.

Older then the hills, which, by the way, coincides with the last part of his name, -'lien' means hillside.

Personally I think his name is closer in meaning to 'bigfluffyiceman', but I didn't research it that much.

 

Anyways, congrats to the big guy and we can be thankful he doesn't have the Norwegian name…*Eyjafjallajokull.

 

 

 

*http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2010/06/04/whats_in_an_nhl_name_if_its_byfuglien_less_than_meets_the_eye.html

[BomberFan]

Unique talent and well deserved.

[Atomic]

http://zippy.gfycat.com/JealousSecondaryBuckeyebutterfly.webm

[Mark F]

I am amazed at the conditioning of the players on the Jets, specially this guy.

 

They all play at full speed/full effort for game after game.

 

remarkable.  

 

Hope they don't make the playoffs, and run out of gas.

 

Thanks, I have wondered about the (wrong) pronunciation of his name. I guess he gave up explaining it.

 

 good article thanks Mr Dee

[Jacquie]

And from the Jets website:

The Winnipeg Jets hockey club, in conjunction with the National Hockey League, is proud to announce that defenceman Dustin Byfuglien has been named the NHL ‘First Star’ of the Week ending Jan. 18/15.

Byfuglien, 29, helped Winnipeg to a 4-0-0 record last week on the strength of six points (3G, 3A) during the four-game winning streak. Byfuglien’s week included the game winning goal in a three-point night (2G, 1A) on Jan. 13 versus Florida (8-2 W). The defenceman also recorded two assists against his former team in Chicago on Jan. 16 as the Jets completed a three-game season sweep at United Center (4-2 W). Byfuglien led the Jets in ice time in each of the four games played last week, averaging 26:13 time on ice over that stretch.

In being honoured by the NHL, Byfuglien joins the Red Wings’ Tomas Tatar and Islanders’ Kyle Okposo, respectively named the second and third stars of the week.

Byfuglien, the Jets’ representative at the 2015 NHL All-Star Weekend, has collected 12 goals & 19 assists over 47 games played this season. Along with being tied for third on the Jets in goals (12), he leads the team in both hits (141) & shots (147).

[Atomic]

Superstar!