Some coach's decisions are no-brainers.

Inserting Mathieu Perreault into the lineup for Sunday's game against the Chicago Blackhawks qualifies as one.

Assuming, of course, Perreault comes back Sunday morning feeling as good as he did following practice, Saturday.

"I feel good," Perreault said. "From what they've told me it looks like I might be in."

It's been nearly six weeks since Perreault could say that.

Hurt in a game against Edmonton, Feb. 16 -- he left the arena in a walking boot -- Perreault was third on the team with 18 goals at the time.

He was clicking with Mark Scheifele's line and had the power play humming along like it hadn't all season.

So he's in, somewhere.

Other decisions don't come as easily.

I would have thought choosing a starting goalie for Sunday's game might have kept Paul Maurice up a good portion of the night, consulting charts, graphs, goalie gurus, maybe even the local psychic.

You see, as hot as Ondrej Pavelec has been, he's colder than Portage and Main whenever he plays Chicago.

And Michael Hutchinson? He conjurs Terry Sawchuk when he sees the Blackhawk logo.

Get a load of the numbers: in five career games against Chicago, Pavelec has five losses, two of them in extra time, a goals-against-average of 4.61 and save percentage of .867.

Hutchinson, in four games against the 'Hawks this season, is 3-0-1 with a 1.23 GAA and .961 save percentage.

Tough call?

Not a chance, the coach says. It's Pavelec, of course.

"He's fresh, ready and playing the best hockey I've seen him play," Maurice said.

And the history be damned.

"It won't matter. At some point you've got to change your history against every team if you want to get to where you want to get to. The way he's played... it was an easy call."

Sometimes it's best not to over-think it. That appears to be Maurice's approach, this time.

Unlike his choice in Vancouver, Tuesday, where he looked at Pavelec's history playing on back-to-back nights and went, 'Uh-uh.'

Live and learn, I guess.

Now, what about HOW to get Perreault back into the lineup?

The Jets defied all odds and were humming along nicely without him, Drew Stafford having filled his second-line skates nicely with seven goals and nine assists in 16 games since the trade from Buffalo.

Stafford, Scheifele and Blake Wheeler make up the Jets' hottest trio right now.

"It's a lot to expect a player who's been out the amount Mathieu has to come in and be right where he was," Maurice said.

So the coach is leaving his top lines intact, even the third: Jim Slater, Jiri Tlusty and Lee Stempniak have combined for eight points the last three games.

And there was Perreault, Saturday, practising on the fourth line with Chris Thorburn and Matt Halischuk.

"We won't take a player out of a role we're comfortable with right now," Maurice explained. "At some point Matt's going to work his way back into the top-nine or top-six."

So Thorburn and Halischuk get to play with one of the best pair of hands on the team.

"It'd be great," Thorburn said of playing with the man he calls Slick. "To have him come back at this time of the year, fresh -- it's exciting."

Perreault, though, says it may take him some time. Maybe don't expect a Dystin Byfuglien-like return, with a goal to open the game.

"You've got to take it slowly," No. 85 said. "I don't expect to come back and play 20 minutes. I don't think my body could take it anyway. It's just a matter of getting some minutes and starting to get back into game shape."

Moving from the wing back to centre, no problem. He's played centre most of his life.

Perreault might even take up his old spot on the power play.

"That's something we'd put him in pretty quickly," Maurice said. "It was so bad, and then got so good for a long period of time when he was there. We've still been pretty good... we'll get him there sooner rather than later."

Like I said, some decisions are easier than others.