Jets can reset their season now after an awkward, fumbling start

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This article was published 24/10/2014 (3994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They had the fewest points in the NHL’s Western Conference when they woke up and reported for work Thursday, but the Winnipeg Jets were feeling noticeably better.

It’s the value of one win, a 3-1 decision over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday followed by a scheduled day off on Wednesday.

What’s it worth to a 2-4 team?

We’ll find out tonight, when the Tampa Bay Lightning come calling at the MTS Centre (7 p.m., TSN 3, TSN 1290).

“I think the important thing about this league is keeping an even keel and just stay steady mentally no matter what’s going on,” said Jets alternate captain Mark Stuart Thursday. “I won’t lie to you, to have the start we did to the first five games is going to wear on you a little bit.

“You start thinking too much, you start gripping your stick a little and you start pushing and just to get that one win was good. We know it’s only one but you’re able to smile and have a bit more fun, it’s important. And that’s good for everybody as long as you’re working hard.”

Jets coach Paul Maurice has been working on the team’s game since Day 1 of training camp, and he’s also hands-on trying to get the Jets feeling better about that game.

“Sitting there after the (Tuesday) game, you’re happy but you’re not… there’s no praise, we’ve won one game,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean the difference between how you’d be feeling had you lost wouldn’t have been just as great. So it means you don’t have to deal with the other things you deal with.

“You have to be able to rest our team, too. We have the mandatory four days off, you can’t control that, but you have to be able to rest your team. They need a mental rest at times, especially more when things are going down. That’s when you start to see injuries piling up. And that was part of the day off.”

The suggestion that one win changes everything was not made anywhere at the MTS Centre Thursday.

“I think it just hits the reset button for us a little bit,” Maurice said. “We go back out with our game plan and I still will make, still going to want that tension in the room before we go out, but positive tension, maybe just a little bit more positive, a little bit more excitement. There still has to be that same level of awareness when the puck’s going to drop that we need to be going right away.”

Avoiding the hype and the noise either way, Stuart said, is the only path to improvement.

“You have to focus on that even when things aren’t really going well,” he said. “Otherwise you’re just going to dig yourself a bigger hole. It can be hard, especially in this market it can be tough. You have to shut out outside voices a lot. Some are better at it than others but you have to do that as much as you can.

“It’s only going to hurt you if you can’t. We know in here we care more than anybody else. We care about winning.”

Teammate Zach Bogosian said the secret to better days is in the nut of this lesson about being even-keeled.

“Your record doesn’t lie,” he said.

“That being said, we have to make sure we do keep that even keel. In this league if you get too low then everything comes crashing down on you and if you get too high, then the same things happens to you.

“We just need to play the same way every night. We’re not going to win every game, we’re not going to lose every game but if you make sure you keep that style of play every night, be consistent that way, we’ll have a chance to win.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca