Jets practice drills aimed at cranking up their ‘battle level’

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This article was published 14/10/2014 (4204 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a scene that has become commonplace now – Paul Maurice skating his Winnipeg Jets hard at the conclusion of practice – as the boss tries to establish a daily foundation for squeezing more out of his troops.

And so as the Jets skated lap after lap Tuesday morning at MTS Iceplex after their 1-2 road trip to open the 2014-15 NHL season, it wasn’t seen as punishment, but now rather simply part of the weekly schedule.

“It was certainly a tough challenge to be going on the road in those three buildings and then back to back (games) pushes you,” said Maurice Tuesday. “We were exposed in some areas I think we can improve on, did some good things at times. So there are some positive pieces in our game — our penalty killing was good — and we’ll keep working on the parts that weren’t so good.”

The Jets concentrated on their defensive zone coverage on Tuesday and emphasized drills that were all about cranking up their ‘battle level.’ That’s the byproduct of their losses to San Jose and Los Angeles on the weekend, two of the NHL’s bigger teams that come in wave after wave.

“You’re always trying to build off games and what you did wrong and trying to correct those things,” said Jets’ captain Andrew Ladd. “I’m sure some of it was partly that and it was also about getting our battle level up.

“There were some good things we did and obviously some things we need to correct. We played some good hockey teams and they taught us a couple things on what we need to get better at and today was a good day to get to work and cover those things.”

Meanwhile, Maurice provide a bit of an update on the status of Evander Kane – who injured his knee in last week’s season-opening win over Arizona. Kane will not be on the ice for another two weeks, at which time he will be evaluated again by medical staff.

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“Other than the fact I thought originally it was going to be month-to-month we took it as good news,” said Maurice. “We won’t have anybody look at him again until those two weeks are up. Then we’ll have better idea of how long we think it will be before he’s back.”

Winger Michael Frolik also didn’t skate on Tuesday, but is expected back on the ice on Wednesday.

The Jets begin a five-game home stand Friday with their home opener against the Nashville Predators (7 p.m.)

Ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait