‘You contest every puck’

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This article was published 17/10/2014 (4001 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It has indeed been a bigger-than-big deal since the franchise relocated in 2011.

The very first Winnipeg Jets 2.0 home opener was important history.

The second was a major relief that the league’s prickly labour problems had been solved.

And the third, just a year ago, was a lot about buzz surrounding the team’s newest rookies, first-round draft picks Jacob Trouba and Mark Scheifele.

 

Tonight, when the first of the team’s 41 regular-season games in 2014-15 at the MTS Centre are played — the Nashville Predators are the visitors — there’s just something a little more normal about it all.

The Jets have a new direction. Paul Maurice has just finished his first training camp in charge of the club. Reaching the playoffs, not experienced by this franchise since 2007, is as much a priority as it’s ever been.

And most of all, the team already has its feet wet. The fourth game of the season is the latest the newest Jets have gone before appearing at home, so there’s already a grinding mentality in place, Maurice said Thursday.

“I don’t feel we’d be using that now,” Maurice said about buzz for home openers. “I think having played games takes a big chunk of that uncertainty out of the way.

“There should be some nerves — we want that energy, the home crowd — but I don’t feel that level of (nerves). I think having three games under your belt takes a lot of those nerves out of opening the season. They’ve been through a few grinds.

“I’m expecting the energy of the home crowd and everybody to be real excited but it doesn’t feel like the unknown of your first game.

“That first game is so much like the first game after Christmas. You’re just not sure what’s happening after the puck drops, especially in the first 10 minutes.

“I think the game (tonight) will be pretty sorted right from the start.”

Of course the Jets are always talking and hoping to return to a stretch of home dominance that they enjoyed for most of their first season here.

The key to that?

“You contest every puck,” Maurice said. “I think the teams that are best at it are never a play ahead. They’re always in the battle of the play right there. They’re not poaching on pucks, they’re not trying to strip guys and go the other direction. They’re not trying to get one step ahead of the game. Usually that means they’re not trying to get from defence to offence before the time is right. That’s what we’re working hard to get to.”

Centre Jim Slater will be in the 10th home-opener of his NHL career tonight.

He said he does not take them for granted.

“When you get older, later in your career, you don’t know how many more you’re going to have of these,” Slater said. “It’s a privilege to play every year here in the NHL and that’s the way I look at it.

“We’ll come out here and open this season up for our fans. It’s great, something to look forward to.”

He knows there’s a snowball effect available for his team if the Jets are up to it.

“Obviously when you’re playing good the fans are into it and when the fans are into it, you’re playing better. It’s a little bit of both.

“I’ve always said these fans are so knowledgeable about the game; they pick up the little things and cheer for it, getting a puck out or winning a faceoff. You want to give them things to cheer about.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

 

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