Extra day of rest to help Jets prepare for this week

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This article was published 10/11/2014 (3963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — A rare extra day of rest could prove important to the Winnipeg Jets this week.

The team was back on the ice this afternoon at Bell Centre, where it will meet the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night (6:30 p.m. CT, TSN3, TSN1290).

The Jets took Monday as a complete day off after completing nine games in 16 days. Tuesday, they begin another busy stretch, playing four times in the next six days to complete their road trip and a block where they will have played nine of 11 on the road.

A quiet Sunday in Montreal should do the trick, Jets right-winger Blake Wheeler said after today’s practice.

“I think so. This is kind of part of the job, that you get into some of these grueling stretches,” Wheeler said.

And Wheeler thinks that the team’s difficult training camp has helped them enjoy some success in a tough chunk of schedule so far. The Jets are on a 6-0-2 roll and can equal a franchise record with something out of their game against the Habs.

“I think what’s given us success here is in the third period, we’ve been the better team most nights,” Wheeler said. “I think you can point towards the way we came into camp and the way we worked. I think that plays into it. I think overall we have the ability to withstand those grueling stretches and be at our best when the game’s on the line in the third period. That’s kind of our MO here.”

It’s also part mental toughness, Wheeler said.

“There is a certain element of confidence, knowing you can do it,” he said. “When you consistently go through it and you’re in tight games and you’re losing them, It can kind of force you to not necessarily panic but not have that quiet confidence that knowing your structure and your systems are going to win out in the end.

“Winning really cures a lot of that; it really helps.”

Jets head coach Paul Maurice credited his team’s preparation and will for carrying the day — despite fatigue — in Saturday’s 2-1 shootout win in Ottawa.

“It’s as much mental as anything else,” Maurice said about a complete day off. “Getting excited about the game and out of that grind of the routine of every second night and the back-to-backs. A little rest, maybe you’d prefer it at home but at the same time, it’s still so early in the season that being on the road and getting the guys together is good.

He’s expecting the energy level to go high again Tuesday at Bell Centre.

“It’s great energy, whether it’s a Tuesday night or a Saturday night,” he said. “By the time the national anthem is done, it’ll be really wired, a little bit like our place. I think that usually leads to some pretty quick starts by both teams.”

Maurice was getting some curiosity questions from reporters in Montreal about his team’s recent defensive proficiency that’s led to an unbeaten streak.

“I think it’s got a lot more to do with something that’s always been here and it was here before I got here and it’s a really good compete level on our team,” he said today. “They’ll do just about anything and then that was part of the problem before, that all that compete and energy level was that we’ve got to score goals, we’ve got to to.’

“They weren’t floating out there. You watch the games that they struggled with early last year and they were working hard. A little bit all over and maybe not together as a group but now they’re working just as hard and are a little more focused on being together.”

Winnipeg has given up just 10 goals in the last eight games.

“I know the numbers suggest we’ve gone heavy to the other side, that it’s defence only, but if you’re not scoring, you’ve got to win the game and you’ve got to figure out how to do that,” Maurice said.

He was also asked where the team is in its evolution.

“In the early, early stages,” he said. “We had a tough couple of weeks to start the season. We’ve had a couple of good weeks not to this point. We’re still trying to define ourselves but I think we are becoming slight more consistent, definitely more consistent in terms of our group play.”

“A good couple of weeks doesn’t make you a contender. That’s just the bottom line.”

“We’ve got to do this for a year or two or three years. And then people will know the game we’re playing. We’re still working on that ourselves. We still need to see our game before we can tell everybody how we can play.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca