Jets seem up to the heavy lifting as Central road awaits

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This article was published 06/11/2015 (3620 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the first month, the Winnipeg Jets’ season has consisted of two parts.

One was a six-game homestand against a run of difficult opponents. Result: 3-2-1.

The other element has been road games, consisting of two four-game trips. Each was book-ended with back-to-backs, with a pair of days off between those back-to-backs. Result: 5-2-1.

Considering the sum of those parts, it’s fair to say the Jets have already proven capable of handling some heavy lifting. And that’s going to be essential as the demanding month of November continues.

Tonight, the Jets make a brief pit stop at home for a 6 p.m. encounter with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Then the team jets off for an away week through the Central Division, the continuation of a month in which 10 of their 14 games are on the road.

“I’ll let you know (about progress) next week. but I’m hoping we learned some things,” head coach Paul Maurice said at the conclusion of the team’s 2-1-1 trip that concluded with Thursday’s 3-2 shootout loss in Ottawa. “On the road, in November, to go home for one then back out again, and those are all Central and they’re going to be big, heavy games.

“So we like our game. We don’t love it, but we’re getting better. There are positives.”

On the back end of the most recent back-to-back, Wednesday in Toronto and Thursday in Ottawa, the Jets were able to stomp down on the gas pedal in the third period against the Sens.

They rallied to tie the game and sent it to overtime, outshooting Ottawa 21-10 over the final 25 minutes of hockey.

“Pretty good, I thought, considering it was a back-to-back,” said Jets centre Bryan Little. “We played pretty well and came out with energy.

“I don’t think fatigue is ever an option for this team because I thought our third period was our best period. It’s more mental than physical.”

The most dominant player Thursday was Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien, whose game-tying goal early in the third period was his fourth of the season.

Byfuglien was physical, quick and dangerous throughout the night. He said on the second of the two nights with games, the Jets put their best foot forward.

“It was just moving our feet,” Byfuglien said. “It was just showing we’re a full 60-minute team and we don’t stop.

“We did the right things and we just kept working.”

Maurice said another thing the games Wednesday (a 4-2 win in Toronto) and Thursday showed him was the team’s conditioning is good.

“I think they’re in pretty good shape,” he said. “I think this was a tough trip. It’s a little bit new to me, the number of trips we have of back-to-back then two days off.

Since the Jets took Friday off, there was no update on the condition of rookie centre Andrew Copp, who has missed the last three games with an upper-body injury. He sustained that injury last Saturday in Columbus.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca