Road-weary Jets have first real practice in nearly a month

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This article was published 22/11/2016 (3270 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Winnipeg Jets went 29 days without a bona fide NHL practice.

On Tuesday and in the midst of a withering schedule in which they have played 16 games over that span, they got reacquainted with a real-live workout. It didn’t look pretty but that’s sometimes they way things go when the fatigue factor is high and you are crawling along on a three-game losing streak.

“It’s tough to work out the kinks between games when you don’t have the time to do it and start to feel it and start to see the reason behind it,” said three-year NHLer Adam Lowry Tuesday afternoon. “Obviously, we’re all professionals and changes should be able to be implemented but sometimes it doesn’t work like that.

“So, it’s nice to get out there and feel the puck. Obviously, in game situations, there’s not a lot of touches. You start start to feel like you lose some of the hand skills sometimes.”

Jets head coach Paul Maurice was content with what he saw.

“(It was) pretty much what you expected,” said Maurice, whose club takes on Central Division rival Minnesota Wednesday night at the Xcel Energy Center. “You go for a heavy run of games, day off, so we had a chance to do some things we’ve only talked about or shown on video. And get some extra work for some guys, too, that hopefully moves some of these guys closer to returning to the lineup.”

A lengthy injured list has plagued the Jets. Defenceman Toby Enstrom took a maintainence day Tuesday for an unspecified ailment but is expected to play Wednesday.

Right-winger Drew Stafford, who has missed 15 games due to an upper-body problem, is also likely to play Wednesday.

“Drew’s available for the lineup (Wednesday) night,” said Maurice. “He needed to get through a full practice and feel good. As of now he did, but we’ll wait till tomorrow morning.”

Forwards Kyle Connor (upper body) and Bryan Little (lower body) both practised in orange non-contact jerseys and are day-to-day. Connor could play on Friday in Nashville but Little is unlikely to suit up for game action this week.

Forwards Mathieu Perreault (upper body) and blue-liner Tyler Myers (lower body) are not progressing as quickly. Winger Joel Armia (knee) is a longer-term injury.

Maurice stressed not all of what ails the Jets is physical.

“We needed the mental break from those two (losses in Boston and Carolina) and now we get back to teams we play a lot and understand the style of game that’s going to happen,” said Maurice. “I do think the day off helped. The mood is lighter in practice in that they’ve got some energy they’ll talk on the ice because they’ve got a little more energy.

“The lack of practice time is a challenge for sure but I’m not sure it’s hurt our energy level. I think not practising is part of the reason we’ve been able to survive what we’ve been going through with the injuries we’ve had. There’s one other team dealing with what we’ve been dealing with and that’s Dallas.”

Winnipeg’s ineffectiveness in the faceoff circle has been a glaring weakness this season. It’s something more practice time could cure.

The Jets are dead last in the league, operating at a 44.5 per cent clip, a full three per cent behind the 29th-ranked Pittsburgh Penguins. They are 12 per cent below the Anaheim Ducks, who lead the NHL with a 56.7 per cent mark.

Lowry, for example, is holding his own with a 46.6 per cent mark. 

“It’s not absolutely correlated to winning but at certain times, we’ve got four young guys taking faceoffs for the most part that are in that early part of their career,” said Maurice. “What we like is we’re starting to see nights where Adam Lowry has a big night. We’re starting to see the progression.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14