Jets aim to please in home opener Want to give fans some fun after opening with a loss in Calgary By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 6:23 PM CDT Friday, Oct. 13, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/10/2023 (1110 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Jets aren’t spending much time worrying about the one that got away.

Rather, they’ve quickly left Wednesday’s hard-luck 5-3 loss to the Calgary Flames — a game in which they soundly outplayed their opponent — in the rear-view mirror. Now, the focus is on more pressing matters: Saturday’s home-opener against former coach Paul Maurice and the Florida Panthers (3 p.m. CT).

“It’s one game out of 82 and we did a lot of good things, a lot of things that we’ve been working on in camp, a lot of things going back to last season,” alternate captain Josh Morrissey said following Friday’s practice.

“Sometimes, you’re on the winning end of those games and sometimes you’re on the losing end. We’ve been on both. We’re just trying to build throughout the season and a couple of days ago was a great start.”

Minus the end result, of course.

“We’re excited to get back in front of our fans,” said captain Adam Lowry.

“(Wednesday’s) result wasn’t what we wanted. But I think as a whole we really like how we played. We generated a lot of chances. We didn’t really give up a whole lot (at) five-on-five. I think, more often than not, if we play like that we’re going to get the result we’re looking for.”

Ironically, the Jets will play a Panthers club that is likely feeling the same way. Florida fell 2-0 in Minnesota on Thursday night despite dominating the Wild in shots (41-21).

“If you watch how they played, they’re kind of in the same boat as us. They certainly deserved a better result as well,” said Lowry.

The third-line centre will likely be tasked with trying to shut down Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk, who had 10 shots on goal and 15 shot attempts against Minnesota.

“He’s one of the premier players in the league,” said Lowry. “He goes about it a different way. He gets to the front of the net, he makes it hard on the opposing team. He’s an important player that we’re going to have to focus on.”

Florida made it to the Stanley Cup final last year, ultimately losing to the Vegas Golden Knights, but are dealing with some significant injury woes to start the new campaign. Their top two offensive defencemen, Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, are both sidelined.

“These guys are a few months removed from making it (to the final). They did that for a reason,” said Morrissey.

“They’re an aggressive team, they’ve got a lot of top-end players, and by the looks of it, they were all over Minnesota. Hopefully as a home-opener team, we can learn from that and be ready to go right off the bat. We know what type of team they have over there, how aggressive they are, so we’ve got to be ready.”

Winnipeg is expected to ice the same lineup, with Connor Hellebuyck in net and David Gustafsson, Logan Stanley and Declan Chisholm as the healthy scratches. There was some concern about Nikolaj Ehlers, who appeared to be hurt in the dying seconds of the Calgary game while trying to prevent an empty-net goal, but he was a full practice participant.

“It’s a tough league, right? Ninety-five points barely got us into the playoffs last year, so you’ve got to dominate at home and you’ve got to, hopefully, have a winning record on the road.”–Jets head coach Rick Bowness

“You would like to see the puck go in the net a little more,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said of what he hopes might change from Game 1 to Game 2.

“But really, did we create enough chances? Yeah, we did. There’s a couple of lapses that we’re addressing with our video and coming into our end in practice. Just coming back into our zone, in terms of reads, who is responsibility is low and whose responsibility has net front, whose responsibility has the forwards or the board side.”

The Jets will also hope their luck turns on the power play. Despite no shortage of quality chances, they went 0-for-4 and gave up a shorthanded goal against the Flames.

Winnipeg will also be looking to build some momentum at the downtown barn. They went 26-13-2 on home ice last year, compared to 20-20-1 in enemy territory, and would like to make Canada Life Centre an even more difficult place for visitors this year.

“It’s a tough league, right? Ninety-five points barely got us into the playoffs last year, so you’ve got to dominate at home and you’ve got to, hopefully, have a winning record on the road,” said Bowness.

“But the most important thing is eyes on the process and how we’re going to do that and we’re going to do that game to game.”

There should be no shortage of emotion on Saturday, especially with old friend Maurice back behind the bench. Lowry said he enjoyed watching his former bench boss have success on a huge hockey stage last spring.

“It was remarkable. But when you kind of look at it as a whole, they won the Presidents Trophy the year before. They returned a lot of the same players. They had a lot of depth, and great goaltending. That’s kind of the thing that you need in the playoffs,” said Lowry.

“They got contributions all throughout their lineup. I was happy to see them go on a run, him and Jamie (Kompon, former Jets associate coach). They certainly deserve it. Too bad they came up short. We’re happy they’re doing well. Just not too well (Saturday).”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg