NHL opens dressing-room doors for fans

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This article was published 19/05/2018 (2720 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LAS VEGAS — It’s the kind of access the typically ultra-private Winnipeg Jets rarely allow.

But, with the team in the Western Conference final, the NHL now calls the shots. And so folks are getting an inside look at the team as they push towards a possible Stanley Cup final appearance.

In the latest weekly episode of the Quest For The Stanley Cup series, viewers are taken inside the dressing room, on the ice and into the personal lives of several players.

The half-hour video, which is the third in an ongoing series, begins with Game 1 last Saturday in Winnipeg.

“Come on boys, we just had a big win, an emotional win, but we gotta get back to work!” Jets forward Mark Scheifele tells his teammates as they prepare to hit the ice before another sold-out Whiteout crowd.

Brandon Tanev then stands up to announce the starting lineup, rattling off a series of nicknames such as Josh (DJ Redneck) Morrissey, Kyle (Sizzle) Connor and Connor (The King) Hellebuyck.

Of course, the Jets would strike early and often, with Dustin Byfuglien opening the scoring just 65 seconds in, followed by a Patrik Laine power-play goal.

“Will somebody wake up here?” Vegas Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant screams at his team on the bench.

Joel Armia scores to make it 3-0, only to have it waved off due to goalie interference.

“I’m challenging it. I’m taking the chance,” Jets head coach Paul Maurice tells the referee.

“You get three (expletive) timeouts anyways,” he adds to his assistants on the bench, a reference to the mandated TV breaks within a period.

“I think the puck’s already by him before he hits him,” Maurice correctly predicts, seconds before the goal is allowed.

“If they overturn that it’s a joke,” Gallant says on the bench as officials await a decision.

Vegas forward Ryan Reaves sent Jets captain Blake Wheeler flying into the bench later in the game, and happened to be mic’d up. He’s overheard trash-talking Wheeler, who says something about being hit a lot harder before.

“Harder than that? Stay on your feet!” Reaves says. “It won’t be the last one.”

During the first intermission, Gallant tries to rally the troops in the dressing room.

“We expected a big push in the first. I don’t know why the goal (expletive) counted, but it counted,” he tells his team. “We gotta do the simple thing, we gotta do the right thing.”

The Jets won the series opener 4-2.

The cameras then follow Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers last Sunday as they drive from their home to Bell MTS Iceplex for practice.

“This is a dream playing in the Stanley Cup conference finals right now. Not something I would have expected to already be happening in my third year,” Ehlers says.

“It’s pretty unreal. I think the atmosphere in the arena is the best in the league,” Laine adds.

The pair are shown signing autographs and taking pictures with fans outside the facility, then working out inside.

Towards the end of the episode, some snippets from Monday’s Game 2 are shown.

Tomas Tatar opens the scoring, and the Jets are reeling.

“We gotta fight through it, men, fight through it,” Maurice tells his team on the bench.

But another Vegas goal before the end of the first period puts the Jets in a hole they can’t recover from.

“We knew they were coming boys, we just gotta win one period, that’s it,” Wheeler says during the first intermission in the dressing room.

“Stay with it, stay with it, play right through their D-men. We grind these (expletive). Don’t worry about leaking, don’t worry about breaking anything loose, everything goes to their net, you get on the body, you get on their D,” Maurice barks.

Vegas skated to a 3-1 win.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg