Jets centre to play 500th game, none in playoffs

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This article was published 06/11/2014 (3983 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jets centre Bryan Little plays his 500th NHL game tonight.

The 26-year-old former first-round pick has 127 goals and 301 points so far.

“It’s definitely special,” Little said Wednesday. “I didn’t think I’d be at this point of my career this fast. For me, tomorrow’s just another game and another chance to get a win.”

He said he remembers his first NHL goal, one of six he scored in the 2007-08 season.

“Probably one of my ugliest goals, from behind the net,” he said.

Little is among numerous Jets who have not yet played a Stanley Cup playoff game but might be starting to discover the path to some.

“It definitely feels like there’s a kind of confidence there that’s been missing before,” he said of the Jets’ recent 5-0-1 streak. “I think right now we’re going into every game believing we can win.

“There is a bit of a different feel, confidence. It’s kind of executing our game plan the way we want to. If we have to win 1-0 or go to a shootout to get the two points, that’s what we’re doing. We’re getting out of these close games on the right side and we’re beating good teams while we’re doing it.”

 

Peluso cleared for action

TONIGHT marks a return of the Jets’ lineup to full health.

Or at least, available health.

Left-winger Anthony Peluso, who has been out with an upper-body injury and was placed on injured reserve as of Oct. 24, is now cleared to play.

‘There’s no room for arrogance in the NHL

on a good week’

— Jets coach Paul Maurice on Wednesday about the Jets’ recent 5-0-1 run

He practised with six other Jets Wednesday, though most of the team took the day off the ice.

 

Hot PK vs. sizzling PP

ONE asset the Jets will bring to tonight’s game is an 88.2 per cent penalty kill, fourth ranked in the NHL. It will need to be good. The Pens are running a power play at 41.3 per cent so far.

“When we see the bobbled puck or if they turn to face the boards, we can be quick on them and have good pressure,” Jets winger Michael Frolik said. “It’s huge, too, if before they enter the zone they have to dump the pucks. That’s the key, too. The guys have done a great job. Hopefully we’ll keep going.”

 

Pavelec preaches patience

SOMETIMES the lightning rod, Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec has been doing his share in the team’s recent upswing.

But he wanted no part in another CSI-style examination of his play on Wednesday.

“It’s only 12, 13 games into the season,” said Pavelec, who’s 6-4-1 this season, with a 2.01 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage. “We can talk about it after half a season. But I feel really good and I don’t think it’s that big a difference. Just a little more paitent.”

 

Falcons on the big screen

HISTORICA Canada will premiere its newest Heritage Minute production tonight at the MTS Centre.

During the first intermission, the Winnipeg Falcons will be shown on the arena’s jumbo above-ice screen.

The story of the 1920 Olympic gold-medal winners in hockey is about the Icelandic Canadians who served their country in war and on the international sporting stage.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca