Road not so sinister now

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/11/2014 (3980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It still looks daunting, another five games in a row away from the MTS Centre, but the feeling the Winnipeg Jets have started to find a game seems to have put a little confidence into their heads.

“I think the road, it’s brought out the best in us,” right-winger Blake Wheeler said Friday, as most of the team took a day off the ice to prepare for tonight’s trip-opener in Ottawa (6 p.m., Sportsnet, TSN 1290).

“It kind of plays right into the game we try to play, hard-working and keeping things simple. I think it’s given us success. The last road trip was kind of a bit of a turning point for us, realizing the style we want to play. We hope to continue that this week.”

The Jets finished a four-game trip last weekend at 3-0-1, giving up just four goals in the process and ending it with back-to-back 1-0 shutout wins.

The team is 4-2-1 on the road so far, and is unbeaten outright in its last seven at 5-0-2.

“The last road trip, we scored two goals in three games and probably should have won all three games,” Wheeler said about the trip’s final three games in New Jersey, New York and Chicago. They went 2-0-1. “So I think that kind of flipped a switch in guys’ heads, that this is a little bit more fun than maybe scoring a couple more goals and losing games.

“It’s realizing what’s important and what’s giving us success. We have a great feel in our locker-room, feeling that we haven’t had around here yet. It’s a good sign and a good thing to realize, that last road trip.”

Veteran defenceman Mark Stuart said looking ahead with focus, and not behind with satisfaction, is key in the coming week.

“We are a team that’s playing with confidence but we know we need to push and get better,” he said. “Every day… it’s doing what you can do to make sure you’re ready for the next game.

“We’re going to look at video. Every team brings something different and every team’s a challenge, It’s tough with the schedule, it’s so condensed and has a lot of back and forth, but you kind of just have to clear your mind and concentrate on the next opponent.

“Last night was a good effort, but today is clearing your mind and looking towards Ottawa.”

The final stretch of what still looks challenging — but once looked mountainous — begins tonight. That would be a stretch of 11 games with nine on the road.

The Jets went 3-0-1 on the first leg of the big road swing, then came home and beat then-division-leading Nashville and battled the Pittsburgh Penguins tooth and nail on Thursday at the MTS Centre before falling 4-3 in a shootout.

At 4-0-2 in this stretch, now it’s off to Ottawa, Montreal, Carolina, Nashville and Minnesota to complete the run.

‘The last road trip was kind of a bit of a turning point for us, realizing the style we want to play. We hope to continue that this week’

— Blake Wheeler

“I worry about everything,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said about the five-gamer ahead. “Even if it was a big, long home block, I’d find something to worry about in there, too.”

Maurice said Friday there’s still a long way to go for the Jets.

“I’m not as excited about the hockey we’re playing right now, as it seems the outside world might be,” he said. “You might be surprised by it, other people are, but I also wasn’t quite as concerned about the original start (of 1-4).

“I knew we had to go through this at some point. We’re going through it. It’s almost better it came right in your nose at 1-4. All those things, it was probably good instead of having it happen in January.

“We’re going to play as hard some nights, like (Thursday), and lose. As long as you understand that this is your routine and this is how we get ready for games and this is how we expect we’re going to play and this is what it looks like, the more we can get that ingrained… then there’s your identity.

“Then you can build some confidence and feel good going out into a long road trip.”

 

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca