Big win? Old news already; eye-on-the-prize Jets have already moved on

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This article was published 11/05/2018 (2680 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s not much time for the Winnipeg Jets to savour their biggest win in franchise history; the Vegas Golden Knights have arrived in town representing the only remaining obstacle standing in their way of reaching the Stanley Cup final.

Just hours after their thrilling 5-1 Game 7 victory in Nashville, members of the Jets had already turned their focus to getting ready for the next challenge ahead.

The Western Conference final against the Cinderella expansion team from Sin City kicks off Saturday at Bell MTS Place (6 p.m., CBC, TSN 1290).

“It’s only Round 2. We’re here to win a Stanley Cup and we haven’t achieved anything yet. We all want to continue playing hockey,” goalie Connor Hellebuyck said.

General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, head coach Paul Maurice and several players met with the media Friday. Vegas assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon, head coach Gerard Gallant and a handful of Golden Knights skaters were doing the same later in the day.

“I think you approach as you approach all the games we’ve played so far in the playoffs. You know, it’s a little bit of an adjustment because you’re playing a different team,” Jets captain Blake Wheeler said.

“I think we just played a big game and they’re only getting bigger from here on out. So I think you want to try and do a lot of the same things that we did last night in Nashville and have a good first period, get a good start. But you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Just carry a lot of that excitement we had last night into Game 1.”

Winnipeg went 1-1-1 against Vegas during the season and will be looking to snap a two-game losing streak on home ice. The Jets dropped Game 4 and Game 6 to Nashville in the second round. Prior to that, they had won 13 straight at Bell MTS Place.

“We’re real comfortable in this building. We’ll continue to play with confidence in here. Obviously you want to protect your home ice, so we’d like to get off to a good start in the series,” said Wheeler.

Centre Mark Scheifele, who leads the NHL with 11 playoff goals so far, is hoping to carry momentum over from the Nashville series to this one while downplaying his own individual accomplishments so far.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about a personal game at all. It’s all about winning games and that’s the focus of all our players. It’s all about winning games, it’s all about that extra blocked shot, that extra hit, a good stick in the neutral zone, whatever that is,” he said.

“We lay it all on the line each and every night. That’s what it’s all about. It’s never about personal accomplishments in playoffs.”

Sniper Patrik Laine, with three goals so far in the post-season, said he’s relishing the opportunity to play well into the spring.

“It’s exciting and just happy to be here every day and not do summer workouts back home,” he said. “I’m super excited to be here and just having a chance to be playing playoff hockey with this team. It’s pretty awesome.”

A young and rather inexperienced team when this run began, Laine said they’ve learned some valuable lessons along the way.

“We knew we didn’t have a lot of experience from the playoffs, but we showed that during the regular season that we have a really good team and a lot of young players who’ve played in the big games before. Obviously, not in the NHL playoffs. I think everybody has just been excited to play hockey and playoff hockey and just try to improve their game from the regular season. I think everybody’s done a really good job of that,” he said.

Hellebuyck is expecting a major challenge from the Golden Knights, who have speed to burn and needed just 10 games to mow through both Los Angeles and San Jose en route to the conference final.

“You know, I think they’re a really good team. They’re coached well, they’re strong right to the core, they have four good lines and solid defence and a really good goalie,” he said.

“To say anything is going to come easy is completely wrong. This is going to be a dogfight right to the end. I know those guys are going to be fighting their way back, too.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg