Plenty to be giving thanks for

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/11/2017 (2850 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — It’s really no one’s business — except, perhaps, their bosses’ — what the Winnipeg Jets had planned late Thursday for the rest of American Thanksgiving here in sunny, sweltering southern California.

Whether they had a team dinner complete with all the trimmings, split into smaller groups and scattered to enjoy steak or sushi, or simply barricaded themselves at the hotel and ordered room service, the Jets have much to be thankful for right now.

The Central Division club is walking tall and looking good as one of the NHL’s premier clubs just past the quarter mark of the 2017-18 season.

On Wednesday night, Winnipeg gutted out an impressive 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings — buoyed by a sensational 38-save effort from goalie Steve Mason — to improve to 13-5-3 and remain second in the Central Division and Western Conference.

After 21 games, the Jets find themselves No. 3 overall in the league behind only the powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning (16-3-2) and the Central Division-rival St. Louis Blues (16-5-1). The Jets have accumulated the same number of points (29) as both the Columbus Blue Jackets and Toronto Maple Leafs, but have games in hand on those clubs and get the third perch based on winning percentage.

Indeed, Winnipeg still has 61 games left on the schedule, and much could change before the Stanley Cup playoffs begin the second week of April. But if recent history means anything, an NHL team’s position in the standings on U.S. turkey day is a reasonably accurate indicator of whether or not it qualifies for the post-season.

Since the 2011-12 season — the Jets’ inaugural campaign after relocating from Atlanta — 78 per cent of squads occupying a spot north of the magic playoff line when the holiday hits wind up making the sweet 16.

While the numbers might be on Winnipeg’s side, Paul Maurice likely didn’t carve off an extra drumstick or treat himself to another piece of pumpkin pie to celebrate. In fact, the Jets head coach won’t even entertain the notion his club’s playoffs hopes appear to be favourable with December fast approaching.

He’d much rather his coaching staff and players focus on the task at hand, whether it’s a video session to review the penalty kill, a new forechecking drill in practice or, like today, an afternoon battle with the host Anaheim Ducks at 3 p.m. CT.

“What we want to get really good at is handling our day, handling where we are right at that specific time. Spending any time thinking about where we’re at as a permanent thing, that somehow any of this gets easier, is a really dangerous place to go mentally, I think,” Maurice said Thursday, following an afternoon skate at the Honda Center. “There’s nothing to say a small sample size doesn’t change. I can’t use that… ‘Hey, fellas, we’re good. It’s Thanksgiving, we’re in.’ I can’t use it.”

The Jets, who rebounded in L.A. after losing 5-3 to the Nashville Predators on Monday, wrap up a four-game road trip with games on back-to-back days. Connor Hellebuyck returns to the net as Winnipeg faces the Ducks, and then the team collides with the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.

Winnipeg 2.0 has only qualified for the playoffs once, and that was during the 2014-15 season — Maurice’s first full season behind the bench. That year, U.S. Thanksgiving fell on Nov. 27 and the Jets, fresh off back-to-back victories that week over Columbus and the Buffalo Sabres, boasted a 12-9-3 record and were above the playoff threshold. They were one of 13 teams in a playoff spot at that point in the 2014-15 season and were there at the end. A dozen teams out of 16 remained locked in during the 2015-16 campaign, while 13 of 16 did it last year.

Those are intriguing numbers for fans of the club eagerly anticipating a repeat of the hysteria that hit Winnipeg’s downtown rink during that playoff appearance, but meaningless to the men charged with making it happen, it seems.

“You focus on the next game. You don’t read headlines, you don’t focus on where you are in the standings,” said captain and right-winger Blake Wheeler, who is tied with his centre Mark Scheifele for the club lead in points (25).

“You just focus on the next game… it’s just trying to keep that one-track mind, worry about the day you have in front of you and do that every single day. Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, because you start doing that, you’re going to slip up and wonder what happened,” he said.

Durable blue-liner Josh Morrissey, who played all 82 games of his 2016-17 rookie season and has been present for all 21 this year, has bought in to the same approach.

“Obviously, you’d rather be in a good place right now than not sure, but at the same time, there’s a lot of hockey left. There’s a lot of points on the table in the next three-quarters of the season,” Morrissey said. “For us, we wanted to have a good start, and at the start of the year, if we would have said this is where we’d be, we’d be happy.

“As a team, we know we have a lot of areas to improve, and we want to keep pushing that envelope to get better and better and get to where our goals are.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @WFPJasonBell