Winnipeg Jets. Promising night ruined by Jets. By: Gary Lawless Posted: 10/24/ :35 PM

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1 Winnipeg Jets Promising night ruined by Jets By: Gary Lawless Posted: 10/24/ :35 PM The scene was set for an evening to remember, but in the end it was just another losing night for Winnipeg s pro hockey outfit. Stacey Nattress sang seven words before turning it over to the 15,000 or so at the Jets-Bolts game Friday night. "O Canada, our home and native land," was all Nattress needed before resting her microphone at her side and letting the Canadians in the MTS Centre stands sing their anthem. While it was scripted, it didn t feel contrived or cloying. Canada has had a hard week and this was a good moment. The emotional current didn t help the Jets, however, and they were horrible, falling 4-2 to the Steven Stamkos show known as the Tampa Bay Lighting. "It was amazing. There was such energy and I was able to share in the moment and stand there and feel those voices filling the building. It was so powerful," said Nattress. Lots of fans wore red and many broke out their Team Canada jerseys for the occasion. The Jets held a moment of silence prior to the game for slain soldiers Patrice Vincent and Nathan Cirillo, both killed in terrorist attacks earlier this week. "I m proud to be a Canadian and to show support to the fallen soldiers. I go to all the games. But this is important. It s different," said Bob Spiers, wearing a Canada jersey and an Armed Forces cap. "I m an emotional guy. Things like this hit home big-time. It s a proud day and a proud moment. I wouldn t want to live in any other place. Canada is it." Lisa Meyer and her husband Bryan come to lots of Jets games and usually wear the local team s jersey, but Friday was a time for red. "To honour our fallen soldiers. The national anthem always means a lot every night but on this night it means more. We re so lucky to live in Canada. To be proud and strong and free. To be True North," said Lisa Meyer. Some came for the opportunity to gather with other Canadians and the game took a back seat. "I m honouring our troops. I m a very proud Canadian. The sacrifice these men made this week, that our soldiers make all the time to protect us, it needs to be honoured," said Tracy Webber. "I wasn t going to come to the Jets game because, to be honest, right now I m not much of a fan of them. But I came to hear O Canada and be with other Canadians. So my son is at home." This was just Game 7 of an 82-game schedule. Irrelevant in so many ways and meant to be forgotten. Except it was different. It mattered and it will be remembered. The Jets were a different story and will want to forget this game as soon as possible. They lacked focus and finish. None of their players had good nights. Winnipeg gave too many open looks to Tampa s big guns and the visitors didn t miss when given the chance. Jets coach Paul Maurice is quickly finding out he s got even more of a challenge on his hands than he might have expected. His group is mentally soft and doesn t have a compass. Inconsistency has been the hallmark of this club since it moved to Winnipeg and Maurice is the man now tasked with determining how to stamp out that insidious trait. The Jets are drifting towards dangerous territory in a hurry and now own a 2-5 record for a share of last place in the Western Conference. They ll face their cellar mates Sunday when the Colorado Avalanche come to town. Thumb wrestling for the most honest golfer award. Yes, it s still early in the schedule, but in the near future the NHL standings will begin to take shape and making a big move up the charts will become increasingly difficult. The Jets will need to get a major change in their results or we ll be able to label them for what we re seeing right now, and that s a bottom feeder. They won t have emotional pre-game ceremonies to mask reality every night. In fact, the Jets play saw to it the warm and fuzzy feelings rubbed off somewhere in the middle of the second period. The anthem singer and the folks in the stands were strong this night. The Jets didn t live up to the moment. That s becoming their identity. Winnipeg Free Press LOADED

2 Winnipeg Jets Well, say something! By: Tim Campbell Posted: 10/24/ :27 PM Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop (30) stops Winnipeg Jets' Andrew Ladd (16) right during the first period of Friday's game. A personality transplant will be impossible, but what Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice is trying to do with his team goes well beyond what he can draw on a whiteboard. For all the systems and game behaviours the coach is monitoring and adjusting, he has also noticed a behavioural issue he believes must change if up is the direction of the future. "On any team, there s going to be a whole range of personalities and it does seem like this is a quieter team," Jets centre Bryan Little said Friday. "Our captain is a pretty quiet guy. But he (Maurice) kind of challenged us to all step up and be leaders. Even the young guys can step up and have a voice in the dressing room. "It s true. I think we do play better when guys are talking in here and talking on the bench. We respond better to it." The quiet characteristic seems to rise up when things with this team and that has been frequently aren t going that well. Maurice has been dropping the idea of improving that area into various conversations since the season has started and one ally he ll surely have in this social area is right-winger Dustin Byfuglien. "It s just lightening up the mood in the room, about being happy," Byfuglien said Friday. "It s about coming here and enjoying themselves while they re at work. "Be talkative. Anybody can say whatever they want, and don t take offence if it s bad or good. "Everyone needs to be just a bit more vocal." This is surely one of Byfuglien s strengths. While sometimes reclusive with reporters or in public, his teammates will tell you he is usually a gregarious extrovert. "I guess, I don t know, in a way," he said to that on Friday. "Everyone s got their own way of leading. Mine is a little bit more outgoing, to make sure this room s loose rather than having everyone uptight all the time. "It s just like trying to make Bryan smile, to get everyone to talk out there. That makes the game much easier on everybody." Byfuglien said Friday the players take sharp notice of how Maurice is going about his plan to reshape the team, be it the simple X s and O s or the stern-but-supportive teacher-like persona he casts in lieu of just ripping publicly on his team. "It comes with our job, that we know it s not going to be easy no matter what we do around here," Byfuglien said. "We re a family and we re going to stick together. That starts with him (taking) that heat. We know he s got our backs and that we ve got to come out here and just do our jobs. He ll do his and that s how it goes; we re a family. "We know he s a good guy and he knows how to lead us, knows how to do his job here. That s a real key. We know we have trust in him and that s a big thing." That s not to say turning the Jets silent types more vocal will be a short or easy process, but it appears to be underway. "I believe it is important that they talk," the coach said again Friday. "It s a bigger function of youth. You have older players that are established in their game and they say one or two things. "Go back, and you ve seen all the interviews with Joe Sakic or Steve Yzerman, the great leaders, They didn t say very much. They were quiet leaders. But whenever they said something, people listened. "There s a whole group of (young) guys in there. They don t need to wait. They don t need to do that. We need to become connected as a group." The team s youngest players, Jacob Trouba, Adam Lowry and Mark Scheifele, are integral to the transformation Maurice envisions. "We have a young group," the coach said. "The one dynamic in our room is, I think (the) young players are really well-respected because they ve done it right. The veterans, in part, have been really good in allowing us to be a young team and letting their personalities come out a little bit, without that tamping down that happens to a kid, who s got to get on the elevator last and all the other things that the rookies have to do. "Maybe that s still there but it s also a function that the three younger players... they re not sitting on the fourth line. They re key pieces to our group. They have, by virtue of their roles alone, a voice in our room." Winnipeg Free Press LOADED

3 Winnipeg Jets Jets no match for Lightning By: Tim Campbell Posted: 10/24/2014 5:54 PM Comments: 0 Last Modified: 10/24/ :43 PM Updates Promising night ruined by Jets Well, say something! Well, we ll always have Carolina. It s not that the Winnipeg Jets effort was flat Friday night at the MTS Centre but once again, against what s considered elite NHL competition, the team was second-best in the execution and quickness departments and came out on the wrong side of a 4-2 decision against the Tampa Bay Lightning. With only Tuesday s win over the Carolina Hurricanes to go against the grain, the Jets have lost five of their last six and are 1-3 on the fivegame homestand which wraps up Sunday afternoon against Colorado. There hasn t been much winning so far this season just twice in seven games and the Jets have not compared well on most nights when it comes to play-making swiftness. But, before you go all negative on the Jets, they still managed to find openings against a pretty good team and put 30 shots on Ben Bishop through 40 minutes, and 42 overall, creating any number of opportunities that, on another night, could have resulted in more than two goals "I think we feel like we play that way most nights, we ll win our fair share of games," said Jets right-winger Blake Wheeler, who scored in the third. "We understand this is a results deal and we re not really going to pat ourselves on the back, but 95 per cent of that game we were in control and playing really well. Their chances were good chances and they capitalized." What hit us? The Lightning, now and 3-1 on their western road trip, were full value for their four goals on just 18 shots at Ondrej Pavelec before Jets coach Paul Maurice sent Michael Hutchinson in to play the third period. They scored on two how-you-do-it two-on-ones, another on a power-play one-timer and another via the sheer creativity of offensive players not needing much of an opening. "We battled hard," said Pavelec. "We couldn t score in the first period. We had a few chances to score goals and we didn t and they made some plays. A few things went wrong and we couldn t handle it." One glorious moment There was something to crow about for the home side. It finally managed to break through this season for a power-play goal all the way into Game 7 getting Bryan Little s quick release off the rush during a second-period advantage. It briefly gave the home side some hope, cutting Tampa Bay s margin to 2-1. "It s the kind of game that gives you a sour taste in your mouth, because we made a couple of big mistakes and they took advantage, but for most of the game, I thought we outplayed them," Little said. Little s goal was Winnipeg s first in 23 advantages this season, came with the Lightning s Radko Gudas in the penalty box for swinging his stick and hitting Dustin Byfuglien on the back. The Jets had blown a 1:21 five-on-three earlier in the game Oh, those calls They were cautioned about playing with fire, but in the emotion of the game, crossing the line happens easier than you think. The Jets were burned for a second-period power-play goal by Vladislav Namestnikov, making it 3-1 as the Lightning struck on their third advantage of the night. It was a deflation moment for the home side, which had cut the visitors lead earlier in the period. Ondrej Palat then scored with 1:58 left in the second on a well-executed two-on-one, making it 4-1 after two. Bad to be good Proving once again it s better to be really bad to help you get really good, the Lightning this week are finally realizing the benefits of picking third in the 2013 draft. Jonathan Drouin, in his third NHL game, scored his first NHL goal at 4:45 of the second period, putting Tampa Bay ahead 2-0. It was courtesy of a wonderful Nikita Kucherov pass from behind the net, catching all the Jets going the wrong way. How does a really good team, the Lightning, get such a great player so high in the draft, you ask?

4 Well, you may have forgotten just how bad the Lightning were in the lockout season of 2013, third-worst overall at just 40 points in 48 games. This is the reward. Winnipeg Free Press LOADED

5 Winnipeg Jets Twitter talk heats up during NHL games IRENE THOMAIDIS, QMI AGENCY FIRST POSTED: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, :16 AM CDT UPDATED: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, :22 AM CDT If the will for a team to win counted more than winning itself, the Edmonton Oilers would be closer to the top of the Western Conference, instead of in the cellar. According to exclusive data obtained by the Toronto Sun, the Oilers were the most talked-about Canadian team during the opening week of the NHL season according to mentions on the social-networking service. That despite an start. "There's a few things at play there," Chris Doyle, director of media partnerships at Twitter Canada, said. "The team reunited in Edmonton at the beginning of the season. Those tweets combined with excitement of the new season led to a lot buzz." Former captain Wayne Gretzky, the NHL's leading all-time scorer, was among those at a public reunion at Rexall Place sharing stories with fans, including, of course, the 1984 Stanley Cup win. While homegrown talent like the Rangers' Rick Nash and Pens captain Sidney Crosby were first and second for Twitter mentions respectively, the Leafs' Nazem Kadri was the most tweeted about Canadian-based NHL player. In Canada, tweets may speak louder than coaches -- of the six most mentioned teams on Twitter, five were Canadian-based. The only exception was Stanley Cup champs L.A. Kings. "I think Twitter has brought hockey fans closer together," Doyle said. "It's like a shared living room. A venue where players, fans at the game, fans at home and on the road can join in the conversation." There's no doubt Twitter talk heats up during a game. "There will be spikes at unexpected moments, and out-of-the-ordinary fights. Definitely a spike when there's a goal," Doyle said. "It's a chance for fans to have a real-time conversation with other fans." All eyes, and tweets, were on Flames' rookie Johnny Gaudreau when he took the ice for his NHL debut on Oct. 8. "I think Twitter brings fans closer together." The franchises know this and devote their marketing efforts to build up the online hype. "There's hashtag campaigns in every market. Toronto gets the Twitter conversation going with #TMLtalk during every game. Ottawa has #SensGameFace encouraging fan selfies. It really helps build up hype," Doyle said. The teams also like to tweet out Vines -- six-second looping clips -- to get build up fan excitement. "I think what it does is brings fans right to the arena: behind-the-scenes, at ice level. It's real-time and live, and something that can then be shared with their own followers," Doyle said. Fun Vine Most-followed players * Evander Kane (@ekane9jets) * Eric Tangradi (@etangradi) * TJ Galiardi (@TJGaliardi) Most-mentioned players * Evander Kane (@ekane9jets) * Blake Wheeler (@biggiefunke) * Bryan Little Winnipeg Sun LOADED

6 Winnipeg Jets Hutchinson gains come confidence playing in relief of Pavelec 1 BY KEN WIEBE, WINNIPEG SUN FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, :45 PM CDT UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, :51 PM CDT The Winnipeg Jets needed to find a way to get Michael Hutchinson a little work. Clearly, this wasn't what head coach Paul Maurice had in mind. Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec saw his evening end early after giving up four goals on 18 shots including three goals on six shots during the second period in 40 minutes of game action. That prompted Maurice to send out Hutchinson for the third period and the Jets' backup looked pretty good, stopping all nine shots that he faced in what turned out to be a 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Maurice told Hutchinson to be ready for the third during the second intermission rather than send him in cold late in the period after the Lightning went up 4-1 on a goal from Ondrej Palat. It was nice to get back in some game action and see some pucks, said Hutchinson, who gave up three goals on 13 shots in just over 22 minutes of work before he was pulled in the 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings earlier this month. At that point of the game, it doesn't really matter. Whenever it happens, it happens and you can't really prepare for it either way, whether you are in the dressing room or on the bench. It just gave me more time to think about it. I was fortunate to stay calm and stay focused on stopping the puck. Based on the way the schedule sets up, it wouldn't have been a stretch to wonder if Hutchinson might not have seen another start until the final game of an upcoming four-game road trip that ends with a tilt against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center. But thanks to Friday's showing, Hutchinson took an important step to restoring the faith in his head coach. It was good for him to get a good feeling in the net. He made a couple of good saves, so a positive build for him, said Maurice. It opens the door to get him back in there. It gives us a chance to look at the rotation going forward a little different. It's no secret that Pavelec likes to play a lot. But as the Jets found out last season with Al Montoya, finding a way to get somewhere in the range of 20 starts for the backup is important for both parties. It allows the backup to not sit for too long and gives the starter a chance to stay a little fresher. As for Hutchinson, he met the media in Los Angeles after his rough go against the defending Stanley Cup champions and then spent the next two weeks working hard to recapture the good feelings he had dating back to late last season when he put wrapped the bowtie on his storybook season by earning his first two NHL wins. When you have a game like I had my first game, you really just have to go back to the basics and try to control rebounds and not over-think things, said Hutchinson. I was much more comfortable. I was a little nervous before my first game and it obviously didn't go the way I would have liked. Everyone has games where the puck doesn't go your way. It was unfortunate that mine was in my first game of the season. You have to remember that you didn't forget how to stop the puck in a short period of time. The only thing that really matters is that Hutchinson showed that his hard work between appearances paid off and that he might make his next start before he expected. But that doesn't mean he'll be back between the pipes on Sunday against the Colorado Avalanche as the Jets close out this five-game homestand. Adjusting to the life as an NHL backup is a big responsibility, but Hutchinson took a small, yet important step on Friday night. It's totally different, you're not playing as many games so you're doing a lot of extra work in practice, trying to stay sharp, said Hutchinson. You get on early and stay late and you try to improve that way. Winnipeg Sun LOADED

7 Winnipeg Jets Jets zapped by Lightning 4 BY TED WYMAN, WINNIPEG SUN FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, :17 PM CDT UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, :44 PM CDT If there s one thing we learned Friday night it s that the Winnipeg Jets have a long way to go to match up with the NHL s elite teams. As was the case when the Jets played the Western Conference powerhouses in San Jose and Los Angeles, they were out of their league when they took on the Tampa Bay Lightning at MTS Centre. With an abundance of talent, the Lightning made their chances count and got top-level goaltending from Ben Bishop while skating to a 4-2 victory. Though their five-on-five play was decent and they outshot a high-quality opponent, the Jets were simply no match for the likes of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Drouin (who scored his first NHL goal and set up Stamkos for another beauty), Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat when it comes to skill. While Tampa Bay made outstanding, seemingly effortless, plays to score their goals, the Jets struggled with their finish once again, despite directing 42 shots at Bishop. Twice in the second period alone, the Jets had two-on-one breaks while shorthanded but didn t record a shot on goal. They even went offside on one of them. Meanwhile, the result of the Lightning s two two-on-ones? Two goals. They re definitely an offensive team and they took advantage of the opportunities we gave them, Jets centre Bryan Little said. It s the kind of game that gives you a sour taste in your mouth because we made a couple of big mistakes and they took advantage of it, but for most of the game I thought we outplayed them. Five on five it seemed like we outplayed them for 90% of the game. They finished their chances and we didn t score on ours and the mistakes we made were too big to recover from. Little s assertion that the Jets were the better team is questionable. Though controlling the puck a great deal, they never really looked like a threat to win the game. Tampa was just too strong to let them come back. The quality of the chances that we gave up was too high, Jets coach Paul Maurice said. It was a pretty hard battle but when you re down 4-1 after two periods of hockey, it s tough to say that we played that well. The Jets fell to 2-5 on the season and have only one win over the lowly Carolina Hurricanes on a five-game home stand that wraps up Sunday against the Colorado Avalanche. Perhaps more concerning is the fact that, once again, it wasn t all that close. Each of the Jets five losses has come by more than one goal and three of them have come by three goals. The Jets have not once this season come back to tie a game after falling behind by even one goal. A few things went wrong and we couldn t handle it, said Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec, who was pulled in favour of Michael Hutchinson after giving up four goals on 18 shots through two periods. Stamkos opened the scoring, finishing off a beautiful feed from Drouin on a two-on-one after a bad pinch by Jets defenceman Grant Clitsome. Drouin added his first NHL goal early in the second period to make it 2-0. The Jets finally broke their season-long power-play drought when Little scored on a nice feed from defenceman Toby Enstrom to make it 2-1. It was the Jets fourth power-play opportunity of the night and 23rd of the year. At least that s a positive, though they are still 1-for-24 on the season. Vladislav Namestnikov scored on a power play at 12:52 to restore the Lightning s two-goal lead and the Jets trailed 3-1 despite leading on the shot clock at the time. Ondrej Palat scored on slick feed from Tyler Johnson to make it 4-1 before the end of the period. For all intents and purposes it was over, but Blake Wheeler gave the fans some hope when he scored off a goal-mouth scramble midway through the third to make it 4-2. We just give up too good of a look and it s in our net, Wheeler said. That s on us. We need to do a better job of trying to keep them on the outside and when they do get opportunities, bear down in front of our net and let the goalie see the puck. In most pre-season predictions, the Lightning were pegged as one of the NHL s best teams and the Jets one of the worst. So far, both teams are proving the pundits correct. THREE STARS Jonathan Drouin, Lightning Rookie scored his first NHL goal and set up Steven Stamkos for a beauty. Ben Bishop, Lightning The Jets generated plenty of shots, but the big netminder made it look easy. Nikita Kucherov, Lightning Had three assists and looked dangerous all night. THE SKINNY

8 Superstar Steven Stamkos opened the scoring and the talented Lightning capitalized on their chances while the Jets struggled with their finish once again against a rock-steady Ben Bishop. Winnipeg Sun LOADED

9 Winnipeg Jets Jets trying to build on momentum against Stamkos and Lightning BY KEN WIEBE, WINNIPEG SUN FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, :38 PM CDT UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, :41 PM CDT The Winnipeg Jets will attempt to build on the momentum created by a 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes as they face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night at MTS Centre. While the Jets (2-4-0) are playing the fourth game on a five-game homestand, the Lightning (4-2-1) are playing the fourth game of a fivegame road trip. We just want to build that confidence and again, maybe score than one goal. That s the goal, said Jets winger Michael Frolik, whose squad has only 11 goals through six games. Be sharp and be physical. We know that they are a skilled team. We ve got to be physical right from the start, like we did last game. Head coach Paul Maurice talked about the things he reinforces as the Jets look to establish some consistency in their collective game. You talk about all of the things that we liked, the reasons we believe that they took place and prepare to do them again against a differentlooking offensive unit, said Maurice. There was an attitude involved and a preparation. We re focused quite a bit on that right now. Although the Lightning have worked hard at creating depth throughout their forward group, finding a way to try and limit the production of sniper Steven Stamkos will be critical for the Jets. Honestly, on a nightly basis, I play against the other teams top lines all the time. I don t really approach one player differently, said Jets centre Bryan Little. I m playing against good players every night. With (Stamkos), I treat him the same as any other superstar, like (Sidney) Crosby or (Jonathan) Toews or whatever. You ve got to be aware of him but you can t be thinking about it the whole time. Stamkos has five goals and seven points through seven games. Not bad, not great, said Stamkos, when asked about his start. I have pretty high standards for myself. I ve felt great in certain games and not great in others. I m trying to find that consistency. That s what elite players in this league seem to find over the course of the season. Ondrej Pavelec starts for the Jets, while Ben Bishop goes for the Lightning. The Jets will dress the same lineup as Tuesday night. The Lightning will be without three key regulars as Ryan Callahan, Alex Killorn and Victor Hedman are all out with injuries. Prior to the game, the Lightning recalled forward Cedrick Pacquette from the Syracuse Crunch and he is expected to be in the lineup. Here s how I expect both teams to start on Friday: JETS Mathieu Perreault-Mark Scheifele-Blake Wheeler Andrew Ladd-Bryan Little-Dustin Byfuglien TJ Galiardi-Adam Lowry-Michael Frolik Chris Thorburn-Jim Slater-Matt Halischuk Toby Enstrom-Zach Bogosian Mark Stuart-Jacob Trouba Grant Clitsome-Paul Postma Ondrej Pavelec (Michael Hutchinson) LIGHTNING Jonathan Drouin-Steven Stamkos-Ondrej Palat Brett Connolly-Valtteri Filppula-Tyler Johnson Nikita Kucherov-Vladislav Namestnikov-Cedrick Pacquette Brenden Morrow-Brian Boyle-J.T. Brown Matt Carle-Anton Stralman Jason Garrison-Radko Gudas Eric Brewer-Andrej Sustr Ben Bishop (Evgeni Nabokov)

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