GAMEDAY: Jets at Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS – As the top team in the National Hockey League, the Winnipeg Jets know they will bring out the best opponents every night.

That certainly doesn’t make the schedule they’re dealing with any easier, but it’s not a fact they’re hiding from either.

Regardless of the opponent – be it a home game against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, a physical divisional battle with the Minnesota Wild or a motivated team like the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday – the Jets expect a high level of performance.

“That definitely wasn’t the case last night,” Jets captain Adam Lowry said at Friday’s practice in Vegas. “When we looked at the video and tape from last night, there were areas of our game that we weren’t completely clear on. If we are not at our best in these areas, we will not generate many chances on offense and spend a lot of time on defense. (Head coach Scott Arniel’s) message about what we need to improve on was pretty loud and clear.”

Their first chance to improve on those things comes today against the Vegas Golden Knights, who are also off to a strong start to the season. While the Jets lead the Central with a record of 18-5-0, Vegas is the top team in the Pacific at 14-6-3.

Jets assistant coach Dean Chynoweth has seen how the group responded to tough losses earlier this season. Whether it was a commanding 6-2 win in Detroit after a disappointing 6-4 loss to Toronto or a two-game set against Florida with a 6-3 win on home ice – Chynoweth knows the team will be ready to press back after a tough 4-1 loss to Los Angeles on Wednesday.

“You go through a season where you have an 82-game schedule and you’re going to have those games and then it’s all about how you respond,” Chynoweth said. “It’s the next game, it’s the next shift, it’s about a goal and you have to be able to put yourself in a position to succeed in it.”

With the local puck dropping in Las Vegas at 5:30 p.m., the Jets will not hold a morning skate on the Friday before the game. Thursday’s practice was all about getting back to playing the way the Jets want and recovering as much as possible.

“Do everything you can to make sure you’re up and ready tomorrow, mentally sharp and able to make the right decisions out there,” Lowry said. “Like every game on this road trip, there was a feeling that we were playing against a great team and we had to do our best to have success here.”

Only one player did not participate in training, and that was Vladislav Namestnikov (Chynoweth said this was for maintenance purposes). With the veteran forward off the ice, Winnipeg’s line rushes looked like this:

Connor Scheifele Vilardi

Perfetti-Gustafsson-Ehlers

Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton

Barron-Kupari-Iafallo

Morrissey DeMelo

Fleury Pionk

Heinola Miller

Stanley Coghlan

From Lowry’s perspective, the Jets want to improve in all three zones. What they do at one end of the ice often causes ice to migrate upward. Winnipeg missed 11 high-danger chances against Los Angeles (according to Natural Stat Trick) and generated seven of their own.

In the third period (where they currently have a goal difference of plus-34), the Jets were only able to put two shots into the Kings’ net. Winnipeg didn’t spend as much time in the offensive zone as they would have liked, and Lowry felt that was due to issues in their own defense.

Compare that to what Winnipeg accomplished in its win over Minnesota, limiting the Wild to just four shots in the third period.

“It’s about connection, predictability and execution,” Lowry said. “I think that with strikers working for D, it’s about the strikers being in the places that D expects. The D partners communicate and are the eyes for the guy who needs to go back and get the puck. Any time you break out as a five-man unit, you can generally get the puck through the neutral zone and get to your forecheck. I think that’s when we’re at our best.”

So look for the priorities in Winnipeg’s game to be controlling the puck, breaking out of their zone as a five-man unit and spending a little more time in the offensive zone against Vegas – which is a 2-1 shootout loss had to accept against Colorado.

Two motivated teams will face off at T-Mobile Arena on Friday, and Lowry doesn’t think the similarities end there.

“They’re built very similarly to us,” Lowry said. “They have tremendous depth and are getting contributions from everywhere in their lineup, a lot of the guys are consistently involved and have gotten off to great starts. They have a really deep defense, they make it hard to get to the front of the net, their D blocks a lot of shots. They have some great goalies back there.”

Should Winnipeg emerge victorious, they will reach 10 road wins and secure at least one split on this six-game trip across multiple time zones.

“Finding ways to win on the road builds confidence in your group and camaraderie,” Lowry said. “It’s hard to win in other teams’ buildings. Ultimately, we were pretty successful along the way. Obviously we didn’t like some of our recent away games, but when you spend a long period of time you can build relationships off the ice that only strengthen the group here.”