Winnipeg Free Press http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/former-oiler-huddy-knows-value-of-drills- at-jets-practices-395189781.html Former Oiler Huddy knows value of drills at Jets practices By: Mike Sawatzky They're a staple of training camp. Most hockey practices, in fact. The mind-numbing, tedious, seemingly endless on-ice drills: breakouts, three-on-twos, two-on- ones, power-play and short-handed situations, and... Tedious? Not for Winnipeg Jets assistant coach Charlie Huddy, whose eyes light up when he talks about them. You could say drills are the bread and butter of his workday. Huddy, along with the other members of the club's coaching staff, invest a good chunk of their prep time creating new drills or modifying old ones for future workouts. "We're building practice for the structure of the game," Huddy said following a training camp scrimmage at the MTS Iceplex Wednesday afternoon. "We went through the summer, had meetings and we realized there were areas we need to get better in. We need to manufacture drills to get better in the areas we need to get better at." Drills at training camp, with a large number of new, younger players, have a narrow focus. "Mostly just five-on-five structure," Huddy said, adding the 3-0 score in Tuesday's preseason- opening loss to Calgary "was whatever." "There was structure we had put in the last four days of practice... and there were signs of doing the right things. So the guys are getting it." It's a lot about helping new players learn the Jets' way of doing things and reminding veterans about how they got there. "We start in components, take basic things and then continue to build — add a player, add another play so now, instead of working on a one-on-two or two-on-two, now it’s a two-on-three to a three-on-three to a four-on-four to a five-on-five," said assistant coach Jamie Kompon, who is serving as the club's media point man while head coach Paul Maurice is working behind the Team Europe bench in the World Cup of Hockey final series. Veterans such as Adam Lowry are already locked in. The 23-year-old centre is a fourth-year pro in his sixth training camp with the Jets. The son of former NHL player and coach Dave Lowry — the current bench boss of the WHL's Victoria Royals — he understands the importance of grunt work. "I think if you look at the drills we’re doing right now, there’s a lot of simple lessons we can implement in our games, whether its’s certain things on three-on-twos or two-on-ones, things like that," Lowry said. "It’s important that you take the time to really pay attention and you find the things the coaching staff is trying to utilize in practices and you use that in game situations." Captain Blake Wheeler is a believer, too. "We do drills all season," Wheeler said. "We try to work on things, work on your structure. You do it with a purpose to get everyone on the same page." Huddy, a defenceman on the free-wheeling, high-scoring Edmonton Oilers teams of the 1980s, said tactical changes to the game and technological advances made it essential for clubs in the modern era to prepare their players like never before. Video allows teams to review virtually everything, dissecting every play. "In the regular season we pre-scout the other teams on their play and make adjustments to our play so that will carry over into our practice," he said. "We would set up different drills to adjust to the different teams we're playing. And then again, when the games are over, we always watch the games again to see what we need to improve on and we'll build our practice around the areas we need improvement." Huddy concentrates on the work of his defensive corps. "I'll spend more time watching the D if it's breakouts or neutral zone," he said. "(For) the young defenceman, the hardest part of the game — they might have skill, they may be able to skate — is the play in your own end, the D-zone coverage. With so many skilled players, things happen so fast." Reading plays in the NHL is a big jump from the AHL, and an even longer journey from playing junior. Forwards and defencemen learn from the same drills, improving play-reading and reaction on both sides of the puck, Huddy said. "It takes time... it's not an easy process," he said. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/delayed-but-not-dismayed- 395215061.html Delayed but not dismayed Tanev's road to the brink of the NHL took a detour along the way By: Scott Billeck While most future NHLers were starting their rookie season in junior at 16, the Winnipeg Jets prospect Brandon Tanev was stepping away from the game he loved. In fact, if he didn’t have his brother — Vancouver Canucks defenceman Chris Tanev — blazing a trail before him, it’s unlikely Brandon would be mentioned in the same breath as the National Hockey League. "(Chris) has been in the league now for a couple years and just seeing him grow has really echoed onto me in many ways," Tanev, 24, said from his locker room stall Wednesday at the MTS Iceplex. "I look up to him in many ways. His help has been unbelievable." The duo’s curse wasn’t their skill — both possessed what it took to move up the ranks throughout their childhood years. Instead, what stunted their progression was their diminutive stature during their mid-teens — both closer to the five-foot mark than the much more desirable and seemingly mandatory six-foot region. So the younger Tanev took a three-year hiatus from the game, choosing to attend high school and wait and hope for the day he woke up several inches taller. "I wasn’t physically mature yet and I wasn’t able to make any of the Triple-A teams that I played for growing up," Tanev said. As with brother Chris, Tanev would eventually hit the growth spurt he needed to step back onto the ice with a purpose. In 2010, Tanev, then 19, joined the Junior B ranks with the Markham Waxers in the Ontario Junior Hockey League. At the same time, current Providence College head coach Nate Leaman — then at Union College — had been keeping tabs on the now 6-0, 180-pound left-winger. Those tabs turned into a scholarship for the Toronto native when Leaman took over the reins with at Providence in 2011. After playing one year in the British Columbia Hockey League with the Surrey Eagles, Tanev joined the Providence College Friars, recording 11 points in 33 games in his freshman season. "We went out and watched him — two or three games — and we really liked him." Leaman said in a telephone interview from Rhode Island on Wednesday morning. "His freshman year was an adjustment, like it is for most guys, but he just kept improving and improving." Leaman said Tanev’s skills became game-changing over time, perhaps no more apparent than in the NCAA national championship game against Boston College April 11, 2015. With just more than six minutes remaining in a 3-3 hockey game, Tanev picked up a loose puck just behind his centreman at the right faceoff dot, surged into the slot and scored the game- winning goal just under the bar in the left-hand corner of the net. Providence were national champions for the first time. "It was unbelievable, you can’t replace that type of feeling. It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my lifetime," Tanev said. "At the same time, what that game meant for our school, Providence College, the community, it was the biggest game in the school’s history. I know each one of us on that team was glad to wear that jersey." Leaman said there weren’t too many nights where NHL teams didn’t want a word with Tanev in the season after, his senior year. Winnipeg was one of those teams. Tanev attended several NHL development camps but eventually signed a one-year, two-way pact with the Jets after his final game with Providence this spring. "It was a proud moment for my family and I," said Tanev, who played three games with the Jets on their western road swing that closed out the 2015-16 season. Leaman feels certain Tanev has the desirables of an NHL player, pointing to his 15-goal, 28- point senior season before signing with the big club. "Definitely," he said. "He was a pretty elite player at this level. "The one thing that I was always amazed by with Brandon was that there were no off days for him. Because of his energy level and his elite skating, there were very few days he wasn’t the fastest going player on the ice. I can think of maybe just one or two games were he looked tired." http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/note-book-395215051.html NOTE BOOK By: Scott Billeck and Mike Sawatzky Patrik Laine took in his first scrimmage action with the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday afternoon. The 18-year-old Finn didn’t make it onto the scoresheet, but he got a taste of what the NHL life will be like after going up against Dustin Byfuglien, Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler.