Winnipeg Free Press https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/jets-focus-on-details-prior-to-western- road-swing-449832713.html

Power play addressed before road trip Team preparing to embark upon three-game trip out west

By: Jason Bell

The Jets focused Friday on the finer points of their game after gutting out a gruelling on-ice session 24 hours earlier that left many hunched over and gasping for breath.

Head coach designed a practice at Bell MTS Iceplex with plenty of quickness drills in mind early on, but went heavy on special teams work for the final 30 minutes, prior to the team’s departure for .

It’s the first of three straight contests on the road for the Jets, who are looking to rebound from a startling 7-2 loss to the Maple Leafs at a jam-packed Bell MTS Place on Wednesday night.

The events of the night might have unfolded much differently had Winnipeg’s power-play unit — simply merciless in the pre-season — managed to slip a puck or two past Leafs netminder Frederik Andersen during three man-advantage opportunities before the game was 12 minutes old.

Shooting blanks was a momentum-killer for the hosts, who disintegrated defensively and allowed Toronto forwards Nazem Kadri, James van Riemsdyk and William Nylander room to fire back-to-back-to-back tallies in just under three minutes of play before the first period expired.

The Jets finished the night with a whopping eight power-play chances, but came away empty.

While Maurice refused to characterize the final 20 minutes of Thursday’s workout as a "bag skate," clearly the message was delivered after the ugly defeat to open the 2017-18 regular season.

On Friday, however, it was more about exercising their hockey minds.

Jets centre and alternate captain Mark Scheifele said the approach was expected and appreciated by the group.

"Obviously, after the Toronto game we deserved to skate a little bit. It shows us we don’t wanna do that again. But we worked on some good things (Friday) and, hopefully, got much better," said Scheifele, who beat Andersen midway through the final frame with Toronto already ahead 6-0.

Scheifele, right-winger and defenceman Dustin Byfuglien had the biscuit moving at rapid speed in practice, creating space for sniper Patrik Laine to take a pass and unload in a hurry, with Adam Lowry providing the screen.

"We gotta capitalize on our power play when we get the chances. Look at the start of the game. If we get an early one, it can change the whole outlook of the game," Scheifele said. "It’s something we always want to be on the right side of instead of the wrong side.

"Any time you go through (a lopsided loss), you gotta learn something. Clearly, what we did didn’t work and the biggest thing for us is put that in the past, know it’s going to take a lot more hard work. This league’s really good and we’re going to play against some really good opponents this upcoming road trip and you gotta put it behind you and focus on the next one."

The Flames will be playing their opener after getting a faceful of Connor McDavid on Wedesday night in a 3-0 shutout loss to the host Oilers. McDavid, the NHL’s most valuable player last season, ripped a hat trick in the Battle of .

The Jets will get an up-close-and-personal look at the young superstar Monday at Edmonton’s stunning before heading to Vancouver for a meeting with the Canucks on Thursday.

Winnipeg mismanaged just about every aspect of their defensive game against Toronto and left goalie Steve Mason out to dry numerous times, although he, too, had a shaky ’17-18 debut.

Maurice said when the power play failed to cash in and the Leafs scored first, there were signs of panic from a squad still not accustomed to winning on a consistent basis.

"It was the score of the game (that) dictated how we played defensively and that’s a mistake. That’s got to get corrected. We had a player fall down and run over our goalie on the first — you just get over it. It’s a bad break. I didn’t think on (Leafs goals) two and three — three especially — that we had the right mindset.

"That’s consistent around the league of a team that doesn’t have a lot of winning on its side, and wants to. It’s not that they’re not trying. They’ve just got to get everything back on one shift. They haven’t won enough to have confidence to run their own game. And every year it’s a brand-new team. You can win two Stanley Cups in a row and have a tough night. It happens."

The final comment was a reference to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who were stung 5-4 in overtime Wednesday by the St. Louis Blues and then got smacked 10-1 by the on Thursday.

Maurice was blunt the day before, suggesting the club cannot move forward if it can’t properly defend. Jets winger Mathieu Perreault said the directive isn’t falling on deaf ears.

"That’s been (the message) all training camp, too. We’ve been talking about that. It didn’t show in the first game, but I think we’re going to move on from that game," said Perreault, the other Winnipeg scorer Wednesday. "Whether you lose 7-2 or 1-0 the first game, we see it as a loss, a loss of two points.

"We’re focusing on the next two points. Obviously, we have to be better defensively and we’re working on that."

Jets centre Matt Hendricks remains on the injured reserve list with a lower-body injury. Nic Petan, a healthy scratch in the home opener, took line rushes with Lowry and Shawn Matthias and is expected to play in Calgary.

Marko Dano appeared to be the 13th forward in Friday’s practice, while Ben Chiarot and Tucker Poolman were the extra defencemen.

The Athletic Winnipeg https://theathletic.com/119535/2017/10/07/hextall-the-jets-silent-star-dustin-byfuglien-has-made- his-mark-on-winnipeg-without-his-words/

Hextall: The Jets' silent star, Dustin Byfuglien, has made his mark on Winnipeg without his words

By Leah Hextall

Dustin Byfuglien is a mountain of a man, and that makes him perhaps the most recognizable athlete in hockey-mad Winnipeg, where the Jets are the biggest show in town.

He is also such a unique player, one with an offensive flair and a penchant for delivering bone- rattling bodychecks. When Byfuglien is patrolling the blueline, he is impossible to ignore.

So how is it we know so little about the player coach Paul Maurice calls the fabric of the ?

The fact is Byfuglien simply doesn’t want to talk about himself. That's not who he is. He finds no solace in a scrum of reporters with microphones and cameras.

But the big man is no recluse. To those who know him well, Byfuglien is a warm, witty, fun- loving and generous human being. He is beloved by his teammates even if he remains an elusive, somewhat mysterious figure to the fan base.

And the story of how Byfuglien became an NHL star and champ is as unique as the man himself.

In 1996, Brandon Wheat Kings amateur scout Gary Michalick received a phone call from owner and GM Kelly McCrimmon. McCrimmon asked Michalick to “take a look” at a player in Roseau, Minn., a small town 17 kilometres south of the border.

The player’s name was Bobby-John Byfuglien.

Michalick scouted the young winger, and the following fall, Bobby-John attended the Wheat Kings’ training camp. Keeping him company on that trip to Brandon were his Uncle Bob and another younger cousin, Dustin.

“At 11 years old, Dustin was about four feet — and as wide as he was tall,” Michalick said. “He was quiet. Said few words — no different from today.”

Bobby-John never panned out for the Wheat Kings, but that wasn’t the end of the Byfuglien story in Brandon.

Six years later, Michalick received another phone call, this time from that same Uncle Bob. He asked if the Wheat Kings had any interest in Bobby-John’s cousin, Dustin, the young boy who had tagged along years before.

Uncle Bob told Michalick that Dustin was 16 and wasn’t playing for any team in particular. In fact, the only hockey he was playing was games of shinny back home in Roseau.

It wasn’t much of a sales pitch.

Still, despite Dustin’s lack of experience in organized hockey, Uncle Bob was serious. He was convinced Dustin was a star in the making. But even Michalick, whose job was to discover the “diamonds in the rough,” remained skeptical.

Michalick asked Uncle Bob how big Dustin was. Six-foot-three, 250 pounds was the response. He carried on about Dustin’s participation at a college camp in Toronto, where he had apparently blown everyone away. Uncle Bob also boasted about Dustin's 100-mile-an-hour slapshot.

Michalick figured the uncle was spinning a tall tale but decided to relay the information to McCrimmon anyway.

McCrimmon also had serious doubts but called his NHL connections to be sure. The unlikely story wasn’t as far-fetched as it seemed. Uncle Bob’s story was true — the kid who was as “wide as he was tall” had developed into a mobile player with size, a booming slapshot, and strong hockey sense.

The Wheat Kings were convinced enough to select Byfuglien in the WHL bantam draft, which is usually reserved for 15 year olds. They drafted him in the seventh round, 123rd overall.

He's played more NHL games, and produced more NHL points, than anyone that was taken ahead of him.

“It was very uncommon to draft a 16 year old, especially since we hadn’t seen him play,” Michalick said. “But we decided to use [a late pick] on the man, the myth, the legend. We selected Dustin and thought ‘We’ll just wait and see come August.'”

What the Wheat Kings saw when Byfuglien arrived at camp was a beast of a young teenager. A defenceman who could dance around the net, his mind and stick moving in unison. While most players Byfuglien’s size were awkward on the ice, everything seemed easy for him.

“You could see between the size, ability and skill, how he enjoyed the game,” Michalick said. “It’s where he was comfortable, and where he was having fun. It was evident back then.”

Byfuglien's stay in Brandon, however, ended up being short. Just eight games into the 2002-03 season, he was dealt to the Prince George Cougars, where he immediately flourished, with 37 points in 48 games.

A season later, Lane Lambert arrived in Prince George to become the new head coach of the Cougars. Lambert knew what he was getting in Byfuglien. The two had previously been East Division foes — Byfuglien with Brandon and Lambert as an assistant with the Moose Jaw Warriors — before uniting in Prince George.

“Dustin had extremely good instincts,” Lambert recalled. “What set him apart from other players was his capacity to read and anticipate the play.”

Lambert, now an assistant coach with the , spent two seasons teaching Dustin to anticipate the risk as much as the play itself. But as was evident when he arrived in Brandon two years earlier, it was his quiet yet earnest demeanour that set Byfuglien apart.

“Not often do you see him without a smile when he has his skates on,” Lambert said. “Hockey is his go-to, his comfort zone, what he loves to do.”

Maurice says he doesn’t remember the first time he met Byfuglien, but the Jets coach remembers every day since.

And he is endlessly impressed.

“When you first meet Dustin, he’s an awfully big man,” Maurice said recently. “I do remember being on the ice with him and realizing how fast he can move. How powerful he is and almost graceful.”

Now 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, Byfuglien's ability with his hands and feet in tight areas defy logic. A man so large shouldn’t be able to do what he does. But he can.

Overlooked as a teenager and not drafted into the NHL until the eighth round by the Chicago Blackhawks back in 2003, Byfuglien has topped 50 points in three of the last four NHL seasons. Last year, he led the league in time on ice (27:27 per game), finished sixth among defenceman in scoring (52 points) and seventh overall in minutes (117).

In 2010, he helped the Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup victory, producing 16 points in 22 playoff games along the way.

Byfuglien has earned a reputation as an elite, intimidating defenceman, but Jets assistant coach Charlie Huddy sees a softer side.

“He’s just a big teddy bear — he really is,” Huddy said. “He invites conversation and you don’t have to work your way in on him. His everyday presence in the room, what he brings to the game — he loves to play. When he gets on the ice, you’ll see him smiling a lot.”

Longtime teammate Toby Enstrom says what stands out to him is Byfuglien’s commitment to his teammates beyond the ice.

“He’s the guy you can call when your car breaks down in the middle of the night and he’ll show up,” Enstrom said. “Off the ice, he’s just a very nice guy that takes care of everyone and always shows up. He means a lot in every way.”

Matt Hendricks, one of the newest Jets and a fellow Minnesotan, believes Byfuglien had some influence in the Jets’ decision to sign him during this off-season. Byfuglien has welcomed the veteran forward into the dressing room and his home.

“His family life and how close he is with his wife and three kids really shows at the rink everyday, in how much he cares about his teammates and how focused he is,” Hendricks said.

Even in Winnipeg, however, Byfuglien maintains a degree of anonymity that is rare among professional athletes. That is by choice.

He declined to speak for this story.

“You’re not the only one he doesn’t want to talk to,” Huddy joked.

“Dustin is not overt about being in the public,” explained Dwayne Green, the executive director of the True North Youth Foundation to which Byfuglien donates his time. “He prefers to do things quietly and specifically do things for kids, who just love him.

“The biggest misconception is he doesn’t like to be in the public eye. I look at it that he doesn’t like to be publicized, but he likes to do things in the community. He loves to play hockey. He loves to fish. He loves to be outdoors — and he loves to be with kids.”

Just like that 11-year-old kid who would later turn heads with his unique blend of size and talent, Byfuglien remains a man of few words. If you want to learn more about the Jets quietest star, you’re best to ask anyone but him.

His play, however, speaks for itself. Against all odds, he has become one of the NHL’s biggest stars.

Uncle Bob was right.

Globe and Mail https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/the-passion-and-pain-of-playing-for-the- winnipeg-jets/article36521185/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

The passion and pain of playing for the Winnipeg Jets

BY DAVID SHOALTS

A day before he and his teammates opened the season against the , Mark Scheifele was talking about pressure and the Winnipeg Jets.

"Hey, in any Canadian city there's going to be pressure to succeed," said Scheifele, perhaps the biggest star the greater NHL public has yet to discover. "That's what makes you better. That's what makes you motivated.

"You don't take that pressure and crumble under it. We're all competitive people. We all use that pressure as motivation."

Forty-eight hours later, Scheifele and his fellow Jets had all the motivation they needed. Despite swarming the Leafs out of the gate on Wednesday night, the Jets proved to be terrible in all of the areas they vowed they were fixing in training camp – taking bad penalties and then failing to kill them off, sloppy defensive play compounded by mediocre goaltending – and were embarrassed by a 7-2 margin in front of their own fans.

The Bell MTS Place is the smallest arena in the NHL by capacity but all of those 15,321 seats are sold for every Jets game and no team can boast louder or more passionate fans. They are also known for their inventive chants. When an instant rivalry sprang up last season between rookie sensations of the Maple Leafs and Patrik Laine of the Jets, the Winnipeg crowd took up the chant "Laine's better, Laine's better" one year ago in their first NHL confrontation when the young Finn outscored Matthews with three goals, including the overtime winner.

But there was only silence and a few boos by the end of Wednesday's season opener, which left Laine saying he was "embarrassed" and "ashamed." He was not paying lip service. There is a strong sense, from the players' dressing room up to team co-owner 's suite, that this is the season, six years after the Thrashers fled Atlanta to become the Winnipeg Jets, the team rewards the fans' and patience.

With Scheifele emerging as one of the best young forwards in the NHL and Laine giving Matthews a good run for last year's rookie-of-the-year honours, plus a few other young offensive stars, the Jets were considered a playoff team. But injuries, along with the above-mentioned problems, stalled the drive at ninth place in the Western Conference, seven points out of the last playoff spot with a 40-35-7 record. The Jets are expected to make a better challenge this season, even if they do play in the tough Central Division.

"I think that's the way we're all looking at it," Chipman said. "I think last year we thought we had a chance to take a step forward. A number of things didn't go our way."

One NHL general manager told 's Elliotte Friedman he considers the Jets "a sleeping giant." This provoked some mirth in the Jets dressing room, although it is clear the players are keenly aware of their fans' expectations. That is hard to miss in this 812,000 where the Jets elbowed aside even the of the CFL as the most popular team.

"Somebody better get us some coffee, then," Jets centre Bryan Little said when apprised of the GM's assessment. "I don't know what to make of that comment. I think it's kind of a fair analysis. I think we had the team last year to do something good and it didn't work out. On paper we're a team that should be in the mix for the playoffs.

"The fans want to see a team in the playoffs. They want to have a team to cheer for and we haven't given them a lot since we've been here. You can tell the fans want to see a winning product on the ice. They deserve a team that goes out there to compete every night for a spot in the playoffs. We owe that to them as well as to have a good season."

Chipman thinks the honeymoon period is still on with the fans, though. Losing the original Jets to Phoenix in 1996 was a trauma that lingered, so there are lots of fans just happy to have an NHL team.

"I think losing this team back in '96 left a real mark on this community," he said. "I think people recognize now that it's an honour for our community to be playing in the .

"Obviously our fans want us to succeed and I don't think anybody feels that more than we do. There's an awesome sense of responsibility that we carry to make people feel good about the investment they made in the team."

The string of sellouts that began with the Jets' first game continues and there is a waiting list of 4,000 for season's tickets. Chipman says the season-ticket renewals remain strong as does the commitment by local sponsors.

However, the lack of any playoff action is getting worrisome, not to mention aggravating to at least some fans, although Chipman thinks there is a difference between those who call talk- radio shows and those who buy season's tickets.

"You're always going to have detractors, and some people say it hasn't come soon enough and I can accept that," he said. "I think for the most part our fans who are season-ticket holders are in lock step with us."

Since the Thrashers became the Jets in the 2011-12 season, they have only one playoff appearance, in 2014-15 after finishing out of the running in their first two years in Winnipeg. They lost in the first round and then missed the playoffs again for the next two seasons.

But this was just a continuation of what the Thrashers did in Atlanta. Since joining the league in 1999-2000, they made the playoffs once in 11 seasons and were swept in the first round.

What people tend to forget is that, while Winnipeg landed an existing NHL team rather than an expansion franchise, it was a franchise with a history of mediocrity and few prospects in the system. The rebuilding plan is now into its seventh year and only four original Thrashers are still regulars on the roster – Little, Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglien and Toby Enstrom.

"I think as informed as we are as Canadians, or as we think we are as hockey fans, there wasn't an understanding of the extent to which that asset had been diminished," Chipman said. "There was nobody in the minor system we brought that is with us. There are a couple of guys still around but that is one thing we didn't get. The cupboards were bare in terms of developable assets. We really had to start from square one."

The plan is for this season to be the payoff to the fans. The weaknesses were addressed in the off-season and training camp. Free agent Steve Mason was signed to allow Connor Hellebuyck, the designated goaltender of the future, to develop at a slower pace, retired NHL referee Paul Devorski was brought to training camp to show the Jets how to avoid bad penalties and head coach Paul Maurice spent a lot of time on the defensive game and penalty killing.

More commitment to the fans was shown this week when winger Nikolaj Ehlers, 21, another of the Jets' young scoring stars with 64 points last season, was signed to a seven-year, $42-million (U.S.) contract.

Maurice said a lot of work was put into teaching players such as Laine and Ehlers "they're not going to score less" once they learn how to play a good defensive game.

"They've learned on the offensive side as well but, as their games round out, they become pros," Maurice said. "So we've invested two years in a lot of young players and we can see it in how they practise, how they're able to get through the driving parts, the hard parts of practice they can drive through. The next day they come back and they're fresh again, they're stronger men.

"So we believe we're stronger. Last year, we had over 900 games by players under the age of 25. We're those players to be better incrementally in all parts of the game."

The loss to the Leafs showed the lessons still need more time to sink in. After a strong start that was rebuffed by Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen, the Jets' discipline and defensive game collapsed, with Mason causing some worries with a mediocre night that resulted in the hook. Even the reputable power play was snuffed out by the Leafs, going 0-for-8.

As embarrassing as it was in front of the home crowd, Maurice can argue it's a young team and there are still 81 more games to show what they have learned. It's also a good idea the team got out of town Saturday for a three-game road trip. But just to make sure he expects them to learn quickly, the coach gave his players a good old-fashioned bag skate the morning after the loss.

"So we're not sitting and waiting three weeks," Maurice said. "Got to get it going. I told them we'll deal with this every day, all year. Because this franchise doesn't move forward until it can defend.

"You can put all the talent in the world on the ice, and you're not winning a damn thing until you've got a real good comfort level to defend."

NHL.com https://www.nhl.com/news/late-winnipeg-jets-fan-being-honored-with-jersey-tribute/c-291619512

Late Jets fan being honored in traveling jersey tribute Friend arranges for it to reach all 31 NHL arenas with help from across League by Sean Shapiro / NHL.com Correspondent

A special Winnipeg Jets jersey will be part of an equally special photo at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Friday, when the Dallas Stars play the Vegas Golden Knights in the season opener for each (8:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN360, TVA Sports, FS-SW, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV).

That jersey, with the No. 10 and "Carter'' on the back, was part of the same type of photo at Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg for the Winnipeg Jets' opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. Before the season is over, the jersey is expected to get to all 31 NHL arenas as a way for Graeme Fortlage to remember his friend and fellow Jets fan, Carter Jansen, who was killed in an automobile accident at age 21 on May 19, 2016.

Fortlage, 24, initially had a hard time coming up with a way to honor his friend, who never attended an NHL game.

"Nothing really ever seemed to fit or be the right sort of memorial," said Fortlage, who had the jersey made after Jansen died. "Then I had the idea of taking his jersey to a couple Jets games, and then that expanded to maybe taking it to every arena in the NHL over a couple years."

To do so, Fortlage has enlisted fans from around the League to help.

Following the game on Wednesday, Fortlage shipped the jersey overnight via FedEx to Kimberly Matthews, who drove from Nashville to Texas for the Stars' home opener.

"It's something I had to do," Matthews said. "As hockey fans we all have our rivalries, but in the end I think we're all a big family. To be able to help with this and make this possible, it means a lot."

Fortlage and Jansen met in 2008 while playing Xbox Live remotely. Living about nine hours apart by car, they met in person once but often discussed and debated the Jets. When Jansen made plans to enroll at the University of Regina, three hours closer to Winnipeg, the friends worked out a plan for him to attend the Jets' season opener at home with Fortlage in October.

After Jansen's death, Fortlage decided he would find a way to honor his friend's wish and started discussing the idea with other hockey fans in a Facebook group. That's when Matthews, a Stars fan who recently relocated to Nashville, suggested that, with help, he could get the jersey to all 31 arenas in one season. Some fans are handling the jersey at multiple arenas.

"It's grown exponentially with nonstop momentum since then," Fortlage said. "The outreach and help from fans across the League has been incredible. I couldn't have imagined this when I had the initial idea."

Before each game, the fan carrying the jersey that day will take a picture of the jersey draped over his or her seat, making sure to frame Carter's name and the ice in the shot.

Fortlage took the first picture on Wednesday, and the Jets gave him a tour of Bell MTS Place with the jersey. The rest is up to a legion of fans, starting with the expedited shipment of the jersey from Manitoba to Texas.

"I think it's the most expensive leg of the trip," Fortlage said. "After that we have a bit more time before each game."

The Jets are helping with back-to-back games on the jersey's itinerary. Winnipeg plays at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 26 and at the Columbus Blue Jackets the following night. Barrett Paulsen, the Jets director of community relations, made it possible for Jansen's jersey to fly with them to Columbus.

"The Jets have been incredible about this," Fortlage said. "The jersey has its final stop [in Los Angeles] on April 7 (when the Los Angeles Kings play the Stars). After that they said they would have me back either this season or next season so Carter could complete the journey."

TSN 1290 (AUDIO LINKS) http://www.tsn.ca/radio/winnipeg-1290/ferraro-a-bad-night-for-all-of-the-jets-1.878015

Ferraro: A bad night for all of the Jets

TSN Hockey analyst joins the Afternoon Ride to review the defensive breakdowns that lead to the Winnipeg Jets losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-2 on Wednesday. Ferraro says the team’s on-ice focus is one area that stands out in need of improvement. www.winnipegjets.com https://www.nhl.com/jets/video/practice--paul-maurice/t-277437442/c-53221703

PRACTICE | Paul Maurice

Head Coach Paul Maurice spoke about the team's effort in practice and rebounding as they head on their first road trip of the season https://www.nhl.com/jets/video/practice--adam-lowry/t-277437442/c-53221603

PRACTICE | Adam Lowry

Jets forward Adam Lowry spoke to the media following today's practice out at Bell MTS Iceplex https://www.nhl.com/jets/video/practice--josh-morrissey/t-277437442/c-53221503

PRACTICE | Josh Morrissey

Defenceman Josh Morrissey speaks about playing in his hometown and rebounding from their opening night loss https://www.nhl.com/jets/video/practice--mathieu-perreault/t-277437442/c-53221403

PRACTICE | Mathieu Perreault

Jets forward Mathieu Perreault talks about getting out on the road for their first trip of the season https://www.nhl.com/jets/video/jersey-tour/t-277437442/c-53214803

Jersey Tour

A Winnipeg Jets fan honours his fallen friend by taking a Jets jersey to all 31 NHL arenas this season. The tour began in Winnipeg on Wednesday.