Winnipeg Free Press https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/teammates-appreciate-tanevs-efforts-on- pk-458381413.html

Teammates appreciate Tanev's efforts on PK

By: Mike McIntyre

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

That could apply both literally and figuratively these days to , who continues to play a prominent role in the lineup thanks largely to his willingness to sacrifice his body on a nightly basis.

Need proof? Just look at a kill during the third period of Thursday night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, with his team trailing 2-1 and desperate not to give up another . Tanev came up with a huge shot block that sent him limping to the bench, then came back out less than 30 seconds later and took another blast to the body.

The fans at Bell MTS Place erupted, and the successful penalty kill certainly gave the Jets a boost as they tied the game in the final minute, then won in a shootout.

"It obviously hurts a little bit, but it’s a job you gotta do playing the penalty kill. You got to get in shooting lanes and block shots — that’s something your team counts on you to go out there and do," Tanev said Friday following practice. His 19 shot blocks this season are by far the most among Winnipeg forwards.

Tanev said asked him on the bench after the first block if he was OK to return to action.

"I was all right, a little bump and bruise, just go out there and do your job," Tanev said. "You got a lot of adrenalin going. If it’s not broken, you try to get yourself back out there and try to get yourself in the same position to get yourself a shot block."

Tanev admitted there are games like that where he’s afraid to take his skate off at the end of the night for fear of what he might see. Fortunately, it was nothing a few ice bags couldn’t fix this time.

"It’s a pretty scary job when you’re 15 to 20 feet off the guy and a 95- to 100-mile-an-hour slapshot is coming at you. It takes a lot of guts," said of his teammate. "It gives you a boost of confidence when your teammates are going out there and sacrificing themselves. You want to go out there and do it yourself. It has a snowball effect. It really creates that team atmosphere."

Lowry has formed an effective checking line with Tanev and that is giving other teams fits as of late.

"You know what, they’re working their butts off and they’re becoming very difficult to play against. They’re not trading chances with you, they’re on the puck, they’re above the puck. They make it difficult for you to move the puck from one end to the other," Maurice said. "Adam Lowry, since he’s been back from his injury, has a little bite to his game, some physicality. Brandon looks faster, if that’s possible, than he was last year. He’s getting more comfortable in his routes and his roles. And Andrew, from his time playing centre, has gone to the wing and he understands the game very well. When you boil it down to the simplest thing, they’re working really, really hard. And you usually have a good game if you do that."

● ● ●

The hockey world was still buzzing Friday about the vicious lumberjack chop Flyers defenceman Radko Gudas delivered to the neck of Jets forward Mathieu Perreault on Thursday night.

Gudas and Perreault were given coincidental minor penalties on the play in the initial call, but the referees eventually changed it to a five-minute slashing major and game misconduct to Gudas after consultation with the linesmen.

The NHL’s player safety department offered Gudas the opportunity for an in-person disciplinary hearing, which would have given them the ability to suspend Gudas for more than than five games. The league announced Friday night that Gudas has waived the in-person hearing and will have a phone hearing Sunday.

Perreault escaped injury, saying Gudas caught him on the "meaty" part of his neck. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/nhl/ugly-win-against-flyers-proves-jets- turning-a-corner-458315563.html

Ugly win against Flyers proves Jets turning a corner

By: Mike McIntyre

Learning how to win. Playing through adversity. Coming up clutch.

Pick any cliché you want. But look at the resumé of every successful hockey team and you'll likely find plenty of games during the course of a season that look an awful lot like what the Winnipeg Jets pulled off Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers.

They struggled out of the gate, quickly fell behind by a couple of goals and seemed destined for defeat. But they managed to stop the bleeding, claw their way back into the game, score a last- minute goal with their net empty and then salvage a victory in the shootout.

It wasn't pretty, but it was effective, and perhaps further proof this year's edition of the Jets might be turning a corner.

"I think that’s a real good sign of a good team. You need to find ways to win in this league, especially when you don’t necessarily have your best game," centre Adam Lowry said Friday following practice, as the team prepared for Saturday's 2 p.m. game against the at Bell MTS Place.

"You need to find ways to come back in games when you're down. It’s a solid building block. You look at the process you go through, you're trailing in the game. We kind of stuck with the way we know we need to play to be successful. I think it’s a sign of our team trending in the right direction."

Winnipeg is second in the Western Conference and tied for third in the when it comes to winning percentage, with a 11-4-3 record, which is made all the more impressive considering they were blown out in their first two games of the season. That means they've collected points in 14 of 16 games.

"I think it’s a little too early to be standings watching. We just got to keep piling up points as much as possible. Obviously, we have a good thing going in the room right now, a good feeling. That can be taken away (this) afternoon. You earn your grind day-by-day, earn your keep and earn that good feeling," forward Andrew Copp said Friday.

"It’s pushing forward knowing we’re not going to make the playoffs on the points we have right now. We got to keep pushing forward. We know there’s a lot of good teams in the west that are going to be pushing from behind. We just got to keep piling up the points and play our game, get that consistency down."

Coach Paul Maurice believes the way they handled Thursday's game is another sign of growth from his young team. Rather than hit the panic button and open things up when down 2-0 after less than six minutes of play, the Jets stuck to their game and ultimately reaped the rewards.

"We didn’t open our game up, we didn’t start trading chances. There would be times in the past that our five-on-five game would look like that three-on-three in overtime. I mean it’s exciting as hell, but it does no coach any good to watch," Maurice said Friday.

Veteran centre Bryan Little, who scored the shootout winner against the Flyers, said there's less pressure on the team when you start the season the way the Jets have.

"It takes a bit of the pressure off. You're able to play more relaxed and more confident. When you're fighting to get back early in the season, it's mentally stressful. You know you've got to win games, and that puts a lot of pressure on everyone. This is kind of new territory for me. I haven't had a start like this before," Little said Friday. "The last two or three games haven't been our best. But the most important part is we're sticking with it and managing to find ways to win, which was lacking before."

However, Winnipeg faces a daunting challenge over the next week to try and keep the good times rolling. The red-hot Devils roll into Bell MTS Place today with an identical 11-4-3 record as the Jets.

"They got a real quick team. They got an awful lot of speed, some good puck movers. I think it’s going to be as close to the fastest game we’ll play all year. The fastest team that we’ve seen," said Maurice.

Winnipeg then hits the road for a challenging four-games-in-six-nights trip that takes them to Nashville, Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose starting Monday.

"I like the way we’re playing. We’ve been incrementally kind of better in all the areas of our game say opposed to last season. We also think there’s lots of room for us to get better. The way we handle this is be good today. It’s really important we stay out of the big picture and just make sure we’re good today," said Maurice.

Winnipeg will go with the same lineup as they did against Philadelphia, meaning Connor Hellebuyck makes a fourth-straight start in goal. He continues to be among the league leaders in goal, with a 10-1-2 record, 2.29 GA and .930 SV%. Shawn Matthias, Marko Dano and Ben Chiarot will be the healthy scratches once again.

"You don't want to get too relaxed and too comfortable. We've talked about it. There's a ton of hockey left and a lot can happen. The biggest thing right now is staying hungry and keeping it rolling," said Little. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/sports-editors-picks/numbers-shine-light-on-jets- success-458150423.html

Numbers shine light on Jets' success While positive results are there, cause for concern still exists

By: Scott Campbell

The Winnipeg Jets are off to a head-turning start, and while they’ve had a few rough periods, they’ve been surviving and mostly winning.

They had 23 points on a record of 10-4-3, good for second place in the Central Division (third in the Western Conference) heading into Thursday night’s National Hockey League action.

I usually need at least 20 games to get a decent handle on a team, but I thought I’d take an early look and try to figure out whether this team is the real deal. Maybe they’re just an illusion.

The best news is the Jets’ record is money in the bank, and nobody is going to care how they earned those points when they’re in the stretch drive.

How this happened, however, makes me a bit tentative about their ability to do some damage, should they make the playoffs.

It’s possible, but they’ll need to grow a lot.

I’ve already hit you in earlier columns about the incredible amount of shots against they absorb with their penalty-killing system. Sure, they take away some seams that limit the highest-danger chances, but every shot on a power play, with proper alignment, has a chance to go in, especially with deflections, screens and rebounds.

Maybe they’ll get all the bounces and continue their latest surge (19th in the league), but they’re playing with fire with their passive approach.

Another worrisome trend is their five-on-five Corsi numbers, which are almost touching bottom, while their expected goals rank them just a few slots higher.

While these stats overall are good predictors of future performance, it’s possible the Jets are outliers here, and I’ll get to that shortly.

They currently sit third in the league in shooting percentage at 10.32 per cent, which isn’t surprising considering the high-end offensive talent they have. It’ll be tough to maintain that number, though.

Their save percentage has them sitting 12th at .925, but it’s been Connor Hellebuyck’s .930 and record of 9-1-2 that’s been the key. Steve Mason has recovered well from a poor start, and my expectation was that they’d be at least league average together — they’re comfortably there at the moment.

I labelled the Jets as a playoff team in the pre-season, however, I was depending on more than goaltending and a high shooting percentage to get them there.

Thankfully, their power-play numbers are up, humming along at a 22.8 per cent clip, good for eighth in the league.

A couple of weeks ago, I called this unit’s play abhorrent after they couldn’t even get into the offensive zone over a series of games (remember in Pittsburgh, etc.). They promptly went on a roll and showed us they were much better than where they were languishing at the time.

In my projection, I had them easily being a top 10 team on this unit — now all they have to do is maintain this.

When I get over the giddiness of the Jets’ record and look at the concerns of some underlying numbers, it brings to mind the Ottawa Senators, especially last year’s version.

That team went to the Eastern Conference final, losing to the eventual -champion .

During the year, they gained little respect from the analytics community, and to be honest, myself.

Their possession stats weren’t good, and watching their boring style of play probably had a lot of non-Senators fans avoiding their games.

However, they defied the predictors with a quick-strike offence, pouncing on opposition mistakes made while attempting to break down Ottawa’s "trap." The Senators went at their opponent’s net in a hurry from that point.

While the Jets aren’t passive like the Senators — often forechecking — they both have the same goal of limiting chances on their goalie.

This usually limits offensive opportunities at the same time, but what has worked well for Ottawa may end up making them brothers in arms with the Jets.

Their philosophies seem similar, although their application and talent is different. The Senators have a record of 8-3-5 thus far, so what they did last year can’t be discounted, even as some of their current underlying numbers are mirroring their 2016-17 season. Strong goaltending played a large part in last year’s success, as well.

While the Jets don’t have an all-world defenceman like Erik Karlsson, their mix of high-end youth and veteran players gives them the edge in overall talent.

Therefore, I have to consider that the Jets might also have a formula that will withstand time, other than goaltending and the pluses mentioned earlier. Maybe I should have more confidence in what they’re doing.

I still believe the Jets will make the playoffs, but my hope was they would follow that up by going on a run like Ottawa did last season. Right now, there are too many red flags to bet on that.

The return of forward Mathieu Perreault on Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers is promising. Maybe he can help rescue those possession numbers, as he’s consistently been excellent at driving the play into the opponent’s end.

As I mentioned here a few weeks ago, I’m not calling the Senators an illusion anymore, and I’m certainly not tagging the Jets with that.

But the "real-deal" test for them is coming up between now and Christmas. How they handle the ups and downs of playing every second night, with a couple of back-to-backs thrown in, will give us a true sense of who they are.

Hopefully, my concerns will have disappeared by the time Santa Claus has visited.

Winnipeg Sun http://winnipegsun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/winnipeg-jets/standings-what-standings

Standings? What standings?

By Paul Friesen

The Jets have stopped posting the daily NHL standings on a board in their inner sanctum this season.

It’s a subtle change, one most people wouldn’t even notice.

But the Jets this season have stopped posting the daily NHL standings on a board in their inner sanctum.

“We changed some things,” head coach Paul Maurice said.

Maurice came up with an explanation that had something to do with the proliferation of cell phones, and how players all have the standings at their fingertips nowadays.

“Used to be standard for the last 30 years you’d have your board because you needed it,” He said. “But it’s all there, we all know. But it’s not there.”

More likely, Maurice doesn’t want his players to get a daily reminder of where they stand, preferring they focus on their daily chores.

“It’s really important we stay out of the big picture,” he acknowledged. “And just make sure we’re good today.”

Forward Andrew Copp says the Jets aren’t going to make the playoffs based on the points they have right now.

“I think it’s a little too early to be standings watching,” Copp said. “We just got to keep piling up points as much as possible. You earn your grind day-by-day, earn your keep and earn that good feeling.” http://winnipegsun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/winnipeg-jets/deep-jets-lineup-pulls-it-out-in-the-end- where-does-perreault-go-long-term-hellebuyck-stops-whats-expected-patrick-leads-flyers-toba- contingent

Five keys to Jets vs. Devils

By Paul Friesen

Winnipeg Jets vs New Jersey Devils

2 p.m., Bell-MTS Place; TV: TSN-3 Radio: TSN 1290

THE BIG MATCHUP

The ‘Tenders Normally you’d give the goaltending edge to the Devils, with large and in charge. But with Connor Hellebuyck playing so well for the Jets right now, this could be a low- scoring duel won by a bounce – much like the Devils’ 1-0 overtime loss in Toronto, Thursday.

KEYS TO THE GAME

A shutdown line The Jets’ trio of Adam Lowry, Andrew Copp and Brandon Tanev often found itself matched with the Flyers top line, Thursday, and kept Claude Giroux and Co. hemmed in their own zone for several shifts. If Paul Maurice can rely on that again, it takes some of the burden off Mark Scheifele’s unit.

Continued balance The Jets have finally started getting goals from the bottom-six, players like Joel Armia, Tanev and Lowry. Now that Mathieu Perreault has re-joined the fray, it gives Winnipeg even more offence from the lower lines. Again, less pressure on Scheifele, Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor.

Little progress Second-line centre Bryan Little says breaking out of his goal slump earlier this week provided a big confidence boost. He followed that up with the shootout winner against the Flyers, Thursday. But he, Patrik Laine and Nik Ehlers still haven’t clicked consistently, five-on-five. If they start scoring, look out.

Keep an eye on the local kid Winnipegger Travis Zajac made his season debut against Toronto, Thursday, after surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle sidelined him for the start of the season. The speedy Zajac was eased into the lineup between rookie Jesper Bratt and old friend Drew Stafford, but is expected back on the top line with Taylor Hall and Kyle Palmieri soon enough.

More dirty work Winnipeg ended Thursday’s game with some solid penalty kills, highlighted by some painful shot blocks from Tanev. “It obviously hurts a little bit, but it’s a job you gotta do,” Tanev said. More of the same against New Jersey’s fifth-ranked power play would be helpful. http://winnipegsun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/winnipeg-jets/high-flying-jets-in-new-territory

High-flying Jets in new territory

By Paul Friesen

This is Bryan Little's 11th season in the NHL, and he's seen a lot. But what's happened over the first 18 games of this season is new to the Winnipeg Jets centre.

This is Bryan Little’s 11th season in the NHL, and he’s seen a lot, from lockouts to rule crackdowns to the relocation of his own franchise.

But what’s happened over the first 18 games of this season is new to the Winnipeg Jets centre.

“I don’t think I’ve had a start like this since I’ve been in the league,” Little was saying, Friday. “This is kind of new territory for me.”

No. 18 was talking about the Jets’ torrid start, an 11-4-3 pace that’s catapulted his team into second place in the Western Conference.

The view is unlike anything he’s ever seen.

Los Angeles, Nashville, San Jose — you can see them all from up here.

Those distant blips on the horizon? That’s Minnesota, Dallas, Anaheim, even Chicago. Funny how they all look so small from this distance.

The franchise Little has toiled for his entire career has never taken in even one lungful of this rarified air.

The Atlanta Thrashers were once 12-3-3 after 18 games, but that was 2006-07, the season before Little arrived.

Most every year since, the Thrashers and then the Jets were scratching and clawing to remain with the pack, often behind it, always chasing.

Today, they are being chased.

“It takes a bit of the pressure off,” Little said. “You’re able to play more relaxed and more confident. When you’re fighting to get back early in the season, it’s mentally stressful. You know you’ve got to win games, and that puts a lot of pressure on everyone.”

In recent years, November has been like a trip to the graveyard for the Jets.

A five-game skid in the middle of the month, last year.

Two years ago, a 1-6-1 flop to kick the month off.

November this year checks in at 5-1-1, so far, the latest win a 3-2 shootout over Philly, Thursday, that saw the Jets fall behind by two goals before fighting their way back to force overtime.

How un-Jet-like was that?

One of the things separating the Jets from the playoff line a year ago was their inability to get more games to overtime.

“We had a pretty mediocre start to the game,” Little said. “The last couple years we might have not come back in that game and stuck with it.”

No, they would have opened it up and ended up losing, 5-3 or 6-4.

“There would be times in the past that our five-on-five game would look like that three-on-three in overtime,” is how coach Paul Maurice put it. “I mean, it’s exciting as hell, but it does no coach any good to watch.”

The most encouraging thing about this run is it’s not reliant on just one thing.

“We’re getting offence. We’re getting great goaltending. We’re playing better defensively,” Little said. “Our PK looked great (Thursday) night, a ton of huge blocked shots. Things are clicking right now.”

Andrew Copp touched on all those things, and one other.

“We’ve got a room as good as I’ve seen it since I’ve been here,” Copp said. “The guys like being around each other. We like going to dinner. It’s a great place… you’re waking up and you’re excited to be at the rink and excited to get better.”

Of course it’s fun. Show me a losing team that’s enjoying each other’s company.

OK, maybe they’ve gotten so used to it in Arizona that it’s no big deal. Maybe it was that way in Atlanta.

The mood change around this team, though, is palpable.

Coaches being worriers by , they keep an eye out for that great party-pooper, complacency.

“You’re looking for casualness,” Paul Maurice said. “That gets called out pretty quick by everybody. Coaches, the rest of the guys on the bench. Nobody wants to be that guy. If I said to you I wasn’t worried about it, it wouldn’t be accurate.

“I haven’t seen it. We’ll look for it.”

So as stress-free as this lofty perch is, it can’t get comfortable.

“We’ve talked about it,” Little said. “There’s a ton of hockey left and a lot can happen. The biggest thing right now is staying hungry and keeping it rolling.”

Copp put it a little more bluntly, relating it to what’s right in front of them.

“Obviously, we have a good thing going in the room right now,” he said. “That can be taken away tomorrow afternoon.”

NorthJersey.com http://www.northjersey.com/story/sports/nhl/devils/2017/11/17/winnipeg-jet-drew-stafford-has- been-good-fit-devils-so-far-cory-schneider-start-coach-john-hynes/876025001/

Former Winnipeg Jet Drew Stafford has been a good fit with Devils so far

By Andrew Gross

WINNIPEG –When the Jets swapped right wing Drew Stafford to the Bruins at last season’s trade deadline for a sixth-round pick, it was because the veteran, slowed by a concussion and displaced by younger talent, no longer fit in among their top six forwards and wasn’t going to be re-signed.

So when Stafford, 32, talks about his strong start with the Devils this season in a top-six role, he starts with how he’s fit with his fourth NHL club.

“Yeah, it’s all about fit and opportunity,” Stafford said. “In getting the chance to come here and earn a spot, I feel I can provide solid play and contribute offensively in that kind of role. Just to get an opportunity to do that and play with some pretty good players, it’s been a great fit so far here.”

Stafford plays his first game against the Jets since the trade as the Devils (11-4-3) continue a four-game road trip on Saturday against the Jets at MTS Place Centre. The Devils, 1-0-1 on the trip after Thursday night’s 1-0 overtime loss at Toronto, practiced at the Jets’ home rink on Friday afternoon.

Stafford has five goals and three assists in his first 15 games with the Devils and has found a steady spot on the second line, lately with rookie Jesper Bratt and expected to be centered for the second straight game by Stafford’s college teammate at North Dakota, Travis Zajac.

He had four goals and nine assists in 40 games for the Jets last season before being traded to the Bruins, where, placed on a scoring line, he had four goals and four assists in 18 regular- season games and two goals in the Bruins’ six playoff games as they were eliminated by the Senators in the first round.

That concluded a two-year, $8.7 million deal he signed with the Jets and he found a slow market for himself as a free agent this offseason. It wasn’t until Aug. 25 that the Devils signed him to a one-year, $800,000 deal.

That was after both general manager and coach John Hynes discussed with him their plans for changing the Devils’ team culture after a fifth straight season out of the playoffs and a last-place finish in the Eastern Conference.

Simply put, the Devils’ brass, with a team laden with young talent such as Bratt, No. 1 overall pick and defenseman Will Butcher, needed Stafford as much for his off-ice leadership as his on-ice offensive potential.

So Hynes paused when asked whether Stafford’s bigger impact has come on the ice or in the team’s room.

“I think Drew has been very good for us on the ice, he’s definitely been productive,” Hynes said. “But you talk to the guys from Winnipeg and it was, ‘This guy is a true pro.’ He’s a great teammate and he’s good with young players and he’s been fantastic that way.

“He’s come in here and he’s bought into how we needed to practice, how we need to play,” Hynes added. “I think he understands what we need to do and he wants to be a part of it. We’ve given him a chance and he’s been a huge impact with our team culture, for sure.”

Or, as left wing Adam Henrique summed up, “A big, heavy guy out there [on the ice] and certainly a presence for us. Everybody looks up to him. He’s been a huge part of the team.”

Stafford said, so far, his Devils tenure as gone as he hoped, though he also had an expectation he’d be successful.

“You have to have a belief in yourself and I did, I just needed an opportunity to show that,” Stafford said. “It takes a little bit of belief in yourself that you know what you can do and what you can contribute on and off the ice. As far as changing the culture and moving it to the right direction, I guess I did expect that because I have a belief in myself.”

Provided the fit is right.

BRIEF: Goalie Cory Schneider will start for the Devils after making 24 saves at Toronto.

NJ.com http://www.nj.com/devils/index.ssf/2017/11/how_devils_goalie_cory_schneider_feels_about_his _c.html

How Devils goalie Cory Schneider feels about his current play

By Chris Ryan [email protected],

WINNIPEG -- Devils goalie Cory Schneider is out to prove his 2016-17 season was a career outlier, and so far, he's doing that.

Even though Schneider was on the wrong end of the Devils' 1-0 overtime loss to on Thursday, his 24-save effort put him at a .924 save percentage and 2.64 GAA through 13 games.

Coming off a season where he posted career worsts in both categories, Schneider feels more confident in his game while starting the season with a 7-3-2 record.

"I just have a little more determination and belief in my play right now," Schneider said Friday. "I think I'm a little more confident in where I'm at in my crease and in my movements. It's hard to pin point exactly what happened, we've been over a lot, but I got caught in between a little bit last year in terms of, 'Do I be aggressive? Do I hold my feet? Do I go down? Do I stay deeper?'

"With (goalie coach 's) help, I think we've kind of made up our minds that we're going to play a certain way and I think when you have that conviction in what you're doing, it feeds into the rest of your game."

Schneider will be back in net again on Saturday when the Devils visit the Winnipeg Jets.

His GAA is just a few ticks below the 2.82 mark he post last season, but it is trending in the right direction. Since returning from an injury that sidelined him for a week at the end of October, Schneider allowed three goals or fewer goals in six of seven games, including one .

Schneider's main concern at this point is staying the course.

"I feel good right now, but I had a good start last year, too," he said. "I don't know how many games in it was, but I felt pretty good last year and things went south pretty quickly. So I'm not assuming that it's all going to be great all year long. I have to stay on top of it to keep this pace up throughout the season and don't have too many lulls."

The Devils have still been giving up a high volume of shots as a team -- they allowed 32 or more in eight straight games entering Thursday. But that ended Thursday when they gave up just 25 over 65 minutes.

Schneider saw one of the team's best defensive efforts of the season on Thursday, and strong play in front of him will go a long way toward aiding his rebound attempt.

"I thought our neutral zone, we were being a lot more aggressive, we weren't drifting back into our own end and letting them catch pucks into our zone," Schneider said. "I thought we were up on them. We had good gaps, whether it was at the red line or our blue line. We were jumping in front of guys, forcing turnovers and I thought our forwards came back hard and tracked and didn't give time and space to enter the zone."

CBC Manitoba http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/jets-fan-cancer-survivor-ticket-giveaway-winnipeg- 1.4408270?cmp=rss

Single mom recovering from cancer to take in Jets game thanks to kind stranger Ryan Delong gives ticket to Leslie MacKay in 'random act of kindness'

By CBC News

When Leslie MacKay's phone rang and there was a stranger on the other line offering her a free Jets ticket, she wasn't immediately sure what to think.

"I was just so blown away," said MacKay, 36, a single mother who has been battling breast cancer and lymphoma since earlier this year. "It's incredible."

The caller was Ryan Delong, 30, a serious Jets fan who has watched the team play in three different cities.

When he realized none of his friends could make this Saturday's game, rather than take in the game alone or sell the ticket, Delong decided to give it away to a stranger who couldn't normally afford to go.

"You see the stories in Winnipeg all the time, of people doing random acts of kindness — like the bus driver who gave his shoes to a homeless person — and I figured this was a good opportunity to do something like that myself," he said.

He posted his free ticket offer on Kijiji and received more than 100 responses — from cash- strapped students to single mothers and more. One of MacKay's friends nominated her without her knowledge, and that made Delong's decision a little easier.

"My mom, she had cancer when she was 51 and passed away," he said. "It's a merciless disease and I hate it, as I'm sure everyone else does, but I know what the struggles like."

November also happens to be #HockeyFightsCancer month.

"It just felt like it was fitting," Delong said.

MacKay had previously seen a post circulating online about Delong's quest to gift his ticket, but she never dreamed she would be the one who would be the recipient.

"I saw the post and I liked it and thought, 'Well, this guy is pretty amazing,' but I'm not one to ask for anything, or ask for help," MacKay aid. "Asking for help is hard for me to do."

In February she found a lump that doctors confirmed was breast cancer. Further tests also revealed MacKay was suffering from lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes she previously had and beat as a teen.

"I had lymphoma when I was 13, and now at 36."

MacKay finished an eighth round of chemotherapy in August and underwent a double mastectomy in October. She is now focused on recovery and says she is thankful to have a strong base of supporters and a helpful 10-year-old daughter by her side.

"Having to tell my daughter that her only parent has cancer, of course it's going to scare her," MacKay said. "Thankfully she is at an age where she is pretty independent herself."

MacKay has seen the Jets in action twice before: once last year at the MTS Centre, and another time when the CancerCare Foundation sent her to see them play at the old Winnipeg Arena in 1994.

She and Delong haven't met yet, but MacKay expects any social awkwardness will fade away once the puck drops.

"I'm kind of shy and from the sound of it he is really outgoing, so hopefully he can bring me out of my shell pretty quickly," She said.

"There's a lot of good people in the world but you don't see it very often, so it means a lot."

On top of the ticket, Delong also raised enough money to buy MacKay a Jets jersey.

Sportsnet.ca http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/winnipeg-jets-canadas-best-team/ (VIDEO LINK)

ARE THE WINNIPEG JETS CANADA'S BEST TEAM?

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