Jets focus on team speed ahead of home-and-home with Blues

WINNIPEG - The prevailing theme from last night's 5-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks was that the Winnipeg Jets weren't quick enough.
Head coach Paul Maurice compared it to the 5-2 defeat the Jets suffered at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets back on Oct. 17 at Bell MTS Place, the last loss in regulation before the 10-0-1 streak on home ice began.
During today's 30-minute skate at Bell MTS Iceplex, the team focused on getting that speed back in their game.
"(In an) 82-game schedule, everyone is getting one of those in there," said Maurice. "It's all about what your next one looks like. We've handled it pretty well so far. The importance of the games means you can't spend a whole lot of time (on it). But we dealt with it today."

Maurice shuffled the lines late in the first period last night, putting Nikolaj Ehlers with Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler, while Kyle Connor skated with Matt Hendricks and Joel Armia. Mathieu Perreault slid to the left wing with Bryan Little and Patrik Laine.
"I don't think any of the players I rotated around, I didn't move them because I felt anybody really fell off," said Maurice.
"You're looking for certain signs if they're not going, that the chance will be there that they will get going. I usually wait a period, give them enough rotations through to find their game a little bit. If not, you get a feel and you try to make some adjustments with the match-up maybe first - get them away from the guys they're playing against."
Today though, the lines were back to how they were to start the game against Chicago, with Julian Melchiori filling in for Tyler Myers, who didn't skate Friday:
Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Ehlers-Little-Laine
Copp-Lowry-Tanev
Perreault-Hendricks-Armia
Morrissey-Trouba
Kulikov-Melchiori (Myers)
Chiarot-Poolman

At 5-2-1 against divisional opponents, the Jets have a chance to improve on that record, and gain ground on the St. Louis Blues - who are tied for the Central Division lead with the Nashville Predators. The two teams play a home-and-home beginning tomorrow night at Scottrade Center, before wrapping up the two-game set at Bell MTS Place on Sunday.
"Weird schedule going back-to-back with the same team, but it reminds me of my good old college days," Connor Hellebuyck said with a grin.
"It's going to be fun, it's going to be a grind. You know they're a good team over there, and you know they're looking at us saying 'they've need to get ahead of the curve too.' I think this weekend is going to be big for us."
Maurice indicated after practice that Steve Mason will play in one of those two games, which will be his first start since coming off injured reserve on Dec. 11.

Hellebuyck is 16-4-4 this season with a 0.917 save percentage, and appreciated that Maurice left him in goal for the third period last night despite the Jets being down 4-0.
"It helps the team believe in me, knowing that I'm going to battle no matter what happens. It allows me to show that I have the mental side too," said Hellebuyck, who wants to help the team out of a 1-3-1 stretch.
"Maybe we finally had a chance to catch a breath and we relaxed a little too much. It's hard to say. We're a good hockey team in here…. and we know that."
The best way to prove that comes in the final five games before the three-day Christmas break. Along with the home-and-home against St. Louis, the Jets will travel to Nashville, Boston, and New York.
"We looked at this as the finishing leg of a grinder. It's good to be playing the teams you're fighting with," said Maurice. "Everybody is going through the same thing, some (team's) schedules are a little lighter than others. But it doesn't really matter.
"Christmas is coming, so the team that can keep their focus can pick up some points. We have to make sure we get our game back up to where we like it."