Jets squeeze in final practice before flight to Calgary

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Jets boarded a plane heading for Calgary on Monday with two goals in mind.
The first - and most obvious - is to return home with two points after a fourth straight match-up with the Flames, which is scheduled for Tuesday.
If they're able to do that, they'll also be able to snap an early season trend, which has seen them drop the first game coming out of extended breaks in their schedule. As much as the team can work on their preparation, Nikolaj Ehlers feels each individual player needs to ensure they're ready to go.
"It's about how hard you're going to prepare yourself to get back and play as if you had just played the other night," said Ehlers. "We're professionals, we know we need to be ready for it. We're ready, we're going to be ready for that game tomorrow. There's no doubt about that in my mind."

The first loss came against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 18 (after a three-day break) and the second came at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 30 following another three days away from game action.
Monday's 40-minute skate was the fourth day since the Jets beat the Flames 4-1 at Bell MTS Place on Feb. 4.
While the Jets have had their busy stretches - such as a span of six games in nine nights in late January - they've also had some lighter portions to their schedule to recover.
That will change after this four-day break. Winnipeg will play seven games over the next 13 days, with five of them being on the road, before they get another three-day gap beginning on Feb. 22.
After that, they won't see another one until April.
"All of this now shifts to recovery. We'll take as much rest on the days that we can. We've moved into a really optional morning skate mentality," said head coach Paul Maurice. "We have guys starting to understand that some guys need to skate - no matter how much they've played - that's how they feel. There are guys that are good not skating in the morning.
"This is an opportunity for these players individually to get to know their own bodies and get to know their own game. There can be a big payoff to that."
Instead of getting bogged down in the schedule, the Jets focused solely on what's in front of them on Monday.
It was Pierre-Luc Dubois' second full skate with the team and his second straight with Kyle Connor and Trevor Lewis on his wings.
Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey is excited to see what Dubois can add to the team in game action, although he has some idea of what opposing defencemen can expect.
"I always remember not liking playing against him, remembering how he protects the puck really well down low," said Morrissey. "He's got all the skill and talent. He seems like a great guy from getting to know him the last few days. I'm excited to have him, excited to have another elite centre to work with as a defenceman. I'm excited to see what he can do as he gets going with our team."

Just as the Dubois trio stayed the same in practice on Monday, so too did the rest of the Jets lines:
Copp-Scheifele-Ehlers
Vesalainen-Stastny-Wheeler
Connor-Dubois-Lewis
Perreault-Lowry-Appleton
Beaulieu-Morrissey
Forbort-Pionk
Stanley-DeMelo
Niku-Poolman
With the condensed schedule all the teams in the NHL are facing this season, the Jets put an emphasis on shift length to start the season.
That will be made even more critical as the team tries to roll all four lines with the depth the group has up front.
"Can you come to the bench just as tired on a 40-second shift as you would on a 55? That means you're going quite a bit harder on a 40-second shift," said Maurice. "The intensity we play with and the length of our shifts are going to be the two critical pieces. It's not even just the players accepting it, it's keeping the players at a high level."
Ehlers has two points in four meetings with the Flames so far this season. He said he hasn't noticed much for adjustments despite playing the same team three times in a row last week.
After Calgary's 6-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, he doesn't expect Tuesday's meeting at Scotiabank Saddledome to be any easier than the three games in the Manitoba capital.
"It's one of the exciting ones. We feel good and we're going to be ready for it," said Ehlers.
"Calgary is a team that plays physical. It's more of a playoff style game. So those are obviously a lot of fun and that's what we want to get to. We're excited. We're playing well right now, we've practiced well. It's going to be fun."