Jets up the tempo, focus on pace ahead of Friday's tilt with Hawks

CHICAGO, Illinois - The Winnipeg Jets were back at practice on Thursday afternoon in Chicago at the Blackhawks' practice facility, Johnny's IceHouse.
It was an up-tempo effort for 30 minutes that included injured forwards Adam Lowry and Brandon Tanev, who both wore the yellow non-contact jerseys along with Brendan Lemieux, who is not injured but joined the former two as they recover from their lower-body ailments.
"Lemieux [was wearing yellow] just so we had a line," said Head Coach Maurice after practice. "The other two, I don't have them going tomorrow. It was more for their legs than anything. They weren't shooting and passing like they normally would when they're at 100 per cent. So we will say 'no' for sure tomorrow, (and) we'll revisit it for (Minnesota on Saturday)."

Here are the line rushes from practice with no changes to the group of forwards who will play Friday against the Blackhawks.
Connor - Wheeler - Laine
Perreault- Little - Ehlers
Matthias - Copp - Armia
Dano - Hendricks - Roslovic
Lemieux - Lowry - Tanev
Morrissey - Trouba
Kulikov - Myers
Enstrom - Byfuglien
Chiarot
Hellebuyck
Mason

Chicago lost 2-1 to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night at the United Center, a game Maurice watched in person and it was perfect timing since those are Winnipeg's next two opponents.
"It's a completely different vantage point from where we were sitting way up top," Maurice said. "Good to get a chance to watch them. Chicago is a real interesting team; they had over six minutes of offensive zone time in the first period and if you had six-and-a-half minutes over the course of a game, you would be sitting No. 1 in the league. They really have a dynamic group."
Jacob Trouba, who is currently on a three-game point streak, certainly respects the defending division champs but feels confident, especially if the Jets continue to play the way they have been for the majority of the season.

"We know they spend a lot of time in the other team's zone," said Trouba, who has a goal and four assists during his streak. "We're not going to panic when they're down there.
"Try to get the puck up to our forwards as quick as we can and play a little bit in their end."
ALL STAR REACTION
Thursday was the first time the media got a chance to talk to Maurice since Blake Wheeler and Connor Hellebuyck were announced as Central Division All-Stars.
"A real nice salute to the work they've done," beamed the Jets coach. "Sometimes it's been positional about a guy (who was selected as an All-Star) who went. But those two guys here deserve to go and deserve to represent our team with really fine and really consistent play right from the get go."
Connor Hellebuyck will return to the net against the Blackhawks after getting Tuesday night off when Steve Mason ended up with his first win since Nov. 22 in the 7-4 win at Buffalo.
- Jamie Thomas, WinnipegJets.com