Maurice sees improvement in Jets' play through 30 games

WINNIPEG -With his team through 30 of the 82 regular season games they'll face this year, head coach Paul Maurice is pleased with where his Winnipeg Jets are at.
The talk of expectations was prominent during training camp following a 114-point regular season in 2017-18. Now 30 games into the 2018-19 campaign, Winnipeg's record of 19-9-2 (40 points) is one point ahead of the pace set last season (17-8-5, 39 points).
"I think we've improved offensively and defensively defining the style of game we wanted to play," said Maurice. "I think we were scoring early at a decent rate but not at the style we would have wanted to, which affected our defensive game. Our defensive game for four or five weeks - certainly since coming back from Finland - has started to look more appropriate.
"I think we've handled it reasonably well."

The Jets find themselves in the league's top 10 in eight statistical categories: goals for (seventh), goals against (sixth), goals for per game (fifth), goals against per game (fifth), power play (first), penalty kill (ninth), face-off win percentage (seventh), and shots for per game (ninth).
Even still, Adam Lowry feels there is room to improve. He knows as well as any player in the Jets dressing room that the hockey only gets better as the season goes on.
"You feel like you're playing so well, but you're only six or seven points up on a playoff spot," said Lowry. "There is a lot of parity in this league. At the same time, it's important that you keep finding ways to win games and keep piling up points."

Lowry wasn't one of the eight skaters that took to the ice for Wednesday's optional practice.
The 25-year-old - who's 57.38 face-off winning percentage has a lot to do with the team's overall success in the dot this season - focused on off-ice recovery as the Jets prepare to host the Edmonton Oilers tomorrow.
It'll be the first time the two teams meet since the Oilers rallied to beat the Jets in overtime on Oct. 16. It's also the first time the Jets will see the Oilers with Ken Hitchcock behind the bench. In 11 games with Hitchcock as coach, the Oilers are 8-2-1.
"You give their good players some space, their skill guys some space they're going to create," said Lowry, who would love to see his team get off to a similar start as Tuesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.
"That's important," he said. "You put yourself in a good position to succeed when you get off to starts like that."
Maurice has kept an eye on the Oilers, who currently hold down the top wildcard spot in the Western Conference with a record of 17-12-2.
"They've had a certain style of hockey that might go back to the 1980s. There are some different players from them, clearly. But the style, there was a theme there. There was a lot of motion in their game," said Maurice.
"Now they look like a Western Conference team. Defence is an important half. They bring a good balance. They still have great offensive players, but they have the balance right in my mind."

Thursday's game against Edmonton is also a chance to finish the home stand with six of eight possible points, the lone setback coming in a 1-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues to open the stretch of games at home.
Each of the first three teams the Jets have faced on the home stand sit in the bottom five of the league standings, but Maurice says a team's ranking doesn't matter to the Jets when it comes time for puck drop.
"We don't, in my opinion, change our preparation or our attitude to the start of the games," said Maurice. "We had a tough first period against Philadelphia, so that's there. But other than that, we've been pretty strong in those games."
There is still a long way to go in the regular season, and as they always do, the Jets will continue to take things one day at a time.
It's all they can do, as they sit one point back of the Nashville Predators for the Central Division lead with one game in hand. The Colorado Avalanche sit right behind the Jets, with the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild not far behind.
"We knew coming into the season that this thing is going to be jammed up all the way to the very end," said Maurice. "We finished with 114 (points) last year, but we still weren't qualifying until the last 10 days of the year. This thing is going to be a grind all the way to the very end."