Practice Notebook - Mar. 7, 2023

WINNIPEG - Rick Bowness' message was taken to heart by his players, and it was evident in Tuesday's practice.
Following the tough 3-2 overtime loss to San Jose on Monday, the head coach kept his message simple in the room that night:
"'We move on. Tomorrow morning when you come to the rink, I want a positive attitude, I want us ready to go to work, and I want us to get ready for Minnesota.'"
So the Jets arrived at Canada Life Centre ready to do just that, and over the course of the 45-minute skate, they worked to prepare for a Wild team that has won both games against Winnipeg this season.
In the season series finale, the Jets want to flip that script.
"There's not really many moral victories at this point in the season," said Adam Lowry, reflecting on the loss to the Sharks. "We have to start getting results. But that's one you watch it back and you see what you did well and then you try and take it forward."

Both Lowry and Bowness describe the team as confident. They do have three of the last four possible points, they outshot San Jose 38-24, and Natural Stat Trick's count of high-danger chances at five-on-five in the last 40 minutes of the game were 8-0 in favour of the Jets.
"You give Mr. (James) Reimer a tip of the hat and say 'good job by you.' We played a really good game," said Bowness. "There is a different energy on the bench and in the room when you're playing like Edmonton and the puck is going in. Then there is a different energy when you know you're playing well and the puck isn't going in.
"You just have to persevere and you have to push through it."

LINE RUSHES
Pierre-Luc Dubois missed Tuesday's skate for maintenance reasons. He returned to the line-up against the Sharks after missing three games with a lower-body injury.
In his return, he played 20:40 with 7:37 of it coming on the power play.
"He'll play tomorrow at this point," said Bowness. "Unless things change between now and tomorrow, he's expected to play."
David Gustafsson took Dubois' spot at centre during the line rushes, which looked like this:
Ehlers-Scheifele-Niederreiter
Connor-Gustafsson-Wheeler
Namestnikov-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Stenlund-Maenalanen
Kuhlman-Gagner-Jonsson-Fjallby
Morrissey-Pionk
Dillon-DeMelo
Stanley-Schmidt
Samberg-Capobianco
POWER PLAY SHUFFLE
After the Jets went 0-for-6 on the power play against San Jose - although, Nate Schmidt's goal with 5:07 remaining came just after a Sharks penalty expired.
Winnipeg has scored twice on its last 18 power play chances, so Bowness flipped Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele's spots on their unit. Instead of being in a one-timer position, they're now on their strong side.
"That's what we worked on, putting them as downhill shooters," Bowness said. "We're going to give it a look. We passed up six power plays and didn't score a goal, and you end up losing one in overtime. We need it to produce a little bit better than it has been."

REKINDLING THE RIVALRY
Winnipeg puts its 14-5-0 record against the Central on the line on Wednesday against the Wild, a team that's responsible for two of the Jets' five losses against divisional opponents.
Since the start of the 2017-18 season, the Jets are 5-3-0 against the Wild at Canada Life Centre, and 7-9-2 overall.
The games are always physical and full of emotion, just what the Jets are looking for at this time of year.
"Sometimes when the physicality ramps up, you become more aware of it on the bench, how crucial it is to be finishing your checks, how crucial it is to winning your battles so that the D don't necessarily have to be going for the puck, they don't have to pay that price with the other team's forecheck," said Lowry. "I think sometimes in the Central Division it kind of gets back to our roots and how we want to play with a hard forechecking style and possess the puck."
The Jets will likely have their eye on the scoreboard tonight, as Minnesota hosts the Calgary Flames - one of the teams trying to get back into playoff contention.
Calgary will be playing on a back-to-back after defeating Dallas 5-4 on Monday. Meanwhile, Minnesota is 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.
"They've been getting fantastic goaltending, and they've out played us in the two games we've played them," Bowness said. "Now it's up to us to out play them tomorrow."