In fact, that's part of what made him Cheveldayoff's choice for the role.
"When I talked to him late last night about this opportunity, you could see the gears and wheels turning right away," said Cheveldayoff. Just in operating around the room, there are going to be things that Dave is going to do different."
While a number of Jets have been working with Lowry for the past 84 regular season games, there is one player who knows him far better than that.
His son, Adam.
"I think it's going to be similar to Paul," said the Jets forward. "Paul was very articulate in the message he wanted. Looking at teams in the past that my dad has coached, he wants them to play fast and he wants them to play with the puck."
Lowry's coaching style has adjusted depending on the Western Hockey League teams he's coached. He went from the Calgary Hitmen, a high-powered offensive group, to the Victoria Royals, a tough and physical team that were a challenge to play against.
Before coming to Winnipeg, Lowry was the head coach of the Brandon Wheat Kings in 2019-20, another offensively gifted group.
His NHL resume includes assistant coaching stops with the Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings before he joined the Jets last season. As far as coaching mentors go, Lowry points to Roger Neilson, who he played for in Florida from 1993-1995.
"The biggest thing I always took away was the care and respect he had for his players and how he wanted to create that family environment," said Lowry. "I really believe that's something we have here now, and we'd like to continue with that moving forward."
The other part he'd like to see continue is for the Jets to play with pace. In fact, he thinks they can be even quicker.
"We can be a fast team. We can be a hard team to play against," Lowry said. "We can be quick on pucks. I really believe that it's getting us to understand that we have to play the same way night in and night out and build that level of consistency."
In practice on Thursday, Andrew Copp skated alongside Adam Lowry as the Jets worked to balance out their forward group. The practice had lots of pace as the Jets prepared for tonight's tilt against the Metropolitan leading Washington Capitals.
A practice like that shows exactly what Copp felt was the case - Maurice's message ever got stale in the Jets room.
"It's not that we got too comfortable. We didn't know how to be uncomfortable anymore. When you're uncomfortable, sometimes that makes you perform that much better," Copp said. "Now that there's a new voice, a new person making decisions, if I don't have a good night tonight - what's going to happen? That can go across the board and that can improve performance."
At 13-10-5, an improvement in performance is what the players are looking for.
"I think you kind of have a sense that maybe we left Paul down. He's the coach that gave me my opportunity," Adam Lowry said. "We've known the situation, how we've been playing, and that we haven't been playing up to our standards."
Tonight is the first chance to change that, and for the Jets to take a step toward being the team they believe they can be.
It was less than a month ago that the Jets took three of four points from the Edmonton Oilers in a home-and-home set, and less than two weeks from an emotional victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in captain Blake Wheeler's 1,000th NHL game.
The talent and skill are there. It's time to unleash it.
"I think it's a great group and they like each other, which I think you have to have in the beginning," Cheveldayoff said. "We've got games in front of us right now. But that's why they play the game. They're professional athletes and it's important that they understand that the time is now."
Lowry's first priority? Just getting his team ready for tonight.
"I think that's the primary focus," he said. "And then, obviously, with the (coaching) role changing, it is connecting with the individuals, letting them know what the expectations are, what we're going to need from them, and it's going to be no different than before."
