Playoff Practice Notebook - Apr. 16, 2023

WINNIPEG -Sunday was travel day for the Winnipeg Jets, but not before they hit the ice at Canada Life Centre for the team's first full practice since the regular season came to an end.
The focus of the 50-minute skate was on play away from the puck and special teams, as the pre-scout of the Vegas Golden Knights is being spread out over the few days ahead of Game One.
"You can't do it all in one day. It's too much information and you also don't want to flood with too much information and you lose sight of what you as a team," said Dylan DeMelo. "At the end of the day, it's going to be what we do. We have to be aware of what they do in regards to their systems, but at the end of the day, it's all about us. We have to look internally here and control the things we can control."
There is a lot of playoff experience in the Jets room. Nino Niederreiter has been in the Stanley Cup Playoffs every year since he broke into the National Hockey League in 2013-14. This will be Vladislav Namestnikov's fifth postseason trip, and a big chunk of the Jets roster went through the triple overtime Kyle Connor winner in 2021.

There are even lessons to take from the run to the Western Conference Final in 2018, specifically the series against Vegas.
One of the thoughts that always stuck with me was how good they responded off a goal," said Connor, who was a NHL playoff rookie that spring. "We get one in their place, they respond within two or three minutes and would score right away or have a great shift."
The biggest lesson of all, however, is how important it is to stay even keel emotionally. That's quite something to hear from a player that has scored a triple overtime, series winning goal in the playoffs.
"You win one game and you come back in the room and you come off such a high," said Connor. "Such an emotional game, you think you win the Stanley Cup right then and there. And that can get to your head. So I think with that being said, even off a loss you've got to realize that this is a long series. You're never out of it."

Even within a game, the emotions can swing from one end to another. It's something head coach Rick Bowness has seen countless times before. Even though the Jets missed the postseason in 2022, he expects the lessons they've learned previously to come back quickly.
"There are going to be calls that go against us. You can't let that affect you. There are going to be calls that you're going to get that you shouldn't have got. Don't get to excited about it," Bowness said. "They're a good hockey team we're playing, the best team in the West. There are going to be ebbs and flows to the game. You can't go with it. You have to stay here. 'I just had a bad shift, my next shift has to be better,' or 'I just had a good shift, let's make sure I do that again,' without just accepting it's going to happen again. You have to make sure you're prepared to make it happen out there."
Only two players didn't participate in the full skate - Nikolaj Ehlers and Kevin Stenlund.
Ehlers skated on his own ahead of the formal practice, while Stenlund didn't skate at all.

Bowness says they both remain day-to-day.
The line rushes without both players looked like this:
Connor-Dubois-Scheifele
Niederreiter-Namestnikov-Wheeler
Barron-Lowry-Appleton
Jonsson-Fjallby/Kuhlman - Gustafsson-Maenalanen
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
Stanley-Capobianco
Even though the team has another practice day on Monday ahead of Game One on Tuesday, the excitement to get things going is evident in the room.

"I think if you've punched your ticket you've got belief," said Brenden Dillon. "There's 16 teams that want to win the Stanley Cup, that think they can win the Stanley Cup. We feel we've got the depth, we've got the size, the skating, the ability up and down the lineup, so we're just going to have to believe it."
And given the battle the Jets were in right up until clinching a spot after game 81, they feel they're battle-tested, and ready to handle anything that comes at them when the puck drops.
"There's definitely something to be said for that," said Connor. "Each game meant that much more, that next game meant that much more. So I think that put in a good position to be battle-tested as much as you can coming into the playoffs."