Practice Notebook - Nov. 11, 2022

WINNIPEG -Before hitting the skies for Calgary to open a short two-game road trip, the Winnipeg Jets hopped on the ice at Canada Life Centre for a quick skate. But, they had something important on the agenda before the first drill.
A moment of silence.
Right at 11 am CT, assistant coach Brad Lauer - in charge of the first drill of the day - asked everyone on the ice to take part, and in an instant, the rink was silent as the team honoured Remembrance Day.
"We have an incredible life, even specific to us. Any day in this league is an outstanding, awesome day," said head coach Rick Bowness. "And it's a blessing. So it was good just to take a moment, recognize those who have laid their lives on the line so that we could live the life and the freedom that we have."

When the practice did get underway, Mikey Eyssimont - recalled from the Manitoba Moose earlier in the morning - rotated into line rushes.
At this point, Bowness doesn't expect any changes to the line-up against the Flames on Saturday, but with the 5 pm local start in Seattle the next day, the head coach didn't want to take any chances.
"He's had a great start," Bowness said of Eyssimont, who has nine points in nine games with the Moose so far. "Back-to-back games and a five o'clock game in Seattle, we're taking a peek at that and we're doing everything we can for tomorrow night and then we're going to re-evaluate. It just gives us another option for Sunday at five o'clock."
LINE RUSHES
Connor-Scheifele-Appleton
Perfetti-Dubois-Wheeler
Maenalanen-Lowry-Jonsson-Fjallby (Eyssimont rotating in)
Harkins-Gustafsson-Gagner (Toninato working in)
Morrissey-Pionk
Dillon-Schmidt
Samberg-DeMelo
Capobianco
Nikolaj Ehlers remains off the ice, but Bowness said the forward is progressing.
He hasn't skated yet, partly because the team is being cautious to make sure Ehlers doesn't have any setbacks when he returns.
The hope is that Ehlers can skate on Tuesday or Wednesday.
LOOKING AHEAD
After a perfect home stand, the Jets aren't taking anything for granted heading into Calgary.

Sure, the Flames are 0-5-2 in their last seven, but Josh Morrissey says they're playing much better than that record shows.
"The coaches laid out a stat for us about their starts and how much they're outshooting teams in the first 10 minutes," said Morrissey. "We have to be ready to go and we know they're going to come out hard. We have to be ready to manage the game properly on the road in the first 10 minutes really through that entire game, against Seattle as well."
In other words, don't sit back and wait.
"That's not how we want to play the game because when you're playing on your heels, you're sitting back and you're reacting and then you're usually half a step behind when you play," said Bowness. "We keep 98 per cent of our focus on us and how we're playing."
The start of games were a point of emphasis for the Jets following their most recent road trip. They grabbed five of six points during that trip, but were outshot 44-17 in the opening period of those games.
That got much better in victories over Montreal, Chicago, and Dallas, as did the team's puck management.

"When there are plays to be made, we have talented guys and you have to make them," said Morrissey. "But at the same time there is a time and a place to chip the puck, or dump the puck in, or manage the game. Our commitment to playing that smart hockey and some of our systems are starting to become more second nature as we get more reps at it as well."
All that improvement came from off-ice video work and maximizing the practice time the Jets have enjoyed to start the month, with only three games in the first 11 days.
"Practice makes perfect," said Mark Scheifele. "We know it's going to be a tough test against Calgary. We know they play hard, we know they're a better team than what their record is right now. We just have to go out and play our game, continue to grow as a team, continue to build as a team."
Now it's time to see if those learnings from the home stand continue into Calgary and Seattle.
"We expect an intense Flames team, they're a physical team, they forecheck hard," said Morrissey. "We've had some good battles with them over the years and we played them a lot in the bubble year. We expect an intense Saturday night hockey game in Canada. It's great."