Jets seek continued consistency in second half with playoffs in mind

WINNIPEG -- The Winnipeg Jets aren't talking about the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the midway point of the regular season.

Instead, they are focused on the kind of game that will get them there with a chance to go further than the Western Conference Final, where last season ended.
"We all know the second half tightens up," defenseman Tyler Myers said. "As it gets closer to the end of the season, it starts to look more and more like playoff hockey. It's a certain way you have to play."
Winnipeg is first in the Central Division with 54 points (26-13-2) in 41 games after defeating the Dallas Stars 5-1 at home Sunday.
The Jets lead the Nashville Predators by one point and have played two fewer games. They're also pushing for the lead in the Western Conference, with games in hand and two points back of co-leaders the Calgary Flames (43 games played) and Vegas Golden Knights (45). It was Vegas that eliminated Winnipeg in five games last season.
"We had a really good experience last year, knowing what that feels like," Myers said. "We even talked about it here the first half, about getting up to that level that we know we need to get to win. We just have to bring that level of consistency coming into the second half."

With nine wins in their past 13 games, the Jets like the trend but have higher goals.
"It just shows that we can still get better," center Bryan Little said. "We're happy with where we're at in the standings. We've played some good hockey, but overall, as good as we've played, we know we have another level that we can get to.
"It only gets harder from here. For us, it's just to elevate our game and to get ready for that."
The Jets, who host the Colorado Avalanche at Bell MTS Place on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, TSN3, ALT, NHL.TV), have a certain formula in mind for what's ahead.
Top-line forwards Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele are on pace for NHL career best seasons inpoints. Wheeler, who had 91 points (23 goals, 68 assists) last season, has 51 points (six goals, 45 assists) in 41 games. Scheifele, who had 82 points (32 goals, 50 assists) in 2016-17, has 50 points (22 goals, 28 assists) this season.
Wheeler is third in assists, behind Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (49) and Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen (46) and leads the NHLwith 19 power-play assists.
Jets forward Patrik Laine, who scored 44 goals last season, has 24 in 41 games this season, putting him on pace to establish a new NHL career high.
"We have a lot of skill in this room and sometimes we get by on our top guys carrying us," center Adam Lowry said. "It's going to be important that we develop a formula for success that maybe if you're not getting a lot of power plays in the playoffs or the other team's top lines and top D pairings are shutting down your top lines, that you're still finding ways to win.
"That's by defending solidly and having a solid penalty kill and getting solid goaltending. That's kind of what we're going to look for in the second half."

The Jets are ranked eighth in the NHL with a 2.80 goals-against average. Their penalty kill is 11th at 80.7 percent, a nice complement to a power play that's second at 28 percent.
Winnipeg's worst stretch of the first half was two losses in a row (twice, Nov. 21-23 and Dec. 27-29). There was a similar consistency when itfinished with 114 points last season -- the most in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history -- never losing more than three in a row during the regular season.
Coach Paul Maurice said he considered it a good sign that such consistency is developing again this season, especially with a roster that, as of Sunday, is tied with the Ottawa Senators for youngest in the NHL with an average age of 25.6.
"It's an interesting thing that kind of gets lost, right?" he said. "Younger players are less consistent. It doesn't mean they're not fantastic. But it takes a player a few years, even just physically, to be able to drive every day, to understand it.
"That's going to be our learning curve in the second half. The game (Sunday), don't look at the score. Take it right to 3-1, it was a bit of a grinder ... that's coming into our season now. The focus for us in the last 41 is handling that kind of game and getting comfortable if that game ends up 2-1 or 3-1, that we're fine with that."
And that, in turn, should help when the postseason begins.
"That defensive grind, that will shift to heavier to even more of that in the playoffs and we want to prepare for that," Maurice said.
After winning two rounds in the playoffs last season, the Jets were aware of heightened expectations this season. Maurice believes they have not been a burden.
"We've been handling them very well," he said. "I think we have a realistic understanding. We haven't gotten too high when we went on our run (they are 13-5-0 since Nov. 29), and we've been really good at choking off the situation that would make you doubt yourself a whole lot. We've been pretty consistent."
Lowry said the pressure and expectations aren't as high as they could be, especially with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who last won the Stanley Cup in 1967, playing like a serious championship contender.
"Well, the media puts a lot of pressure on us," he said. "Thank God there's Toronto and they throw a lot of pressure on them, so we don't have as much.
"Moving forward, you have to handle that pressure because there is going to be pressure to win every night. It's our job to perform and to perform under those circumstances. Anytime you can emulate that in the regular season, it bodes well to prepare you for the second half, the stretch run and come playoff time."