'This is your Christmas': Jets coach calls playoffs his fun time
Team embracing Winnipeg's excitement, Paul Maurice says
Practice was short and sweet Monday as the Winnipeg Jets prepare for their first playoff game later this week, and head coach Paul Maurice says he's excited — and ready.
"This, for me, the playoffs — this is your Christmas, right. This is exciting every day to get to the rink. You're not worried about making long-term points," Maurice told media.
"[The team will] bring lots of enthusiasm and energy, so you're just trying to point it and focus it in the right direction. This is our fun time of the year."
That excitement is certainly being helped by the team's fans, who quickly scooped up the few playoff tickets released Monday, and are expected to flood downtown Winnipeg to watch the first game against the Minnesota Wild.
Those fans will be both inside the sold-out Bell MTS Place and outside on Donald Street, with big screens to watch the game.
"You'd like a certain amount of calm, but we're not going to shield it from [the team] here," said Maurice. "Our building, our crowd is a really big piece of us having the year we had at home."
Jets captain Blake Wheeler said the team is excited.
"Our fans have been great to us and now we get to pay them back a little bit with some fun games," Wheeler said.
Forward Patrick Laine is going into his first NHL playoffs.
"I haven't seen the whiteout and stuff like that," Laine said. "It's going to be exciting and I think everybody is just waiting for that moment to happen."
The Jets finished second overall in the NHL, but that "doesn't mean anything any more at all," centre Matthiew Perreault said.
"It means that we had a good year, but it's a new season, starting now."
Monday's practice was a short 40 minutes and it marked the return of defenceman Jacob Trouba, who missed the final game of the regular season with an ankle injury.
However, Maurice confirmed Toby Enstrom will not be on the roster for the first game because he's still recovering from an injury in March. He has missed eight games.
Also absent was Matt Hendricks, who was on the ice in a non-contact jersey a few practices ago as he recovers from a blindside hit taken in February. Hendricks won't suit up for Game 1, but he may be a possibility at the end of the series, said Maurice.
The Jets coach wouldn't get into specifics about how he feels the Jets stack up to the Wild, but did say the game will be faster and simpler.
"They're going to play real fast," he said. "Everybody's finishing checks, everybody's blocking shots. They're going to take first option shots to the net, both teams, pucks to the net. It gets boiled down again to the simplest game.
"Two of the best home teams in the NHL," he added. "It's going to be a good series."
