Playoff-bound Jets trying to tamp down expectations

The morning after theWinnipeg Jets clinched a post-season appearance, the club is trying to downplaytalk of a long playoff run.

Coach Paul Maurice and his players are sticking to the one-game-at-a-time script, even after they defeated the best team in the league in another nerve-racking, Ativan-inhalingseesaw battle.

On Sunday night, Winnipeg's5-4 shootoutvictory over Nashville ensured the Jets will compete for the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2015, when a tougher but far less creativeteam was swept in four straight games by the Anaheim Ducks.

Expectations this year are far higher for the Jets, who possess theNHL'sfourth-best record overall, vastly improved goaltending from ConnorHellebuyckandatrio of gifted young forwardsinPatrikLaine,NikolajEhlersand Kyle Connor, who was namedtheNHL'sthird star of the week on Monday.

Jets centre MarkScheifele, however,declined to speculate on how far his team can go even on a morning when he could have been forgiven for basking in the glow of clinching a playoff berth.

"There's still lots of hockey left. Getting an X beside your namedoesn't mean anything. It just meansyou're init,"Scheifelesaid following an optional Monday skate.

"You have to get past the first round to get anywhere else. There's no further focus than on the game we have tomorrow against Boston."

Maurice also declined to speculate about the future. Watching an exciting team should be sufficient right now, he told reporters Monday.

"If you went to the game last night, nobody wanted a refund," the coach deadpanned.

The understatement belies the excitement of a fanbase that has primarily known futility since the original Jets joined the NHLin 1979.

In their original incarnation, the Jets only won two playoff series, both against the Calgary Flames. In their current incarnation, they have not won a playoff game.

In 2015, several hockey pundits predicted the Jets would upset Anaheim.

"We had a grinding,hard game that we played. We were a high-event team, penalties both ways, lots of hits and really a straightline.There was not a lot of creativity. We didn't have it," Maurice recalled of that club, which had no skater like Ehlers, no pure scorer like Laineor no game-breaker like Connor.

"Our team has a slightly different style. A skill-based style. It's changed, but the identity of it, the understanding of the game we have to play is just as good."

That, too, is an obviousunderstatement.

"We feel we've been playing the best hockey I think this organization has played," said defencemanTyler Myers, repeating a talking point his teammates have used all year: everyone on the club hasbought into a consistent game plan.

"No matter what's going on throughout a game if we're down two, up two, tie game we're coming out, we're bringing the same mindset and the same preparation with every shift."

Fans are hopeful this will translate not just into the first playoff game victory for this particular franchise, but a first-round series victory, a potential series against the Predators and even more.

"There are certain players on the Jets that are getting a little older, so our window to win is the next couple of years," said Rick Lefortat Uptown Sports in Portage Place.

"I wouldlove them to win the cup this year, but if not, we're going to be close."