Jets in for Wild ride

WINNIPEG — After wins in two of their first three games, the Winnipeg Jets hit the road this week for a match Thursday night in Minnesota against the Wild.

The game will mark the Jets’ first divisional contest since being moved to the Central Division in the off-season.

“You know they’re big points in big games,” said forward Bryan Little. “You know, they’re games you want to win and don’t want to have any regrets at the end of the season of points you could have had.”

Thursday’s game is also the first of back-to-backs against divisional opponents as the Jets will return home to host the Dallas Stars on Friday – the first game of a six-game home stand. With two days of practice to prepare, head coach Claude Noel is spending a lot of time working on his team’s play in its own zone. The Jets have had far too many costly defensive breakdowns for Noel’s liking. Goalie Ondrej Pavelec has been kept busy with the Jets surrendering 108 shots through three games, an average of 36 shots against per game, which is near the worst in the league. To put it into perspective, in the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 season, the Jets only allowed an average of 29.7 shots per game.

The Jets will also have to be better at the face-off dot. Ollie Jokinen was nine for 20 in face-offs in the Jets’ 3-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks Sunday night. Little was five for 17 while rookie Mark Scheifele won just two of the 10 face-offs he took against the Ducks.

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“Switching conferences this year, we’ve seen a lot of different guys,” said Little. “It takes awhile to get used to you know other guys tendencies.”

As a team, the Jets have won just 41 per cent of their face-offs this season, which ranks them 27th among the NHL’s 30 teams. According to centre Jim Slater, it’s not just the guy taking the face-off that has to improve.

“You win face-offs as five man units and you lose face-offs as five man units,” said Slater. “You’re not going to win every one clean. You’re not going to lose every one clean.”