Jets looking to harness whiteout energy in Game 2 of Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Winnipeg Jets are looking to harness the whiteout pandemonium into more postseason success this year.

After capturing Game 1 against the St. Louis Blues at Canada Life Centre on Saturday off a terrific play from the dual threats of Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor, one of the Jets’ main priorities heading into Game 2 on Monday night is improving the club’s start.

To begin the series, Winnipeg came out slow and disjointed right off the drop of the puck, struggling to even exit its own side of centre due to the overwhelming pressure from the Blues’ heavy forecheck.

The Jets improved their game as the first frame continued, managing quick goals from Scheifele on the power play and Jaret Anderson-Dolan at even strength, but even then, they didn’t appear to replicate the identity they had toiled over 82 games in the regular season.

Captain Adam Lowry said the team’s struggles through the opening stanza came from nervousness.

“Early in the game you get nerves, the building’s buzzing, and guys are chasing hits,” he said after a 5-3 win in Downtown Winnipeg.

Nerves in the opening game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are natural, but the long-standing tradition of the Winnipeg whiteout seems to add a unique amount of pressure to players like none other.

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)

“It’s brighter, it’s louder… It’s not normal,” Mason Appleton said after pre-game skate on Monday. “To say everyone’s a little nervous or on edge to start, it’s just what it is. There’s a learning curve kind of in each game.”

That learning curve is obviously an obstacle the Jets were able to overcome on the weekend with a win, but in past years it’s been a point of concern during the postseason.

The Winnipeg Jets’ home record since returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2015 is an abysmal seven wins and 13 losses. For the incredible spectacle that is the Winnipeg whiteout, the numbers show it lacks in the results department.

“The crowd is so electric that you can almost get caught up in it a little bit too much,” Appleton said. “You kind of over-amp yourself up a little bit, but we just have to calm down and take a breath and try to get to what makes us good right away.”

Jets defenseman Neal Pionk also recognizes using the crowd’s noise to the team’s advantage will be key heading into tonight’s game.

“We get a little too jacked up sometimes,” he said. “It shakes the building, gives you goosebumps still to this day, so that’s kind of the nerves we have to deal with and have to settle in with.”

Winnipeg’s record at home this year during the regular season was an impressive 30-7-4, so they already know what it means to have success on home ice.

With the ‘scar tissue’ mantra surrounding the locker room this year from past postseason disappointments, no Jets roster is better suited than this one to get past the whiteout woes of past years.

“We went through it the other night. There were a lot of nerves, and now tonight I’m hoping, “Okay, we’ve been down this road; let’s be ready for it’,” Arniel told reporters after Game 1. “Hopefully next game, period number one, we’re up and running right away.”