It’s an interesting bit of scheduling to kick off a four-game homestand for the Winnipeg Jets.
Even Scott Arniel and his players understand how cliche or boring it can sometimes get for fans, sometimes bordering on apologetic, for the responses that have been agonizingly consistent for 70-plus straight games: “We’re focused on us, how we play the next game.”
That tunnel-visioned approach has worked pretty well to this point. And it certainly comes in handy for situations like the one the Jets are currently dealing with.
On Sunday, Winnipeg began this homestand facing a Buffalo team dead last in the Eastern Conference who hadn’t won a game on the road in more than two months and had lost the day before to Minnesota in St. Paul.
It was the quintessential “trap game.” And while a 5-3 loss to the lowly Sabres would certainly lend itself to the narrative the Jets were guilty of looking past Buffalo — and ahead to Tuesday night’s showdown of conference leaders versus Washington — the game simply wasn’t played that way.
Winnipeg got goalied in a matchup they dominated. Was there disappointment over the final result? Yes.
Are there certain elements they need to be better at in order to beat the Capitals? Definitely.
But by applying the calm and composed response to wins (or losses) they’ve maintained to a fault this season, the Jets will now get ready for the arrival of the Great Eight Circus and attempt to deliver a performance similar to the one seven-and-a-half weeks ago in D.C., when they outlasted the Capitals in overtime.
Two visiting teams — in consecutive games — who could not be on two more different levels than Washington and Buffalo are.
So go ahead, Arnie’s Army. Maintain the “one game at a time” mantra … perhaps all the way to the top.
