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But while the Jets find a few extra days off in the next nine days -- they play on Tuesday, Thursday against Florida and not again until Tuesday next week against Tampa Bay -- their rivals will be catching up in games played and in opportunities to gain points.

And in this season's Eastern Conference-plays-Eastern Conference-only schedule, somebody's getting points every night.

Scoreboard-watching will be in play many nights, but the Jets continued to say Sunday they're focused on their own task.

It will include a full team practice today at the MTS Centre, taking advantage of the first time in almost eight weeks the team has two non-game days in a row without travel.

"And even then, I'm not sure who all we'll have out there," Jets coach Claude Noel said after an optional skate Sunday that followed Saturday's relief-filled 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. "We have a fair amount of bodies around. The wildest thing is that it's odd that we have two days between games.

"I can't remember the last time we had time between games. It's almost a shock. I almost don't know what to do."

There will be better clarity in preparing for the Sabres after snapping their five-game losing streak Saturday.

"When you have a losing streak at this critical point of the season, our focus was basically just get a win," Jets defenceman Ron Hainsey said. "If it had to be 1-0, then it would be 1-0. Or 9-8, though I would not prefer that, that would be fine. That was the objective. We accomplished it. It's nice to have a couple of days here to mentally regroup before games. It's been a while since that's been the case."

Nobody needs to tell the team about the importance or urgency required for the final eight games, Hainsey said.

"The games are all going to be for us, not do-or-die because that's not the right word, but games if you potentially lose and someone else wins, you could possibly put yourself behind the eight-ball," he said.

"This late, by the time we play, we'll have two weeks left essentially, and they're all going to be important games. If you have a night where everybody wins and you lose, you'll be putting yourself in a spot where you might have to win a lot of games."

Just how many wins remains to be seen, but Saturday's was a good start.

"We've got a ways to go, even when you look at it," Noel said. "It was good in a lot of ways, good for everything -- our self-esteem, getting rewarded for working and working the right way.

"It puts us back nearby. It doesn't really solve anything completely. We've got a ways to go yet. We know that."

That's the big step this team is trying to make.

"This group has been in this position, hovering in this area for five years," Hainsey said. "I think my first year we were in Atlanta, we were out probably two or three weeks before (the finish)."

He cited the many close calls to the playoffs since. "These are exciting games to play, games you want to play in for as long as you can," he said. "Intense, fun games to play."

The intensity will be what Noel is looking for, and completely forgetting where Buffalo or Florida may be in the standings this week.

"We're beyond guarding," Noel said. "Trust me on that one. We have to win games -- that's it. You can spell it how you want. I would have not liked to have guarded five, six games ago.

"At this juncture, come on, you have to... we have to be good, have to expect to be good. That's it. Anything less than that is failure.

"Some practice days do not hurt. That has been out there, that we haven't had a chance to practise. No one has. I haven't heard of a team having a long stretch of practice to get prepared to play us. Every team that comes in is very similar, not skating in the morning, it's just the way this season is.

"It'll be nice to have a practice to get prepared but as far as using that as any sort of reason for anything, nobody's practising a lot, or maybe just a day here or there and it's no vaild explanation for anything in my opinion."

Jets defenceman Ron Hainsey on the team's priority, practice or rest?

Winnipeg Free Press LOADED 04.08.2013

668886 Winnipeg Jets

College stopper on Chevy's list signs up

Tim Campbell

Posted: 1:00 AM

AN emergency-plan college addition and an undrafted late bloomer is the latest addition to the Winnipeg Jets.

The NHL team signed 22-year-old Juho Olkinuora to a contract Sunday after the Helsinki native decided to leave the University of Denver after two years.

And with that, the Jets rather suddenly seem to be in very good shape with goaltending prospects.

"For us, it's part of the bigger picture trying to stockpile assets and stockpile prospects at all positions," GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said Sunday.

"We're certainly not just focusing on the goaltending side of it. We're doing our best to try through whatever means, the draft or free-agent signings, trying to add some depth to that pool."

Along with Olkinuora, they have three other prospects still playing NCAA hockey.

One of them, 2012 fifth-round pick Connor Hellebuyck, will take the University of Massachusetts-Lowell into this Thursday's Frozen Four semifinal against Yale in Pittsburgh. Hellebuyck was named Hockey East's goalie of the year.

The other two are Winnipeg native Jason Kasdorf of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, named Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference rookie of the year and made the league's second all-star team, and Caledonia, Ont.'s, Jamie Phillips at Michigan Tech.

"We're certainly sitting anxiously watching Hellebuyck's team as they compete at the Frozen Four this week," Cheveldayoff said. "It's a great time for him and we're watching with great anticipation, as that team has gone a long way in a short period of time.

"And Kasdorf as well. Both came in as freshmen this year and earned their opportunities to gain more starts and continued to earn opportunities to be go-to guys on their teams."

Hellebuyck, 19, has played 23 games this season, with a record of 20-2, six shutouts, a goals-against average of 1.31 and a save percentage of .953.

Kasdorf, the former Portage Terriers goalie picked in the sixth round of 2011, played 23 games for RPI this season (14-5-2), with a 1.62 GA average and a .935 save percentage.

Olkinuora's record with the Pioneers this season was 13-6-5 and his save percentage .927 as he supplanted recruited scholarship goalies on the Pioneers' roster.

As the story goes, Olkinuora was a late addition at Denver in 2011 when No. 1 goalie Sam Brittain, drafted by Florida, required pre-season surgery. He had to pay his own way because the team's scholarships were used up.

The team had decided to add a third or "practice" goalie just in case and found him in the USHL.

When the Pioneers' other goalie, Adam Murray, got hurt early in the year, the they had no choice but to play Olkinuora, and by the time the other two netminders were healthy, they had a hard time pushing him out of the net.

This past season, Olkinuora was named to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's second all-star team.

"A lot of people in our organization have seen him play, and he is a competitor," Cheveldayoff said. "He has shown some good attributes that a pro goaltender should.

"I've got to admit I defer more to people who know something about goaltending. I'm more of a guy (who says): 'Does he stop the puck, or doesn't he stop the puck?' Brian Renfrew, our college free-agent scout... he's seen him and Flats (goaltending coach Wade Flaherty) has seen him on tape, and it's an opportunity where he was going to leave school and we expressed the interest and I think it's going to work out well that he can get right into the system and start developing."

Olkinuora has agreed to a two-year entry-level deal and will join the AHL's St. John's IceCaps on an amateur-tryout contract for the remainder of this season.

Assembling a list of developing young goalies might take a little heat off the Jets for that position at the upcoming draft, but you never know how these things play out, Cheveldayoff said.

"A lot of it depends on how the draft unfolds in front of you as to whether there's a match. Fortunately for us, we had guys we had interest in being available late in the draft in each of the years."

Winnipeg Free Press LOADED 04.08.2013

668887 Winnipeg Jets

Weird week for Winnipeg Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien

By Kirk Penton

Winnipeg Sun

First posted: Sunday, April 07, 2013 12:49 PM CDT

Updated: Sunday, April 07, 2013 02:08 PM CDT

Jets snap losing streak against Flyers, April 6, 2013

Just a week ago, head coach Claude Noel said the Winnipeg Jets go as defenceman Dustin Byfuglien goes.

He wasn’t singing the same tune on Sunday.

Byfuglien, the enigmatic blue-liner from Roseau, Minn., played just 17:48 in Saturday’s critical 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. It was the least ice time Byfuglien had received while playing a whole game on defence since joining the Atlanta Thrashers in 2010, and it didn’t seem to affect the game’s outcome much.

Noel downplayed Byfuglien’s lack of playing time and, at the same time, distanced himself from the decision to have No. 33 on the bench more than usual, saying it was assistant head coach Charlie Huddy’s decision to use the other defencemen more.

“Well, whatever,” a defiant Noel said. “It’s what we deemed that he needed or we needed. We won the game. He didn’t need to play 30 (minutes) to win or to lose, so that’s the way it worked out. Charlie’s the one that manages the minutes for the defence.

“A lot of it’s dictated by a lot of different things. You’re trying to win the game first of all, so you do what you have to do. His play’s been so-so, so that’s how it goes.”

It was a wild week for Byfuglien, who was the victim of the coaching staff’s panicky decision to have him play forward for a few periods over the course of two games before moving him back to the blue-line.

Byfuglien reiterated on Sunday that his preference is to play defence. He also noted the transition of going from the blue-line to forward is never a smooth one.

“It’s not easy to sit and focus on D, then next game you have to try to focus on forward and not have any practice or get comfortable at forward or anything,” he said. “It was just a matter of going out and trying to do it and trying to read the game from that point of view. It’s not the easiest thing to do.”

When he went back to the blue-line, however, his poor play continued. He failed to pick up the man on a Montreal goal on Thursday night, just as he did on a Carolina tally on March 30, and was subsequently benched for the rest of the match.

Byfuglien said he hasn’t had a conversation with Noel about what exactly in his game needs to improve. “Everyone chats a little bit, but for the most part, no,” Byfuglien said. He does, however, have an idea. “Everyone knows what they need to do. It’s just a matter of getting things back on track.”

If the Jets are going to somehow pull a playoff spot out of their hats, they’re going to need Byfuglien at some point. They can win the odd game without him logging big minutes, but it’s not something they’ll be able to do on a regular basis. And win on a regular basis is the only way they’re going to have a hope of seeing the post-season.

It’s clear Byfuglien isn’t happy with the situation, but the fact he was on the ice Sunday morning for the optional practice when all the other big-name players were taking the day off shows he’s ready to work his way out of it.

SPECTATOR SPORT

When asked Sunday what he felt about playing only 17:48 of Saturday’s win over Philadelphia, Dustin Byfuglien cracked: “I felt like I was sitting around a lot.” It would have been a weird feeling for the big man, who has never played fewer minutes while playing a whole game on defence since joining the Atlanta Thrashers in 2010. A look at the games in which he’s had less ice time than he had on Saturday.

March 12, 2011

Atlanta 5, Philadelphia 4 (OT)

Ice time: 16:40

Why: Byfuglien had been dealing with a lower-body injury around that time, although there is no record of him leaving the game because of injury or being benched. He left the ice with 13:35 remaining in the third and didn’t return.

Oct. 23, 2010

Washington 4, Atlanta 3 (OT)

Ice time: 14:31

Why: Byfuglien received a charging major and a game misconduct with 2:28 left in the second period.

Nov. 17, 2010

Florida 2, Altanta 1

Ice time: 4:26

Why: Byfuglien suffered a lower-body injury with 5:41 remaining in the first period and didn’t return.

Only once last season did Byfuglien play less than 20 minutes, and that was 19:42

Twice this season he’s played less than 20 minutes, but one was 19:59 and the other was 19:18

He played 15:55 on Thursday in Montreal, but he spent most of the game at forward

Winnipeg Sun LOADED 04.08.2013

668888 Websites

USA TODAY / Winter Classic details announced

Kevin Allen

USA TODAY Sports

3:06p.m. EDT April 7, 2013

DETROIT – NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman joked that the Winter Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs, scheduled to be played at the Big House in Ann Arbor next New Year's Day, "is so big we need to make the announcement twice."

The announcement simply confirmed the not-very-secret plan to reschedule the game that was lost because of the lockout.

"Everything had been locked down and loaded, and the big issue was whether it could be put back together," said NHL chief financial officer John Collins.

The Michigan Stadium has a listed capacity of 109,901 for football, and it's expected the game will set an outdoor attendance record.

"I've said for years if you could ever get a hockey game at the Big House it would be magical," University of Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson said. "And we had that experience playing Michigan State in 2010 and it was a truly magical."

This Winter Classic is scheduled to have two alumni games at a second rink at Comerica Park in Detroit, and American Hockey League game between the Toronto Marlies and Grand Rapids (Mich.) Griffins, plus the Great Lakes Invitational college tournament, and Ontario Hockey League, high school and youth games.

"Once a Leaf, always a Leaf. Once a Wing, always a Wing," said former Detroit player Joe Kocur. "You could probably do three or four (alumni) games and not have a problem filling the lineups."

The hope is that 110,000 people would come to the sixth Winter Classic in Ann Arbor, and another 250,000 would attend the other events scheduled to be played in Detroit. The Red Wings owners Mike and Marian Ilitch insisted that downtown Detroit be included in the planning.

"It may be cold outside, but it is going to be a hot time in Hockeytown for two weeks," said Tom Wilson, president and CEO of Olympia Entertainment

By moving it until next season, the game has been changed to a division rivalry game. The NHL is realigning next season and Toronto and Detroit will be in the same division for the first time since they were in the Central Division in 1997-98.

The two teams have played 644 times in NHL history, and Toronto has won 276 times and Detroit has won 275. Detroit has 646 points and Toronto has 645.

HBO once again will host a 24/7 leadup to the game.

"I don't think there is a player you could talk who didn't have an amazing experience when he played in it," said NHL Players' Association executive Mathieu Schneider.

The Winter Classic has become the biggest regular-season event of the NHL calendar because it has given the league a strong presence on a traditional football day There is something about outdoor hockey that fascinates viewers. The game provides good ratings for NBC as folks tune in to see if it will snow.

"Why do we love outdoor hockey?" said former Red Wings star Mickey Redmond. "For people in my era, for every one time I played under a roof, I played 50 times underneath the sky and it doesn't get better than that."