Manitoba (AP) Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice wants the Jets to focus on fun

WINNIPEG www.ducksshoponline.com , Manitoba (AP) Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice wants the Jets to focus on fun, not the magnitude of Sunday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights.The expansion Golden Knights are up 3-1 in the best-of-seven Western Conference final and could eliminate the Jets and reach the Stanley Cup Final with a victory.”These are the best games, always are, when everything is on the line,” Maurice said Saturday. ”Everybody will be at their most excited. You have to find a way, and it shouldn’t be very difficult, to love every minute of it. … This has to be your finest hour. Before the puck drops, I’m not talking about the play, be able to get your mind that this is the most fun game of the year now.”The Jets have accomplished more in the playoffs than the Atlanta Thrashers franchise did before relocating to Manitoba in 2011. They’ve also surpassed the achievements of the original NHL Jets franchise that moved to Arizona in 1996.As the current Winnipeg team eliminated the Minnesota Wild in the first round in five games and then bounced the Predators in a Game 7 in Nashville Patrick Maroon Jersey Womens , fans from across the country have cheered on the only Canadian team left in the championship run.Jets defenseman Ben Chiarot and his teammates have seen the adoration, particularly in Winnipeg with their white-clad crowd inside Bell MTS Place and thousands more outside at ”whiteout” street parties around the rink.Now, though, isn’t the time to let the hopes of hockey fans weigh them down, he said.”I don’t think you can think about that, how many people we have watching us,” Chiarot said.”It’s a little daunting when you think of a whole province, or even the whole country, watching us play. So you just focus on what you do and the guys in the room and that’s all we focus on.”Winnipeg won the first game against the Golden Knights at home.The Jets had an NHL-best home record of 32-7-2 in the regular season and finished with nine straight victories at home. They added four more in the playoffs Tyler Bozak Jersey Womens , but have lost three of their last four games at home.In the last two losses to Vegas, the Jets gave up the first goal. When they did tie it up in both matches, the Golden Knights responded with goals in under a minute to regain their lead.”It’s going to be really important, not only just to score the first, but just to have a good start,” Jets forward Andrew Copp said. ”We felt like we actually started OK last game, just kind of got in penalty trouble early. That can determine how it looks like you start.”If the Jets can pull out a victory Sunday, Game 6 is Tuesday night in Las Vegas. A Game 7 would be Thursday night in Winnipeg.Maurice wants his players to approach the do-or-die game like their Game 7 victory in Nashville.”I want them to take their experience from Game 6 and 7 and create the environment they created there where they came out with an excitement and smile on their face,” he said. ”Going into Game 7 Chad Johnson Jersey Womens , there’s as much pressure in that game as there was here, right? It’s the exact same game. This one is at home. We’ll need that crowd. They’ve been great for us.”Both teams, all four teams now (left in the playoffs), there’s not quite as much in the tank as there was before. You’re looking to draw on that and go out with an excited smile.” TAMPA, Fla. — As the rest of the NHL opened play earlier this week, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers practiced. And practiced. And practiced some more.But finally the last two teams yet to begin their season — at least in North America (Edmonton and New Jersey open in Sweden) — drop the puck Saturday at Amalie Arena.“You get a little jealous of watching the games,” Florida coach Bob Boughner told the team website. “You wish you could not only play one early but play the next one right after. But we’ve had some time here that has allowed us to fine-tune some things here, have some good meetings and have some good practices.”Article continues below ...Both Tampa Bay and Florida enter the season with high expectations, though for completely different reasons.The Lightning are coming off a loss in the Eastern Conference finals to the Washington Capitals Brian Flynn Jersey Womens , blowing a 3-2 series lead. It marked the second time in three years that Tampa Bay fell in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion in the conference finals.Tampa Bay no longer wants to be seen as a bridesmaid catching the bouquet at the reception. The Lightning want to be holding the prize at the center of the dance floor when the music stops.“It’s a process on how we are going to get there,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “But it’s a hard thing (to get there) and this group has done it year after year. Call it unfinished business.“You don’t know how long that is going to last, but you just have to keep trusting the process in getting there. Look no further than the Washington Capitals, where it was setback after setback after setback and now a lot of those guys that went through a lot of those years got to realize their dreams.“We’re no different, it’s just our setback happened a little later in the playoffs. But there is a reason we keep getting that far and it’s because we have a great group in there and you can see the look in their eyes. Guys are looking forward to getting going.”The Panthers, on the other hand, are looking to get into the playoffs for the second time in four seasons after coming up just short last season. A late-season charge fell just a point short as Florida finished with 96 points — tied for the most points for a team that missed the postseason.After coming so close, the Panthers feel primed to be inside the playoff picture rather than on the outside.“Hopefully, the guys use that bad taste in their mouth from last year Carolina Hurricanes T-Shirts Womens , being so close,” Boughner said. “We played with pride, but that can be a powerful motivator for this season.”Tampa Bay will start the season without veteran forward Ryan Callahan, who remains out after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery but is on track to return “in the coming weeks,” according to Cooper. Center Tyler Johnson is considered questionable after missing the final two weeks of training camp with an undisclosed upper-body injury.Both Callahan and Johnson have been practicing with the team.