LAS VEGAS – As the top team in the National Hockey League, the Winnipeg Jets know they will get the best of their opponent every night.

That certainly doesn’t make the schedule they’re dealing with any easier, but it’s not a fact they’re hiding from either.

Regardless of the opponent — whether it’s a home-and-home matchup against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, a physical divisional matchup with the Minnesota Wild, or a motivated team like the Los Angeles Kings were on Wednesday — the Jets expect to perform at a high level.

“Last night that was absolutely not the case,” Jets captain Adam Lowry said during Friday’s practice in Vegas. “When I saw the video and tape from last night, there were parts of our game that we weren’t focused on. When we’re not at our best in those areas, we spend a lot of time attacking – we don’t generate many chances – and we spend a lot of time defending. It was a pretty dry message from (head coach Scott Arniel) about what we need to improve on.

Their first chance to improve on these things is today against the Vegas Golden Knights, who are also off to a strong start this season. While the Jets lead the Central with an 18-5-0 record, Vegas is the top team in the Pacific at 14-6-3.

Jets assistant coach Dean Chynoweth has already seen the group respond to tough losses this season. Whether that was a dominant 6-2 win in Detroit after a disappointing 6-4 loss to Toronto, or splitting a two-game set with Florida with a 6-3 win on home ice, Chynoweth knows the team will be ready to push. back after a heavy 4-1 defeat against Los Angeles on Wednesday.

“You go through a season, when you have an 82-game schedule, and you’re going to have those games and then it’s about how you respond,” Chynoweth said. “It’s the next game, it’s the next team, it’s after a goal and you have to be able to put yourself in a position to be successful in that.”

With the local puck drop set for 5:30 p.m. in Vegas, the Jets will not have a morning skate Friday prior to the game. Thursday’s practice was about getting back to playing the way the Jets want to and recovering as much as possible.

“Do everything you can so that tomorrow you have your legs and you’re mentally sharp and you can make the right decisions out there,” Lowry said. “Like every game on this road trip, it feels like we are playing a great team and we will have to be at our best to have any success here.”

Only one player did not participate in practice, and that was Vladislav Namestnikov (Chynoweth said this was for maintenance purposes), so with the veteran forward off the ice, Winnipeg’s line rushes looked like this:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi

Perfetti-Gustafsson-Ehlers

Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton

Barron-Kupari-Iafallo

Morrissey-DeMelo

Fleury-Pionk

Heinola Miller

Stanley Coghlan

The way Lowry sees it, the Jets want to improve in all three areas. What they do on one side of the ice often translates into ice. Winnipeg gave up 11 high-risk chances (according to Natural Stat Trick) against Los Angeles and generated seven of their own.

In the third period (where they currently have a goal difference of plus 34), the Jets were only able to get two shots towards the Kings’ net. Winnipeg wasn’t spending as much time in the offensive zone as they would like, and Lowry felt like that was because of issues all the way back in their own environment.

Compare that to what Winnipeg accomplished in the win over Minnesota, limiting the Wild to just four shots in the third period.

“It’s about connection, predictability and execution,” Lowry said. “I think if attackers work back for D, they are attackers who are in the spots that D expects. The D-partners communicate and are the eyes for the man who has to go back to get the puck. Whenever you break out as a unit of five, you can generally get the puck through the neutral zone and get to your forecheck. I notice that we are at our best then.”

So look for the priorities in Winnipeg’s game: managing the puck, getting out of their zone as a five-player unit and spending a little more time in the offensive zone against Vegas – coming off a 2-1 shootout loss to Colorado come. .

Two motivated teams will face off at T-Mobile Arena on Friday, and Lowry doesn’t think the similarities end there either.

“They’re built just like us,” Lowry said. “They have tremendous depth and are getting contributions across the lineup, a lot of guys are off to a great start. They have a very deep back, they make it difficult to get to the front of the net, their D blocks a lot of shots. They have some great goalies there.”

Should Winnipeg come out on top, they will have 10 wins on the road and guarantee themselves at least a split on this six-game trek across multiple time zones.

“Finding ways to win along the way builds trust in your group and camaraderie,” Lowry said. “It’s hard to win in other teams’ buildings. Ultimately, we were quite successful on the road. Obviously we didn’t like a few of our last road games, but any time you spend extended time you can build those relationships off the ice that only strengthen the group here.