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WINNIPEG Adidas Max Jones Jersey , Manitoba (AP) Captain Blake Wheeler wasn’t certain at the beginning of the season if his Winnipeg Jets would contend for a playoff spot. Now he has his answer.Mark Scheifele scored the only goal in a shootout and the Winnipeg Jets clinched a playoff spot with a 5-4 win over the Nashville Predators on Sunday night.The Jets are in the postseason for the first time since 2014-15 and just the second time since their move from Atlanta before the 2011-12 season. The franchise hasn’t won a playoff series since 2007.”A lot of uncertainty coming into the year, where we were going to be,” said Wheeler, who has been with Winnipeg since the relocation. ”I don’t think many people thought we were going to be where we are at, a playoff team. Every single guy in here has had a huge part in that. It’s a big moment for our team and for our organization.”Jets rookie Kyle Connor scored a power-play goal and had two assists, giving him seven goals in six games. That includes a pair of overtime goals in Winnipeg’s previous two games and gives him 29 on the season. That’s tied with Vancouver’s Brock Boeser for the rookie goal scoring lead. Boeser’s season ended March 5 with a fracture in his lower back.”He’s one of the single biggest reasons why we are where we are,” Wheeler said. ”(Connor has) put up nearly 30 goals and is a real impact player playing with Mark Scheifele and I. It’s quite a surprise.”Dustin Byfuglien also scored on the power play, and Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler each added a goal and an assist for Winnipeg.Kyle Turris, Ryan Ellis, and Viktor Arvidsson each had a goal and an assist, and Roman Josi also scored for the Predators.Nashville backup Juuse Saros stopped 43 shots while the defending Western Conference champions rested their Vezina Trophy candidate Pekka Rinne after playing the night before in Minnesota.Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves for the Jets, improving to 39-11-0.The clubs have combined for 41 goals in five meetings this season.”There’s a lot of people shooting the puck out there. They got a lot of talent on their team,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. ”Our guys do a pretty good job scoring goals. I can’t explain it. Both teams have good goaltending. Both teams played pretty good defense, but offense seems to rule the day.”The Predators went 1 for 5 on the power play. Turris’s 14th put the Predators up 2-0 with less than one second remaining in the first period. The Jets’ two goals with the man advantage put their power play at 2 for 5.”I think playoffs are a lot different Adidas Andrej Sustr Jersey , to be honest with you,” said Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm when asked about potentially meeting the Jets in the postseason.”It’s most likely going to be the same players, so I wouldn’t expect anything much different. But playoffs are playoffs. I know on our part, we’re going to tighten up defensively, for sure.”NOTES: The Jets trail the Predators by five points for first in the Central Division with seven games remaining in the regular season.UP NEXTPredators: Start a three-game homestand against Minnesota on Tuesday night.Jets: Complete a six-game homestand against Boston on Tuesday night.— RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Rod Brind’Amour helped deliver the greatest moment in Carolina Hurricanes’ history – a Stanley Cup championship.His next challenge is to create more memorable moments as their coach.The captain of the Hurricanes’ 2006 Cup-winning team has his first head coaching job in the NHL, taking the next step in a career arc that during the past 18 years has brought him from team leader all the way up the coaching ladder – and all with Carolina.”It’s a job, but it’s not,” Brind’Amour said Wednesday. ”It means more to me.”The Hurricanes gave Brind’Amour a three-year contract, with team owner Tom Dundon declining to discuss the financial terms. But Dundon did praise Brind’Amour for his willingness to put his reputation on the line while trying to things around. Carolina hasn’t made the playoffs since 2009, a nine-year drought that ranks among the longest in NHL history.”He didn’t need the job,” Dundon said. ”He’s got a good life here, he’s well respected and the risk that he’s taking with his reputation and his legacy is real.”The Hurricanes have changed coaches three times and general managers twice since their last postseason appearance. Another of the franchise’s greats – Hall of Fame player Ron Francis, like Brind’Amour a former team captain – was stripped of the GM’s job during the season and last week had his contract terminated.Brind’Amour said Dundon and team president Don Waddell Adidas Alex Galchenyuk Jersey , who also added the title of general manager during the shake-up, have ”high expectations, which is huge.”For whatever reason, our expectations have fallen a little bit here, and we need to raise those,” he added.He also wants to raise the effort level from the players, pledging to push them in much the same way he pushed his teammates during his time as team captain.”We have a lot of guys in that room that need to give more,” he said. ”I think there’s more there. … They didn’t produce the way they could produce. … We’re going to demand more from our players, at the end of the day, and I think they want that.”That’s an approach that helped turn the Hurricanes into winners before, and now he wants to see if it will work again.Brind’Amour came in Carolina in January 2000 in a trade with Philadelphia – and never left. He helped lead the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup final in 2002, ascended to the captaincy before the 2005-06 season and ended that year by becoming the first Carolina player to hoist the Cup – in the process, creating the franchise’s signature image that remains on display throughout PNC Arena.”There are guys that wear the C,” former teammate Aaron Ward said Adidas Barrett Hayton Jersey , ”and there are guys that ARE the C.”The two-time Selke Award winner as the NHL’s best defensive forward retired in 2010 and ranks third in club history in assists (299), fourth in points (473) and fifth in games played (694). His post-playing career began in a front-office position – director of forwards development – but became an assistant coach in 2011, first for Paul Maurice, then Kirk Muller and Bill Peters – who opted out of the final year of his contract, creating the opportunity for Brind’Amour.”I actually remember asking (then-GM Jim Rutherford) at the time, `Hey, put me upstairs with you,’ and he kept pushing me down” toward a future in coaching, Brind’Amour said. ”It’s the closest thing to playing. … You’re in the fight with the guys. I felt like it’s something I have a passion for, and the more I got into it … I wanted to take a chance on taking charge. I stuck my neck out, and here we are.”—