‘Pedal to the metal’ for Jets’ Stanley

He pointed out a couple of injuries, but refused to lean on them.

“I just knew that this was a big year. Pedal to the metal, and worked out as hard as I could this summer. And it’s kind of paying off here.”

Asked to elaborate, Stanley says a lot of it was his mental approach.

He skated way more, too. His off-season partner just happened to be teammate Mark Scheifele, also from the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

“He’s in great shape and showed me a lot of tricks and things,” Stanley said. “And when you’re skating with guys of that caliber, you’re going to get better and you’re going to want to perform at their level.”

Still adapting to his size, Stanley needed to get quicker on his feet. In training camp he acknowledged his fitness level was a big step toward that.

Listed at 242 pounds on the Manitoba Moose AHL roster last season, Stanley checked in at 228 this season.

The new-and-improved version of himself quickly caught the eye of Jets coach Paul Maurice.

“Logan made a major, major commitment this summer to his fitness level,” Maurice said on Sunday. “And really showed right from the start that he was at a completely different place than at any point since we’ve had him.”

Of course, that only gets you noticed.

It took a new baby in the Dylan DeMelo household and Tucker Poolman entering COVID-19 protocol to get him into a game.

“Obviously it’s a different year, and you don’t want anyone to get sick,” Stanley said. “But that stuff’s going to happen, and guys are going to have to be ready to play. Fortunately, I was the next guy up.”