WINNIPEG -- After the Winnipeg Jets eliminated the Minnesota Wild with a 5-0 victory in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round series on Friday, Jets forward Bryan Little, his wife Brittany and a couple of teammates and their wives went to a restaurant on the way home.
When they walked in, the place burst into applause.
"Never been in that kind of spot before," Little said after winning a Stanley Cup Playoff series for the first time in an NHL career that has spanned 11 seasons.
The 30-year-old from Edmonton has seen other things that have caught him off guard.
The noisy white-out inside Bell MTS Place on Friday was not unexpected, but the estimated 36,000 white-clad fans outside watching the game on four big screens spread over three blocks of closed city streets amazed him.
"Downtown, seeing those pictures on TV during and after that game, the people outside, you would think we're in the Stanley Cup Final," Little said. "There's more outside than inside, more than you'd think. It's insane."
Little and defenseman Toby Enstrom are the longest-tenured Jets, each starting with the franchise when it was the Atlanta Thrashers in 2007-08.
For Little, it took 754 regular-season games (he has 475 points on 200 goals, 275 assists) before he won his first NHL playoff game and series, having only played previously in the postseason in 2015, when the Jets were swept by the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference First Round.
In all that time, the No. 12 pick of the 2006 NHL Draft has shouldered an immense burden. Until the emergence of Mark Scheifele in 2015-16, Little was the Jets' first-line center, always playing the toughest minutes against the opposition's best.
He remains underappreciated most of the time.
Little had 43 points (16 goals, 27 assists) in 82 games this season and is part of the Jets' strong depth at center, which also includes Scheifele, Paul Stastny, Adam Lowry, Andrew Copp and Matt Hendricks.
He's also versatile enough to play wing, which he did with Stastny in Game 5 against the Wild when Nikolaj Ehlers couldn't play because of injury.
As the Jets awaited the determination of their Second Round opponent, either the Nashville Predators or the Colorado Avalanche, Little said the experience of this season has reassured his decision to sign a six-year contract with the Jets on Sept. 14, 2017. He could have become an unrestricted free agent July 1.
"Honestly, I liked it here," Little said. "I wanted to stay here. Even when I was in Atlanta, I always wanted to play for a Canadian team, seeing how big it is in Canada and it's my home country. I grew up close to Toronto and saw how much hockey means to people around there.
"Coming here (in the 2011 relocation), I was really happy about it and the biggest thing was that I thought the team was starting to turn the corner. I wanted to be a part of that. I didn't want to put in my 10 years and go through all those difficult years and then leave when things started to look good. I think that's why a lot of guys re-signed here; they saw the talent that was coming in and that the best years were going to be coming really soon."
Scheifele, 25, identified Little as a role model.
"He does everything," Scheifele said. "He kills penalties, he's good at face-offs, he plays power play, he plays good 5-on-5. He does all the things that the regular fan doesn't notice, that we notice in this room, on the ice, things the coaches notice."
Little even flies under the radar at times in the locker room.
"He's a quieter guy, doesn't say a lot," Scheifele said. "But he's actually undercover funny when he says stuff. He's just a good dude, works hard, gets in the gym, takes care of his body, eats well and he does everything a pro should do and he's a guy a lot of guys see that is so dialed, and that's something that probably goes unnoticed."
The history that connects Little, Enstrom, defenseman Dustin Byfuglien and captain Blake Wheeler back to their time in Atlanta, has not been a big focus for Little, but it does provide an important reminder for all of his teammates as they head to the Western Conference Second Round.
"The history comes up with the younger guys," he said. "A lot of the older guys in here ... we're just kind of saying to them, 'Take advantage of this. This kind of team of team and this kind of talent doesn't come along very often and we've got a really good group in here to maybe do something special. Even if you're 21 or 20, well, take advantage of this.' "
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