2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Round 1 Game 1: Jets vs. Blues pre-game report

Can you feel it?  The energy around the city is a little more frenzied as folks get ramped up for the start of the Jets and Blues series which gets underway tonight in downtown Winnipeg.

Lineup below based on yesterday’s practice.

Morning Skate Notes:

As per Ken Wiebe no formal line rushes but coach Maurice is expected to go with the same lineup as we saw yesterday in practice.  As we saw yesterday Brandon Tanev joined the Jets for skate after formal part had resolved.

Jets Projected lineup:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Ehlers-Hayes-Perreault
Copp-Little-Laine
Lindholm-Lowry-Roslovic

Morrissey-Trouba
Chiarot-Byfuglien
Kulikov-Myers

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Audio:

Blake Wheeler

Josh Morrissey

Mark Scheifele

Coach Maurice:  His feel for the group following morning skate?  How does he gauge what Josh Morrissey can do in the first couple of shifts?  Where does he feel the defensive depth is as compared to last season?  How difficult is the conversation with D players saying there is no spot for you in the lineup?  On the ability of a player becoming a household name courtesy of the playoffs.  What kind of appreciation does he have for Ryan O’Reilly?  Why isn’t O’Reilly a more household name?  Is there a tangible difference with guys (i.e Ehlers, Laine, Hellebuyck, etc) who now have played in an NHL playoff series?  What does he see the role of the Copp/Little/Laine line?

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Blues projected lineup:

Schenn-O’Reilly-Tarasenko
Schwartz-Sundqvist-Perron
Maroon-Bozak-Thomas
Sanford-Barbashev-Steen

Dunn-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Edmundson-Bortuzzo

Binnington

Courtesy of Jermey Rutherford of the Athletic St Louis.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:00 pm CDT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game audio from the Jets room as well as from coach Maurice.