2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Winnipeg Jets vs Vegas Golden Knights pre-game 2 report

The Jets have put game 1 in the rear view mirror and as of Wednesday the focus was on game 2 and attempting to send the series back to Winnipeg with a big lead.

The playoff subterfuge continued as head coach Rick Bowness wouldn’t provide any insight as to whether or not Nikolaj Ehlers would play tonight. Morgan Barron, Kevin Stenlund and Neal Pionk all didn’t participate in practice yesterday but the Jets bench boss did indicate that Barron was given the day off after suffering that brutal cut to the face on Tuesday night while the other two took a maintenance day.

Morning Skate news:

As per Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet the three guys who didn’t participate yesterday (Barron, Stenlund and Pionk) are all taking part today at the optional morning skate. Although the big question mark in Nikolaj Ehlers is not taking part according to Wieber so that likely means he isn’t playing in game 2. But the answer from head coach Rick Bowness will likely be “we’ll see”. Stay tuned for his media availability.

For now the lines are based on last game.

Lineup news:

Jets bench boss Rick Bowness said they expect Morgan Barron to play tonight but that they will monitor him ahead of the game to ensure he feels good after the workout. No surprise that Nikolaj Ehlers remains a game-time decision.

Warm-up news:

No Nikolaj Ehlers as per Murat Ates of The Athletic Winnipeg.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Dubois-Scheifele
Niederreiter-Namestnikov-Wheeler
Barron-Lowry-Appleton
Gustafsson-Stenlund-Maenalanen

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Rittich

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Status of Nikolaj Ehlers?
2) Any issues with any of three who missed skate yesterday? (:22)
3) Is there any concern for Morgan Barron playing? (:33)
4) The lore created by Barron leaving/coming back with injury (1:29)
5) Playoff debuts of Gustaffson and Samberg, any words of wisdom? (2:38)
6) Samberg getting better and better (3:14)
7) Push back from Vegas tnt, what does he prioritize? (3:50)
8) Any concern of a trap game? (4:28)
9) Having to compartmentalize when a guy gets injured (5:06)
10) Knights Chandler Stephenson looking out for an injured Barron (5:49)

Betway Odds:

Despite the total domination in game 1 the oddsmakers aren’t buying what the Jets were selling as they once again have the Golden Knights as the favourites in tonight’s contest. However, the Jets enjoy the role of underdog so they would likely be quite fine with this assessment. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 9 pm CDT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game interviews from Jets players as well as from head coach Rick Bowness.

You can also join us afterwards for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).