2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Winnipeg Jets vs Colorado Avalanche pre-game 2 report

After the absurdity of Sunday’s 7-6 game 1 win for the Jets over the Avs, it is hard to imagine what game 2, which goes later this evening, is going to look like. We didn’t get too much insight on Monday as the team held a lightly attended optional skate and Winnipeg bench boss Rick Bowness, when he was asked if he was considering any lineup changes, neatly deflected the question with a “not at this point…we’ll talk about it today and tomorrow morning”.  We did learn that Morgan Barron was still not skating and he was “probably still another week away”. Perhaps he chooses to tweak his third D pair. For now the lineup is based on last game and will be adjusted when morning skate gets underway.

Seemed pretty clear that Avs coach Jared Bednar wasn’t particularly pleased with the performance of his number one goalie Alexandar Georgiev in game one, which is understandable given he finished game with a 7.41 GAA and a .696 save%. He reportedly advised media on Monday that backup Justus Annunen remains ill and the team made a transaction to swap backups sending former Jets draft pick/Moose goalie Arvid Holm to the AHL for Ivan Prosvetov who has all of 24 NHL games under his belt.

Morning skate news:

No changes for the Jets at morning skate as they get set for game 2 in Winnipeg.

Lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Ehlers-Monahan-Toffoli
Niederrieter-Lowry-Appleton
Gustafsson-Namestnikov-Iafallo

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Stanley-Samberg

Hellebuyck

Player media:

Coach media:

Topics:

1) How important will discipline tonight?
2) Importance of physicality in these games (:39)
3) Can the volume (100) of hits for both teams continue? (1:43)
4) What is he expecting in terms of energy/investment from his team? (2:04)
5) What’s the mood like heading into game 2? (3:04)
6) Does he sense a workman like focus with his group? (3:47)
7) Connor Hellebuyck bouncing back (4:44)

Up Next:

Join us before the game on the Illegal Curve Pre-Game Show underway at 6:30 PM CDT which you can watch on our YouTube channel and live at CityPlace (333 St. Mary Avenue). Puck drop is at 8 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).