The Joy in Joyland is gone. Fans in Winnipeg watching Nino Niederreiter’s Jets debut were excited for the home town team which after going 20-9-1 in their first 30 games had gone a rather pedantic 15-15 in the next 30. Game 61 last evening was more of the latter and not the former for the Jets as they blew leads of 2-0, 3-1 and 5-3 to drop the game 6-5 in a shootout to the Kings.
They were without Pierre-Luc Dubois who was considered a game-time decision and Mason Appleton, who had been ruled out during morning skate. The positive for those two players is the team chose to go 11/7 in the game and not make a recall which would have necessitated either of those two going on IR retroactive to Sunday (and which would have made them ineligible to play either of the games against the Oilers this weekend).
Skate news:
As per Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun neither Dubois nor Appleton are taking part today. But he indicated that everyone else is present and accounted for and he provides the lines/D pairs below.
Lines and D pairs:
Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Niederreiter-Lowry-Ehlers
Maenalanen-Stenlund-Kuhlman
Barron-Gustafsson-Gagner
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
Stanley-Capobianco
Hellebuyck
Rittich
Player media availability:
Coach media availability:
Topics:
1) Status of Pierre-Luc Dubois and Mason Appleton?
2) Is it a concern the PP isn’t scoring in practice? (:41)
3) Lessons to take from the Kings game? (1:41)
4) What is the responses from his top end guys to video of “too many passes”? (2:27)
5) Have they done enough to warrant being “buyers”? (4:03)
6) Integrating new players into the mix (4:40)
7) How does he decide role/ice time when integrating? (5:19)
8) His thoughts on Morgan Barron (5:44)
9) Can he remember a more remarkable lead up to Trade Deadline day? (6:32)
Health news:
An updated from head coach Rick Bowness as it pertains to Pierre-Luc Dubois. He indicated he’s “Day-to-day. He might try to skate tomorrow. We’ll see how he feels in the morning.”. Regarding Mason Appleton he said that 22 is being reevaluated.
Signing news:
The Jets announced that they had signed goalie Evan Cormier to a one-year, two-way contract. Last year the Jets signed Phillippe Desrosiers to a similar deal that they signed with Evan Cormier. The year before last it was Cole Kehler. Meaning it is nothing out of the ordinary for Winnipeg to sign a goalie ahead of the trade deadline.
Merch contest:
We start a brand new month of contests with 15 opportunities to enter and win the IC contest for authentic Jets merch. You can enter here.
Up next:
The Jets have another day of practice scheduled for tomorrow before they leave for Edmonton. Be sure start your morning with the Morning Papers which go live at 7 AM and then check back for the Practice Report.
