The Jets have had themselves a good January so far going 8-2-1 this month and will close things out tomorrow night in Winnipeg with a re-match against the Leafs as part of this home-and-home two-game set.
There are plenty of question marks for this club with Mark Scheifele having missed five straight games after he sustained a lower-body injury in the game against the Hawks on January 11th, Gabriel Vilardi the last two on this road trip also with a lower-body injury and now Josh Morrissey who left the game in the 1st period on Wednesday in Toronto after blocking a shot.
Skate news:
Josh Morrissey and Gabriel Vilardi are on the ice for practice in regular uniforms. As is Mark Scheifele.
Worth noting that David Gustafsson, AJf and Dominic Toninato are wearing light blue jerseys (presumably the healthy scratches).
When it came time to work on power play however Mark Scheifele sat on the bench while PP1 ran the drills. Seems like 55 might in fact have to wait until after the All-Star break to return.
Lines and D pairs:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Iafallo
Gustafsson-Toninato-AJF
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
Chisholm-Stanley
Health updates:
Rick Bowness confirmed no Mark Scheifele tomorrow. He labelled Gabriel Vilardi and Josh Morrissey as likely but called them game-time decisions.
Players media:
Coach media:
Topics:
1) Latest on Mark Scheifele.
2) Gabriel Vilardi and Josh Morrissey good to go? (:53)
3) Excitement of getting to see a healthy lineup, but being cautious (1:21)
4) How is Cole Perfetti dealing with ebbs and flows of the season? (2:22)
5) How do the coaching staff handle the highs/lows for Perfetti? (3:07)
6) Being “hard on” Cole Perfetti (4:05)
7) Does he have to explain more with a player like Perfetti? (4:53)
8) Managing his bench – 55 & 17 lines are his rocks (5:27)
9) What does the 2nd/4th line need to do to manage game way he wants? (6:48)
10) Slip of offence of late (8:04)
11) What’s his contract status for next year (9:13)
12) Any desire to see Gabriel Vilardi up the middle? (10:53)
Up next:
The Jets and Leafs will conclude the pre All-Star portion of the schedule with a quick one-game homestand in Winnipeg tomorrow night. Start the day with all the latest news on illegalcurve.com, join us for the Illegal Curve Hockey Show at 9 AM CST, stick with us throughout the day for updates and then be sure to join us after that game on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show.
