Game 11: Winnipeg Jets vs Columbus Blue Jackets pre-game report

The Jets enjoyed an off day on Thursday following a bounce back 6-2 win over the Wings in Detroit on Wednesday to kick start their short, two-game road trip. Today they find themselves in Columbus where they will take on a surprising Blue Jackets team who sit with a 5-3-1 record, which includes a 4-2-0 record at Nationwide Arena and are currently 3-0-1 in their last four games. They are a middle of the pack team for scoring but haven’t given up a lot sitting with the sixth least amount of goals against.

Might this game mean a little more to current Jets head coach Scott Arniel who got his first head coaching opportunity in Ohio with the Jackets? That was 14 years ago and he lasted a season and a half before he was let go. Winnipeg will also be looking to show that the Toronto game on Monday was an anomaly and that the norm is what we witnessed two days back in Michigan.

It will also be the first meeting between Sean Monahan and his former club after he choose to sign with Columbus during free agency instead of remaining in Winnipeg.

Morning skate news:

As per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press no changes to the forwards lines or the D pairs. Only change is Eric Comrie gets the start in net.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Iafallo

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Stanley-Miller

Comrie
Hellebuyck

Blue Jackets projected lines & D pairs:

Chinakhov-Monahan-Marchenko
Sillinger-Fantilli-Pyyhtia
Aston-Reese–Danforth-Olivier
van Riemsdyk-Kuraly-Labanc

Werenski-Provorov
Christiansen-Severson
Johnson-Harris

Merzlikins & Tarasov

Lines via Jackets Insider Jeff Svoboda.

Player media:

To follow.

Coach media:

To follow.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6 PM CDT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. Reminder to join us on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 8:40 PM CDT as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.