Game 21: Winnipeg Jets vs Nashville Predators pre-game report

As difficult as this Jets road trip is given all the travel they must do to play six games in a number of different time zones they began it in excellent fashion picking up a 4-1 win over the Penguins last night in Pittsburgh. They then jetted off on the one hour 40 minute flight to Nashville where they will do battle against the Predators for the first time this season. It is also the first back-to-back for Winnipeg.

The Predators are sitting tied for last place in the Central Division with a 6-11-3 record. Similar to last night’s team they don’t score even less goals (46 GF) but they have allowed fewer goals (60 GA). Hard to believe that before the season began prognosticators were picking Nashville to finish ahead of Winnipeg in the standings. The Jets currently sit 19 points up on the Preds. Nashville’s power play ranks 10th in the league but their penalty kill is the best in the NHL which should make for an interesting match-up with the Jets countering with the best power play in the league.

Skate news:

No morning skate. If there are any changes they will be updated here. At most it is expected that Eric Comrie will get 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
Fleury – Miller

Comrie
Hellebuyck

Predators projected lines & D pairs:

Forsberg-O’Reilly-Nyquist
Stamkos-Sissons-Tomasino
Parssinen-Novak-Marchessault
L’Heureux-McCarron-Smith

Skjei-Josi
Lauzon-Carrier
Del Gaizo-Schenn

Saros
Wedgewood

As per Brooks Bratten (Senior Content Manager & Beat Reporter) these were the lines and D pairs that the Preds used in their last game against the Kraken. Will update them once they skate this morning.

Up Next:

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