The Jets went up a class of opponent last night after they demolished the Bruins on Tuesday and it was evident right from the start that the Golden Knights are a very good hockey team. They controlled play for vast stretches of the hockey game. While the penalties at the end will ultimately be a talking point the NHL club of Winnipeg knows they needed to be a better version of themselves if they wanted a clean two points.
Today the focus switches to their old friend Patrik Laine and his Canadiens who got absolutely throttled last night in Montreal with the Pens leaving with a 9-2 victory. In five games since his return to the lineup the Finnish star has three goals (all on the power play) and one assist. Given how poorly the Jets PK has been of late (21st in NHL) and with Laine firing rockets with the man advantage Winnipeg would be well advised to stay out of the box.
Skate news:
Nikolaj Ehlers in a yellow, non-contact uniform on the ice today.
Lines and D pairs:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Chibrikov
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Iafallo
Ehlers (non-contact)
Morrissey-DeMelo
Fleury-Pionk
Stanley-Miller
Heinola-Coghlan
Player media:
Coach media:
Topics:
1) Ehlers out on the ice
2) Benefit of a loss being pushed vs an easy win [;25)
3) Key on breakouts (1:44)
4) Analysis on the first Vegas goal (2:39)
5) On Heinola not playing last half of 3rd (3:12)
6) Would he rather face a team coming off 9-1 win or 9-1 loss? (3:34)
7) Hockey is better when Patrik Laine is in it! (4:27)
8) How does he make sure it’s not a trap game vs Habs? (5:13)
9) Has Connor Hellebuyck taken another step this season? (6:31)
10) Do they rely too much on Connor Hellebuyck? (7:28)
11) What has he seen from the last 10 games? (8:26)
Health news:
It seemed far fetched that Nikolaj Ehlers would play Saturday as today was his first skate with team. This would appear to be confirmed based on this comment from Scott Arniel who said “…we’ll see how the road trip goes”. Again Ehlers just got back with his teammates and isn’t taking contact yet so as well as he was moving on the ice why would the team risk it? They’ll have another practice on Monday and don’t play again until Tuesday which will give him more time to heal.
Up next:
The Jets will take on the Canadiens tomorrow at 6 PM CST. You can start your day with all the latest Jets and Moose news in the AM Papers on illegalcurve.com which are available starting at 7 AM CST, join us for the Illegal Curve Hockey Show which begins at 9 AM CST, stick with us throughout the day for updates and then join us on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show after the final buzzer.
