Game 1: Jets vs. Rangers projected lines

The NHL season kicked off last night and the Jets will get their season started in the most famous arena in the world as they take on the Rangers at MSG.  Tonight won’t be a regular season opener either as they will face a pair of former Jets in Jacob Trouba and Brendan Lemieux who were traded separately last season to New York.

The Jets will have a media availability this morning which will be followed by an optional morning skate.  For now the projected lines and D pairs are based on yesterday’s skate in Winnipeg and will be updated if there are any changes required.  There is also the possibility that Carl Dahlstrom, whom they claimed from the Hawks off waivers, and who joined the Jets in NYC could play.

Update:  Coach Maurice confirmed that David Gustafsson and Carl Dahlstrom won’t play tonight against the Rangers.

Jets Projected Lines, D Pairs and starting goalie:

Ehlers-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Copp-Laine
Perreault-Lowry-Bourque
Appleton-Letestu-Roslovic

Morrissey-Kulikov
Heinola-Pionk
Bitetto-Poolman

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Rangers Projected Lines, D Pairs and starting goalie:

Panarin-Zibanejad-Buchnevich
Kreider-Strome-Kakko
Namestnikov-Howden-Fast
Lemieux-Andersson-Smith

Skjei-Trouba
Staal-DeAngelo
Hajek-Fox

Lundqvist
Georgiev

NY projected lineup via Dan Rosen of NHL.com.

Audio:

Blake Wheeler

Carl Dahlstrom

Patrik Laine

Ville Heinola

Neal Pionk

Coach Maurice:  The sense of excitement of the team.  What has struck him about Ville Heinola?  Is it fair to say Heinola is the biggest surprise to him from training camp?  What is the latest on Bryan Little?  Has he given Heinola the first game speech?  What did he say to him?  Did David Gustafsson get the speech?  What does he say to Carl Dahlstrom?  What changes in terms of what he expects/needs from Laine/Connor when they haven’t played pre-season games?  When did Josh Morrissey start to find his voice?  On the norm for morning skates.  How much is sport science driven and how much is b/c of conversations with his drivers?  Getting more bang for his buck from his practices?

All audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Health Update:

Coach Maurice on the status of Bryan Little “He’s going to skate today.  So he’s moved off that kind of really light bike stage into he’ll skate today but we won’t push him hard.”

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6:00 pm CDT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game audio from the Jets room as well as from coach Maurice.