Game 10: Winnipeg Jets vs Minnesota Wild pre-game report

The Jets used Monday as a travel day as they departed for the quick trip to St. Paul where they will take on the Wild. It’s a one-game road trip which will see them playing in their Heritage jerseys.

Winnipeg is coming off a disappointing game against Utah which saw them get out of their structure and look fairly ordinary for two periods of hockey. They’ve not lost two of their last three games after winning five straight.

In terms of lineup questions for the visitors you wonder if Colin Miller comes in for Luke Schenn who did not have a particularly good last game. And whether Parker Ford come back in.

Despite the excitement in Minnesota generated by the long-term signing of Kirill Kaprizov it hasn’t resulted in a hot start out of the gate. They are 3-5-2 in their 10 games so far including an OT loss to the Sharks in their last game. Special teams are Jekyll and Hyde for them as they rank 31st in the league in penalty kill but 3rd overall in power play.

Skate news:

As per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press who is on the road, captain Adam Lowry is also there and had a lengthy chat with head coach Scott Arniel before morning skate got underway. Kenny answered the question above with his line rushes and D pairs (see below) which indicates Parker Ford draws in (for Nikita Chibrikov) but Colin Miller does not.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Namestnikov-Toews-Iafallo
Niederreiter-Barron-Nyquist
Koepke-Ford-Pearson

Morrissey-DeMelo
Stanley-Pionk
Fleury-Schenn

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Wild projected lines & D pairs:

Kaprizov-Rossi-Johansson
Tarasenko-Eriksson Ek-Boldy
Trenin-Hartman-Hinostroza
Jones-Yurov-Pitlick

Brodin-Faber
Middleton-Spurgeon
Buium-Jiricek

Gustavsson
Wallstedt

As per Wild reporter Joe Smith, Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno is a game-time decision for tonight.

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:
1) Lineup changes
2) Moving Vlad Namestnikov to the wing (:32)
3) Challenges posed by the Wild (:55)
4) What’s stood out about Gustav Nyquist’s game (1:32)
5) Getting Nyquist shooting more (2:08)
6) Inserting Parker Ford into the lineup (2:45)
7) What he’s seeing from Dylan DeMelo (3:30)
8) Kyle Connor’s PP goal drought (4:27)
9) Latest on Adam Lowry (5:12)

Latest on the captain:

“I don’t know how it’s all going to shake out in a week when Low (Adam Lowry) comes back…”

That was Jets head coach Scott Arniel when he was asked about moving Vlad Namestnikov to the wing. He was asked by Kenny if a conditioning assignment was possible but suggested the schedule isn’t great because the Moose don’t have a lot of practice time. They are in Tucson today and tomorrow for games, will travel home on Thursday and Friday is an off day. Their first practice is Saturday and then they play Sunday afternoon and Monday night. If Lowry isn’t quite ready could do join Manitoba and then join the Jets on their west coast road trip.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7 PM CDT. Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. You can join us on our YouTube channel for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 9:40 PM CDT as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.