Game 15: Jets vs. Oilers pre-game report

The Jets will look to kick off their four-game road trip with a win tonight in Edmonton against the surging Oilers. It won’t be easy as the home team has won three straight games (including a 3-0 win over Montreal in their last game). The Jets will be without Pierre-Luc Dubois tonight. Dubois is with the team on the trip but he is not quite ready to return to the lineup yet.

Roster news:

Jets Head Coach Paul Maurice confirmed that the team will use 12 forwards and six defencemen tonight. Maurice indicated that Jansen Harkins is ready to return to the lineup (he has been activated by the team to the active roster) and he also added that Nate Thompson and Pierre-Luc Dubois are close.  While he didn’t project his lineup this is what you should expect to see tonight.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Copp-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Stastny-Ehlers
Perreault-Lowry-Appleton
Vesalainen-Harkins-Lewis

Morrissey-Poolman
Forbort-Pionk
Beaulieu-DeMelo

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Player availability:

Coach availability:

Topics:

1. Having a “normal” Blake Wheeler back.
2. His lineup tonight.
3. Parity in the North Division.
4. With the Moose starting tonight.
5. The lack of fans.
6. The challenge presented by the Oilers now.
7. Roster housekeeping.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 8:00 pm CT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game interviews from the Jets room as well as from coach Maurice.