Game 16: Jets vs Penguins pre-game report

The Penguins had been on a bit of a skid before they landed in Minnesota and beat up the Jets central division rival including a four-point night from Sidney Crosby. The Jets on the other hand are feeling good about themselves having gone 8-1-1 in their last ten games and are an impressive 6-1-0 at Canada Life in Winnipeg.

However, they do have quite the laundry list of injured players which includes uncertainty surrounding the status of Dylan DeMelo who missed one practice this week and the game on Thursday against the Ducks.

Skate news:

As per Mitchell Clinton of JetsTV goalie Connor Hellebuyck going through his morning routine. He indicates that Dylan DeMelo is not on the ice and the below lines and D pairs are skating this morning.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Gagner
Perfetti-Dubois-Wheeler
Jonsson-Fjallby Lowry Maenalanen
Toninato-Gustafsson-Eyssimont

Morrissey-Pionk
Dillon-Schmidt
Samberg-Capobianco

Hellebuyck
Rittich

Betway Odds:

Despite the fact that the Penguins come to Winnipeg 3-5-2 in their last ten games perhaps the four-point effort by Sidney Crosby has the oddsmakers giving the slight edge to the visitors despite the impressive play at home for the Jets. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Update on Nikolaj Ehlers.
2) What is the status of Dylan DeMelo? (:22)
3) Did he like what he saw from Kyle Capobianco? (:42)
4) Can he emphasize with Ville Heinola? (1:19)
5) Chronology from 7-10 days to needing surgery on Ehlers (1:41)
6) How do they weather loss of Ehlers, Barron & Appleton? (2:57)
7) Was there a specific incident in Stars game that caused Ehlers injury? (4:01)
8) Trying to find someone internally to fit with the team (4:38)
9) Chatting with GM Kevin Cheveldayoff for help (5:00)
10) Trying to get Ville Heinola into a game (5:25)
11) What is he seeing from the Pens? (5:52)
12) Trying to gameplan for Sidney Crosby (6:51)

Health news:

Rather large news coming out of the Matt Frost Media Centre from Jets bench boss Rick Bowness regarding the status of Nikolaj Ehlers who will need sports hernia surgery. No timeline at all for return but the expectation is he will play again this season.

There was also an update on Dylan DeMelo who didn’t skate as he is dealing with an upper-body injury. He skated on his own today and the team is hoping he’ll be back on Monday.

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 which includes post-game interviews from Jets players as well as from head coach Rick Bowness.

You can also join us afterwards for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button). This season you’ll have a chance to win great schwag including authentic Jets jerseys, hats, etc after every single game (For a variety of ways to enter click here).