The Jets got a nice little surprise on Saturday as Josh Morrissey wore a regular jersey at practice for the first time since suffering his injury back on October 7th against the Avalanche. Head coach Scott Arniel wasn’t prepared to declare him ready to return, wanting to see how he came through practice, but provided everything went well there is a good chance he plays his first game in over a month. On the flip side, Winnipeg will be without Elias Salomonsson, who missed the game against the Canucks due to illness and will now be away from the team for personal reasons. No timetable was provided for his return.
Adding some intrigue to the situation on the Jets blue line was the emergency recall of defenceman Henry Thrun from the Moose on Saturday evening. The 25-year-old has one goal and six assists for seven points in 13 games with Manitoba this season. While Morrissey is expected to be ready and Haydn Fleury practiced after blocking a shot against Vancouver, the emergency nature of Thrun’s recall would seem to suggest there is some uncertainty about Winnipeg’s ability to dress six defencemen.
Winnipeg will look to build on back-to-back wins as they attempt to climb back into playoff contention.
Interestingly, they face a Lightning team that has been perfect at home (8-0-0) but far less impressive away from Tampa Bay (3-3-2) although they were able to add a win to that number last night after coming back to defeat the Wild in overtime. When you add in the fact that they played last night in St. Paul, the Jets have an opportunity to take advantage of a team playing the second half of a back-to-back.
Skate news:
It’s a very well attended optional skate. Only Cole Perfetti and Mario Ferraro weren’t skating.
Morrissey update:
Seems like Josh Morrissey won’t be ready for tonight’s game based on what head coach Scott Arniel said.
Jets projected lines & D pairs:
Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi
Mercer – Yager – Perfetti
Iafallo – Lowry – Björck
Koepke – Barron – Rosén
Ferrao – DeMelo
Samberg – Pionk
Fleury – Bauer
Skinner
Lightning projected lines & D pairs:
Guentzel – Point – Kucherov
Hagel – Cirelli – Goncalves
Mikheyev – Geekie – Holmberg
Viel – Girgensons
Moser – Carlson
McDonagh – Cernak
Hedman – Lilleberg
D’Astous
Vasilevskiy
Players media availability:
Coach media availability:
Odds:
After enduring a nine-game winless stretch, the Jets have put together back-to-back victories, beginning with their remarkable comeback in Montreal before a convincing 6-2 win over Vancouver. Now comes a much tougher test as the Lightning arrive in Winnipeg on Sunday. Tampa Bay presents a different challenge than the struggling Canucks, and this matchup should provide a better indication of whether the Jets are truly starting to turn things around.. For the latest Winnipeg Jets hockey odds, visit NHL betting site Betway.
Up Next:
Puck drop is at 6 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 8:40 PM CDT as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.
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