Game 19: Jets vs Stars pre-game report

The Jets are looking to erase a 6-1 defeat to start the road trip which they suffered in Minnesota on Wednesday. They took yesterday off to presumably enjoy some turkey on U.S. Thanksgiving as well as a Cowboys contest.

Still a question as to the status of Dylan DeMelo who skated extra on Wednesday. Will he be ready to ditch the non-contact uniform he’s been wearing?

This is also the first game back in Dallas for their former head coach and current bench boss of the Jets Rick Bowness who missed the first trip there at the beginning of the season due to covid.

Skate news:

According to Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet the question about has been answered as Dylan DeMelo is back to wearing a regular uniform and is done with the non-contact jersey. Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun provided the lines and D pairs from morning skate although there is one change as per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press in that Dylan DeMelo indicated he is playing tonight.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Dubois-Gagner
Perfetti-Scheifle-Wheeler
Harkins-Lowry-Eyssimont
Jonsson Fjallby-Gustafsson-Maenalanen

Morrissey-Pionk
Schmidt-Dillon
Samberg-DeMelo

Hellebuyck
Rittich

Betway Odds:

Winnipeg comes into this game four points back of 1st place Dallas who are quite good at home rocking at 6-2-1 record at American Airlines Arena which the Jets away record is just 4-4-1. Both clubs have six wins in their last ten games. For now the odds are against the visitors. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Status of Dylan DeMelo
2) He swaps in for Ville Heinola? (:21)
3) Any other lineup moves? (:28)
4) When does he go over last game with the team? (:47)
5) Letting team handle how to fix mistakes? (1:36)
6) Being behind bench in Dallas for first time (2:29)
7) Thoughts on Benn & Seguin (3:14)
8) Update on Morgan Barron (3:56)
9) What does a returning player do for competition? (4:37)
10) The top line in Dallas (4:56)
11) Flipping centres on top two lines (5:49)

Health news:

Asked for an update on Morgan Barron and how close he is to shedding his non-contact uniform for a regular one, Jets bench boss Rick Bowness indicated:

“He’s gonna skate today and do some contact drills. We’re going to practice tomorrow in Chicago and we’ll crank it up again. So I would say he’s close. I don’t expect him to play on Sunday. Today, Saturday and Sunday good hard skates for him then I wouldn’t rule him out for Tuesday. But at this point we’ll see how he feels after today and after tomorrow.”

Barron was listed by Bowness as “aways away” just four days ago.  Looks like he is healing well which is good news for the player and the team to get the third year pro back in the lineup.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:30 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).