Game 20: Jets vs Blackhawks pre-game report

It is a tale of two cities since the last time Winnipeg and Chicago met at Canada Life Centre back on November 5th which resulted in a 4-0 win for the home team. Since that game the Jets have gone 6-3-0 while the Hawks have gone 1-5-2.

Jets bench boss Rick Bowness indicated that David Gustafsson was not on the ice on Saturday for maintenance although he wouldn’t confirm that he will play today. Morgan Barron, who wasn’t expected to be a player today but was seen as potentially ready to go on Tuesday, was listed by the head coach of Winnipeg as a “game day decision”.

Skate news:

There was a morning skate scheduled but instead the daily schedule now has assistant coach Brad Lauer speaking at 3:30 PM. Perhaps the team is trying to delay some sort of lineup news until closer to game time.

Lineup Update:

As per Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet it will indeed be Connor Hellebuyck in net tonight against the Hawks. The D remains unchanged and there are questions marks at forward which will mean pay attention to warm-up at 5:30 PM.

Warm-up news:

As per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press couple of swaps including Sam Gagner and David Gustafsson coming out and Dominic Toninato and Morgan Barron coming in.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Perfetti-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Dubois-AJF
Harkins-Lowry-Eyssimont
Barron-Toninato-Maenalanen

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillion-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Rittich

Betway Odds:

Based on the above and how these two teams appear to be going in opposite directions now that Chicago has come back down to earth after a solid start to the season, it isn’t a surprise that the odds favour the visitors. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Players media availability:

To follow.

Coach media availability:

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6:00 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).