Game 23: Jets vs. Stars projected lines

The Jets are in Dallas looking to close out this road trip with a fourth straight victory. The Jets have certainly been good against the Central Division so far this season going 4-1-0 in their five contests to date.

The Stars have been winning of late as well having won four in a row and are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.  They don’t have a loss in regulation since they dropped a 3-0 decision to Pittsburgh back on October 26th.

These two teams better enjoy playing each other as they will face off against one another three times in the next seven games including a home and home series at the beginning of December.  In total between November 10th and the games in December they will have faced each other four times out of the 12 games for Winnipeg.

We learned yesterday in practice that Blake Wheeler and Andrew Copp, who didn’t take part, are both expected to play tonight.  While Winnipeg bench boss Paul Maurice has talked about getting his healthy scratch D men back into the lineup it is hard to see him changing things up at this point.

The Jets have an optional morning skate at 11:30 AM so we will see if there are gonna be any lineup changes.

Jets projected lines and D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Laine
Ehlers-Wheeler-Roslovic
Copp-Lowry-Perreault
Luoto-Gustafsson-Shaw

Morrissey-Poolman
Kulikov-Pionk
Beaulieu-Sbisa

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Audio:

Nathan Beaulieu

Coach Maurice:  Wheeler and Copp both good to go tonight?  His assessment of the Dallas Stars.  On the Jets feeling good about their game.  Do they game plan differently when the Stars are this hot.  Did he circle this trip as a litmus test for his club?  Neal Pionk’s fit.  What has he learned about his game that he didn’t see on the tape?  On considering the analytics.  Pionk filling the offensive role on the backend.  The veteran players on Dallas.  The Jets success on the road.  Any lineup changes?

All audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Lineup:

Coach Maurice confirmed that both Blake Wheeler and Andrew Copp would be good to go for tonight’s game after they didn’t practice on Wednesday. Maurice also confirmed that there will be no lineup changes as he continues to roll with the same group.

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 audio from the Jets room as well as from Coach Maurice.