Game 23: Winnipeg Jets vs Los Angeles Kings pre-game report

The Jets are coming off a big 4-1 win over the Wild on Monday night after one hell of a performance from two-time Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck who made 43 saves in the victory. Winnipeg took yesterday off as they continue this grueling, cross-country six-game road trip which saw them start in Pennsylvania, then head to Tennessee, over to Minnesota and now they are in California. They continue to sit 1st in the NHL in a number of categories.

The Kings made the big trade with the Capitals this summer sending Pierre-Luc Dubois there for netminder Darcy Kuemper who is currently on IR suffering an injury against the Avalanche on the 15th of November. Los Angeles is currently tied for 3rd in the Pacific with Vancouver. With Kuemper injured it has been former Jets backup big save Dave Rittich who has between the pipes for the Kings for three straight games with .944, .947 and a .950 save% before he got lit up in his fourth straight contest for seven goals against (.667 save%) by the Sharks on Monday. They have been much better at home (6-2-1) than they have been on the road (5-6-2) which is good news since tonight’s game is at Crypto Arena. They have the 28th ranked PP and the 14th ranked PK.

Skate news:

Starts at 1 PM CST

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi
Perfetti – Namestnikov – Ehlers
Niederreiter – Lowry – Appleton
Barron – Kupari – Iafallo

Morrissey – DeMelo
Fleury – Pionk
Heinola – Miller

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Kings projected lines & D pairs:

Turcotte – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Laferriere
Moore – Danault – Fiala
Jeannot – Lewis – Thomas

Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Spence

Rittich
Portillo

These are based on how Zach Dooley, Kings content manager, had them for their last game against the Sharks. Will update when the Kings skate at 12 noon CST.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 9 PM CST.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. After the game join us on our YouTube channel for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 11:40 PM CST as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.