Game 3: Jets vs Avalanche pre-game report

The Jets are gonna need a kick in the butt given their play on Monday night and with bench boss Rick Bowness potentially back tonight that could be just what the team needs to ensure they are at their sharpest against the defending Stanley Cup champs.

Skate news:

As per Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun goalie Connor Hellebuyck is going through his regular starting routine. As you can see from the lines and D pairs that Scott tweeted below Sam Gagner is out from the forwards with Axel Jonsson-Fjallby set to make his Jets debut while Logan Stanley comes out and Dylan Samberg comes into the lineup for his season debut. Also worth noting that the D pairs have all changed.

Worth noting that Ehlers was on the ice but left according to Scott with Gagner taking his spot. He blocked a shot in Dallas with his hand so I wonder if that is playing a role. We will have to wait to hear an update from the coaching staff.

Warm up:

As noted by Scott who is in Denver no Nikolaj Ehlers out for warm up skate which means the Jets lose a dangerous top line forward for tonight’s game.  The lines see quite a bit of shuffling ahead of puck drop as well.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Appleton
Perfetti-Dubois-Wheeler
Barron-Lowry-Maenalanen
Gagner Gustafsson Jonsson-Fjallby

Morrissey-Pionk
Dillon-Schmidt
Samberg-DeMelo

Hellebuyck
Rittich

Health Update:

According to Scott associate coach Scott Arniel indicated that Ehlers is a game-time decision. Also Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press said that Arniel has indicated that head coach Rick Bowness will not be joining the team behind the bench tonight or tomorrow in Vegas as he continues to recover from covid.

Betway Odds:

As you might expect the odds do not favour the visitors in tonight’s contest but if you recall when “lesser” teams would come to Winnipeg back in the 2017-18 season they would sometimes catch the favourite unexpectedly. The key for the Jets will be to stay within the structure that was preached so often during training camp and not panic at the first sign of things not going their way. If they can do that then they have a chance to beat the odds and their opponent. Their opponent also got some bad news as Avs coach Jared Bednar revealed that captain Gabriel Landeskog had arthroscopic knee surgery and will be out 12 weeks. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Status of Nikolaj Ehlers
2) Inserting Axel Jonsson-Fjallby into lineup (:33)
3) Inserting Dylan Samberg & changing all D pairs (1:09)
4) Seeing signs that the D are jumping into the play? (1:50)
5) Status of Rick Bowness (2:36)
6) Concerns with secondary scoring? (2:59)
7) Playing fast while trying to slow down Avs (3:52)
8) Falling back into old habits (4:54)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:00 pm CDT.  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).