Game 32: Jets vs. Blackhawks pre-game report

No rest for the Jets as they boarded a plane following their 5-4 OT win over the Oilers last night in Winnipeg to get to Chicago for tonight’s game against the Hawks.  The Hawks finally ended their eight game losing streak with a 6-3 win over the Penguins on Wednesday night.  The Jets come into the action having won seven of their last eight including two wins over these Blackhawks.

Standings:

The Jets are now 20-9-2 on the season which has kept them in 2nd spot in the Central Division.  They remain just one point back of 1st place Nashville (with one game in hand) and three points up on Colorado who are in 3rd.

Reassigned:

This morning the team announced that they had reassigned Sami Niku to the Manitoba Moose.  Niku played five games with the big club since he was first recalled back on November 10th but will now have the opportunity to take what he learned after just over a month in the NHL and apply it to his game in the AHL where he will be given the opportunity to play big minutes.  This likely indicates that Joe Morrow, who has been skating with the club in a normal sweater the last few practices, is ready to return from the IR which he has been on since December 1st.

Morning skate:

No AM skate since Jets played last night.  The only expected change to the lineup is Laurent Brossoit starting in net.

Projected Jets lines and D pairs:

Ehlers-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Little-Laine
Perreault-Lowry-Tanev
Lemieux-Roslovic-Appleton

Morrissey-Trouba
Chiarot-Byfuglien
Kulikov-Myers

Brossoit
Hellebuyck

Audio:

Coach Maurice:  On what Niku gained from his time with the team.  Updates on Morrow and Copp.  Starting goalie?  Same skaters?  On the 3rd period against the Oilers.  On the difficulties being a young coach in the league.  How long did it take him to learn the tendency of the league?  Reflecting back to the Scott Foster night in net.  On the play of Tyler Myers the last little while.  What Myers can do for the offence.  What does he say to Roslovic after the goal against?

Health updates:

Coach Maurice was asked about the health of Joe Morrow and Andrew Copp and had this to say “Both progressing well.  Joe Morrow is off the IR.  He is full ready to go.  And Andrew, like I said, he’s getting better, he’s back skating.  He didn’t come on the one off here today but he’s doing well.”

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:30 pm.  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.