Game 32: Jets vs. Blackhawks pre-game report

The Jets had a bit of a modified practice yesterday as they were without Tyler Myers and Matt Hendricks although they had Marko Dano and Shawn Matthias filling in for them.  Coach Maurice indicated following skate that both players would be fine to play tonight.

The question mark was who might the team recall when they put Dustin Byfuglien on IR.  As I suspected the team announced that they had recalled Julian Melchiori from the Moose.  He played 18 games with the Jets last season and had already hit career highs for goals and points with Manitoba this season.

Morning skate notes:

According to Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun neither Dmitry Kulikov or Jacob Trouba took part in today’s skate but coach Maurice has indicated following skate that both will play tonight.

Jets projected lines, D Pairs:

Connor – Scheifele – Wheeler
Ehlers – Little – Laine
Copp – Lowry – Tanev
Perreault – Hendricks – Armia

Morrissey – Trouba
Chiarot – Poolman
Kulikov – Myers

Hellebuyck
Mason

Extras:  Matthias & Dano, Melchiori

Audio:

Matt Hendricks

Nikolaj Ehlers

Tucker Poolman

Coach Maurice:  Are teams taking more liberty with Connor Hellebuyck?  Are the Hawks still the standard in the central?  Status of Kulikov/Trouba.  On the evolution of Josh Morrissey.  Challenge of an offensive defenceman switching his role to be a more defensive defenceman.  Improvements to Jets faceoffs this season.  On Todd Woodcroft pre-scouting.  How have the rules impacted faceoffs?

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Hawks projected lines, D Pairs:

Saad – Toews – DeBrincat
Schmaltz – Anisimov – Kane
Sharp – Hinostroza – Hartman
Bouma – Wingels – Hayden

Keith – Oesterle
Forsling – Seabrook
Kempny – Murphy

Crawford
Forsberg

Courtesy of Brian Munz of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.