Game 33: Winnipeg Jets vs San Jose Sharks pre-game report

The Jets kicked off the Moms Trip in Winnipeg with a 4-2 win over the Habs on Saturday night and then the team flew with the moms & sisters to northern California on Sunday where they will begin a quick, two-game set starting with the Sharks in San Jose before concluding tomorrow night in Anaheim against the Ducks. The team practiced yesterday at the SAP Center where it was reported that the lines and D pairs remain unchanged from the game against Montreal. Head coach Scott Arniel confirmed that Nikolaj Ehlers and David Gustafsson remain day-t0-day.

The Jets power play has returned to top spot in the NHL while their penalty kill has moved from 21st to 20th after they went a perfect 4/4 on Saturday night. Of course that remains a big area of concern and with Dylan Samberg out until sometime in the new year it will likely remain that way. The good news for the visitors is the Sharks power play sits 23rd in the NHL while their penalty kill is 11th overall.

San Jose sits 7th in the Pacific Division with an 11-17-5 record of which they’ve gone 6-7-1 at home. They actually score at a decent clip but they also allowed the most goals against in the entire Western Conference. In fact they’ve given up 37 more goals against than Winnipeg has and that’s having played one extra game this season. Unlike the first time these two teams met back in Winnipeg this time around 1st overall pick Macklin Celebrini will be in the lineup.

Skate news:

Radio analyst Mitchell Clinton indicated to the surprise of no one that Connor Hellebuyck went through his starting routine this morning during the optional skate.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey – DeMelo
Fleury – Pionk
Stanley – Miller

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Sharks projected lines & D pairs:

Zetterlund- Granlund – Eklund
Toffoli – Celebrini – Kovalenko
Goodrow – Wennberg – Smith
Dellandrea – Kunin – Sturm

Ceci – Walman
Liljegren – Ferraro
Rutta – Mukhamadullin

Georgiev
Vanecek

Coach’s comments:

Nothing lineup related.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 9:30 PM CST. Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. You can join us on our YouTube channel for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 12:10 AM CST as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.