Game 35: Winnipeg Jets vs Minnesota Wild pre-game report

The Jets sounded like a motivated bunch after practice on Friday as they prepared for tonight’s big tilt with their division rival Wild. They will be without Logan Stanley who is out at least two games after blocking a shot in their last game which means Ville Heinola will have some runway to show what he can do in a pair of tough games.

Tonight’s battle pits the 1st place in the Central (and the NHL) Jets (Friendly Manitoba) vs 2nd place Wild (Minnesota Nice) with just three points separating these two teams (and the visitors have one game in hand). As I said in the AM papers I don’t know how many people (answer is likely none) would have prognosticated these two teams being where they are at this point in the season.

Interestingly the Wild are an incredible road team with an 12-2-3 record while the Jets are very good at home going 11-3-1 to date. Both teams can score although Winnipeg has 23 more goals and they have similar goals against (87 for Wpg, 88 for MN).

Special teams advantage on the PP goes to the home team as Winnipeg sits 1st while Minnesota is 21st. When it comes to the PK both teams aren’t great as the Jets are 19th and the Wild are 30th.

The Wild are in a bit of a slump having lost three straight including last night in St. Paul where they lost to Utah 2-1. So expect them to be motivated especially since the Jets have taken two games from them already this season.

Skate news:

According to Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press said “David Gustafsson, who missed Friday’s skate with an illness, is among the small group of skaters. All signs point to Connor Hellebuyck being between the pipes”. The Jets lines are based on practice from yesterday.

Warm-up news:

Jets announced they have activated forward David Gustafsson from IR. He is playing centre on the 4th line. No Rasmus Kupari.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Ehlers-Namestnikov-Perfetti
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Gustafsson-Iafallo

Morrissey-DeMelo
Fleury-Pionk
Heinola-Miller

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Wild projected lines & D pairs:

Kaprizov-Rossi-Zuccarello
Johansson-Gaudreau-Boldy
Foligno-Khusnutdinov-Hartman
Shore-Gaunce-Jones

Brodin-Faber
Chisholm-Spurgeon
Dermott-Bogosian

Wallstedt

As per Jessi Pierce that’s how they ran in the game against Utah last night. Only change I’ve assumed is that Jesper Wallstedt will get the net as Fleury played last night.

Coach’s comments:

To follow.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6 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 8:40 PM CST as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.