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

The Jets stopped the Wild’s four game winning streak on Saturday handing them their first regulation loss since December 18th as they increased their lead on their division rivals to 10 points in the Central. The win put Winnipeg into a tie with Dallas in 2nd spot with 46 points just one back of Colorado with both teams holding a three game advantage over the Avalanche. Of course both Nashville and Arizona bear watching as they are just five and six points back of the Jets/Stars respectively.

Today will be a milestone game for Marc-Andre Fleury as he will play in his 1000th NHL game this afternoon in St. Paul. Originally his 999th game was supposed to be this afternoon’s re-match but Wild starter on Saturday Filip Gustavsson left after two periods which necessitated the Flower to come into the game where he made nine saves on 10 shots. The big question mark for Minnesota will be the status of leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov who didn’t play the final 10 minutes of the 3rd after he took a cross-check from Brenden Dillon. Bench boss John Hynes didn’t provide an update after the game.

Pre-game transaction:

Jets announced this morning that they have recalled Jeffrey Viel from the Manitoba Moose on emergency conditions and placed forward David Gustafsson on IR. No indication if this is just precautionary because someone in the projected lineup is banged up so we will have to wait until warm-up to see if he draws in.

As per Michael Russo of The Athletic Minnesota the Wild made a pair of moves recalling former Jets draft pick Nic Petan from Iowa of the AHL and goalie Zane McIntyre. He said Minnesota leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov is out today.

Morning Skate:

Expecting same as Saturday afternoon with the only change we know about for the Jets being Laurent Brossoit getting the start as confirmed b head coach Rick Bowness after the game on Saturday.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Ehlers-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Iafallo
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Toninato-AJF

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Brossoit
Hellebuyck

Betway Odds:

As we documented yesterday the Wild are a much better home team (10-4-2) than they are on the road (6-10-2) and today they will have the extra added incentive of winning for Marc-Andre Fleury’s in his 1000th NHL game as well as a measure revenge and needing the two points to maintain their spot in a clearly competitive Central division. The Jets have been good on the road (9-4-2) but the oddsmakers are giving the edge to the home team for this contest. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 1 pm CST.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. You can also join us afterwards for the final Illegal Curve Post-Game Show of 2023. (Please be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).