Game 36: Jets vs Canucks pre-game report

The Jets have lost three straight and will be looking to arrest their slide against a Canucks team that are feeling good about their game having won three straight. There is an expectation that the Jets will finally make a recall and my expectation is that it will be Jeff Malott who has five goals in his last seven games (12 goals in last 15 games) and leads the Moose in goals with 15.

Recall news:

The Jets went with the right shot of Kristian Reichel for their recall. Reichel did play 13 games last season for the Jets before a shot in a game against the Flames sent him to IR. Amazingly all 29 players for the Jets (22 active, 7 injured) remain on the roster (meaning not LTIR) so they count against the cap. Winnipeg has just four forwards (Connor, Scheifele, Dubois and Lowry) who make over one million.

Health news:

Just when you think you are up-to-date with the Jets injury situation it changes two days later. Jets coach Rick Bowness provided the latest injury timelines which you can read about here.

Skate news:

As per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press it is an optional morning skate for the Jets so we shall have to wait and see if there any lineup changes. Ken Wiebe indicated that Kyle Capobianco and Kristian Reichel stayed on for extra work which would mean Ville Heinola draws back in for Winnipeg.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Dubois-Gagner
Lowry-Scheifele-Kuhlman
Barron-Stenlund-Jonsson-Fjallby
Eyssimont-Gustafsson-Harkins

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Dillon-Heinola

Hellebuyck
Rittich

Betway Odds:

Despite the fact that the Canucks come into the game having won three straight and the Jets come into the contest losers of three straight the oddsmakers are giving the edge to the home team by a fairly sizeable margin. Despite the recent hiccup Winnipeg still remains a very good home team at 12-6-0 while Vancouver are a respectable 9-6-1 away from B.C. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Does Ville Heinola return?
2) Health updates (:18)
3) Recalling Kristian Reichel (1:40)
4) What might the practice do for the team? (2:14)
5) Being the hunted team (3:33)
6) Where does he see Jansen Harkins game? (4:20)
7) Thoughts on Bo Horvat? (4:44)
8) Anything he can take from last game vs Canucks? (5:25)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:00 pm CST.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game interviews from Jets players as well as from head coach Rick Bowness.

You can also join us afterwards for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button). This season you’ll have a chance to win great schwag including authentic Jets jerseys, hats, etc. after every single game and now a grand prize of a pair of tickets to an NHL game of your choice (For a variety of ways to enter click here).