Game 36: Jets vs Predators pre-game report

The Jets held an optional skate on Wednesday in Nashville as they continue to deal with the ramifications of losing Nikolaj Ehlers for the rest of the road trip (and possibly longer) as well as the seemingly imminent return of captain Blake Wheeler who has been out of the lineup since December 10th.

Seems possible they could have Brenden Dillon and Eric Comrie back in the fold today. As well veteran forward Paul Stastny could also be back in the lineup tonight after he was dealing with a lower-body injury as well as being in covid protocol.

Morning skate:

As per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press it is a fairly full house at Bridgestone Arena for morning skate although missing are Connor Hellebuyck, Eric Comrie, Brenden Dillon and Nikolaj Ehlers. Mike updates the lines which shows Statsny taking Ehlers spot while Svechnikov takes over for Kristian Reichel.

Health news:

As per Jets interim coach Dave Lowry goalie Eric Comrie is in town and hope is he will join them in next day or two. Brenden Dillon will practice with the team in Boston tomorrow.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Copp-Scheifele-Stastny
Connor-Dubois-Perfetti
Harkins-Lowry-Poganski
Vesalainen-Toninato-Svechnikov

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Stanley-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Berdin

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Getting Blake Wheeler more practice time before he gets into a game.
2) With Stastny/Svechnikov returning is it best to stagger players returning? (:45)
3) Putting Statsny with Copp and Scheifele (1:24)
4) How heavy a game the Preds play (2:00)
5) Being ready against a Nashville team that has a lot of success when they score first (2:37)
6) His thoughts on the nine rescheduled games for the Jets (3:19)
7) Difference in what he’s seeing from Preds since last time they played (4:09)
8) The way Tanner Jeannot is playing (4:44)
9) Status of Comrie and Dillon (5:08)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7 pm CDT.  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 interim head coach Dave Lowry.  You can also be part of the conversation after the game on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show. (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).