Game 36: Winnipeg Jets vs Tampa Bay Lightning pre-game report

The Jets (48 points) did themselves a favour to conclude 2023 by sweeping the Wild (36) and building a 12 point cushion on the folks from the State of Hockey but the reality is the Avalanche (49) and Stars (48) keep winning as do the Predators (41) and Coyotes (40). The Central division is proving to be one tough test and teams cannot afford to take a night or two off or their could quickly see their relatively solid position weaken.

Winnipeg has already faced Tampa once this season when they kicked off a three-game road trip back in late November in the state of Florida which was an exciting 3-2 win for the visitors. The Lightning have a very good home record (11-5-3) but don’t carry that forward on the road where they are just 7-9-1.

It is expected that David Gustafsson will come off IR as head coach Rick Bowness said he was a possibility for tonight’s game although it seems unlikely given the team hasn’t practiced that they would play him. Also given how things are rolling with this team that they may be loathe to change up the lines.

Morning Skate:

No changes at morning skate to the surprise of nobody. No David Gustafsson.

Ville Heinola and Rasmus Kupari watching from the bench in regular uniforms. Not sure what that means (ie no longer in non-contact).

Sure Rick Bowness will address after skate.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Player media:

Coach media:

Topics:

1) Was the fine enough for the high-stick Ryan Hartman delivered to Cole Perfetti’s face?
2) Bit of an old school response (:48)
3) Thoughts on the Lightning (1:07)
4) Indirect way to get back at a big guy by high-sticking a little guy (1:46)
5) What does it mean that Ville Heinola and Rasmus Kupari are in regular jerseys? (2:08)
6) Does he expect Kupari back on the road trip? (2:40)
7) What is the timeline on David Gustafsson? (3:00)
8) Dominic Toninato ability to work his way back (3:35)
9) A player knowing their strength/limitations (4:34)
10) Old school code still being around (4:56)
11) Team not knowing about Hartman’s comments until after the game (6:49)
12) Figuring out who comes out when guys gets healthy given how well everyone is playing (7:05)
13) Getting goals from the 3rd and 4th lines in the Wild series (8:01)
14) Hitting the goal post (8:49)
15) Cole Perfetti’s play on Sunday (9:07)
16) What does he enjoy most about the dads trips? (9:32)

Betway Odds:

Tampa comes into the game 6-4-0 in their last ten and it isn’t a surprise that they score as much as they do (125) but what is quite a shock is to see how many goals they’ve given up this season (131) which is the fifth most allowed in the entire NHL. Winnipeg counters with 117 goals for this season and an incredible 88 goals against which is second best in the NHL. Makes sense when you’ve set an NHL record for not allowing more than three goals in 25 straight games. 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 7 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 Illegal Curve Post-Game Show. (Please be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).