Game 38: Winnipeg Jets vs Nashville Predators pre-game report

The Jets held an optional on Sunday so we didn’t get any insight on lines or D pairs and head coach Scott Arniel wasn’t sharing how/when he planned on getting his extra guys into games. Might we see David Gustafsson draw back in? What about recently recalled Dylan Coghlan? The Jets are coming off their third straight win but do have a back-to-back to consider as they’ll be in Denver tomorrow to take on the Avs.

About five weeks ago the Predators became the first team from the Central to beat the Jets. And that game also cost Winnipeg second pairing Dman Dylan Samberg who suffered a broken foot. That win wasn’t enough to propel Nashville forward as they have gone 4-7-4 since and sit 7th in the division. They don’t score a lot of goals and they allow a  lot of goals which is not ideal says Captain Obvious.

The visitors come to Manitoba with the 20th ranked power play and the best penalty kill in the entire NHL which should make for an interesting counter to the home team’s best power play in the league.

Skate news:

It’s an optional this morning but most of the guys missing from yesterday skated today. Head coach Scott Arniel wasn’t giving away any lineup insight during his availability (below) so we will have to wait for warm-up to confirm.

Warm-up news:

Almost everyone was on the ice except Mason Appleton who hasn’t skated the last two days. Iafallo moved up to 3rd and Gus Bus centres 4th.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Stanley-Pionk
Miller-Coghlan

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Predators projected lines & D pairs:

Forsberg – Stamkos – Marchessault
L’Heureux – O’Reilly – Nyqvist
Jankowski – Novak – Evangelista
Hinostroza – McCarron – Sissons

Lauzon – Josi
Skjei – Blankenburg
Wilsby – Schenn

Saros/Annunen

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) The #1 ranked PP vs the #1 ranked PK
2) Goal differential of 80 to 35 when they score first (:34)
3) Would they play Hellebuyck back-to-back? (1:53)
4) Scheifele & Connor pushing each other offensively (2:24)
5) Mark Scheifele’s production since 4 Nation snub (3:29)
6) What has he come to appreciate from Adam Lowry? (4:06)
7) All the things in the community that Lowry does (4:48)
8) Any lineup insight? (5:24)
9) Dylan Samberg being in non-contact (5:51)
10) Adam Lowry being similar to his dad Dave Lowry (6:17)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6:30 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 9:10 PM CST as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.