Game 39: Jets vs. Oilers pre-game report

The Jets are looking to close out 2018 after hitting a bit of a stumble in their final two games at Bell MTS Place losing to the Flames and Wild (coincidentally the only other time they lost consecutive games this season it was to those two clubs back in November) but remain in 1st spot in the Central because both Nashville and Colorado have also stumbled of late.  The Oilers are on the outside looking in having lost five straight games sitting 11th in the Western Conference.  They made two trades on Sunday and will likely hope that this will jolt the roster back into the win column.

Tyler Myers took a maintenance day yesterday so we will have to wait to see if coach Maurice keeps him paired with Dmitry Kulikov or if he breaks it up as Joe Morrow returns to game action for the first time in a month.  The only other lineup questions for Winnipeg is who coach Maurice starts in net as he wouldn’t reveal his starter after practice on Sunday.  Not related to the lineup for tonight’s game but there is still a question as to when the Jets will make a recall from the Moose.

Recalled:

As expected Sami Niku has been recalled from the Moose.

AM Skate:

As per Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun the starting goalie will be Connor Hellebuyck.  He goes for his 100th win in the NHL.

Projected lines, D pairs:

Ehlers-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Little-Laine
Perreault-Lowry-Tanev
Copp-Roslovic-Lemieux

Morrissey-Trouba
Chiarot-Morrow
Kulikov-Myers

Hellebuyck
Brossoit.

Audio:

Bryan Little

Tyler Myers

Patrik Laine

Coach Maurice:  Is Brendan Lemieux coming into the lineup?  On what he wants to see from Lemieux.  How does he gauge the Oilers?  Does he expect to see more of the same as they saw in the first two games against the Oilers?  What went into the choice of selecting Hellebuyck in net today?

All audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 8:00 pm CT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game audio from the Jets room as well as from coach Maurice.