Game 40: Jets vs Canadiens pre-game report

The Jets left Winnipeg on Wednesday without their captain as Blake Wheeler is dealing with the ramifications of a hit to the head he took on Monday against the Senators.  As a result we saw a change in the configuration with Andrew Copp moving into Wheeler’s spot, Mathieu Perreault taking Copp’s spot on the third line and Jansen Harkins going back into the lineup for the first time since February 19th.

The Habs are coming off a 3-2 regulation loss to the Leafs last night in Toronto.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Ehlers
Stastny-Dubois-Copp
Perreault-Lowry-Appleton
Harkins-Thompson-Lewis

Morrissey-DeMelo
Forbort-Pionk
Stanley-Poolman

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1. Jets (Wheeler) and Habs (Gallagher) missing big pieces from their lineups.
2. New opportunity for veterans to extend their careers.
3. His expectations for Pierre-Luc Dubois and has he met them?
4. Does he change his deployments with Wheeler out of the lineup?
5. More on young players learning from veterans.
6. Keeping young players like Jansen Harkins engaged.
7. Andrew Copp’s minutes.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6:00 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 head coach Paul Maurice.  You can also join us afterwards for our post-game show here (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).