Game 42: Jets vs. Avalanche pre-game report

The Jets fell out of top spot in the Central Division last night as they were leapfrogged by Nashville (Winnipeg has three games in hand on the Predators).  Today they face the team directly behind them in the standings as the Avalanche come into tonight’s action six back of the Jets (having played one more game than Winnipeg).

Expectations are the Jets will keep the same lines and D pairs they used in their 5-1 win over the Stars on Sunday and the only question is whether they make a change in net and give Laurent Brossoit a start.  The Jets backup is 8-1-1 this season but hasn’t played a game since a shutout win over the Canucks back on December 22nd.  Of course with the Jets having a back to back set on Thursday/Friday it is more likely the Jets bench boss uses his backup later this week.

AM Skate:

As per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun forward Mathieu Perreault is back on the ice today after taking Monday’s practice off.  Ken confirms lines and D pairs will remain the same as last game and Connor Hellebuyck starts again in net.

Jets projected lines, D pairs and starting goalie:

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

Morrissey-Trouba
Chiarot-Myers
Morrow-Kulikov

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Audio:

Mark Scheifele

Tyler Myers

Coach Maurice:  The challenge of the Avs top line.  What has he seen from Patrik Laine this season?  Handling the ups and downs of streaks.  On Laine’s defensive game.  Are expectations too high for Laine?  On identifying needs ahead of trade deadline.  On the Jets top line getting excited going head to head with the Avs top line.  Why is Dmitry Kulikov game looking so comfortable these days?

All audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Avalanche projected lines, D pairs and starting goalie:

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen
Jost-Kerfoot-Compher
Nieto-Soderberg-Calvert
Andrighetto-Dries-O’Connor

Girard-Johnson
Cole-Barrie
Graves-Nemeth

Grubauer
Varlamov

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:00 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.