Game 42: Jets vs Sabres pre-game report

The Jets and Sabres come into today’s action having lost their last game (for Buffalo they’ve lost two straight) with both clubs looking to get back on track in Upstate New York.

The biggest question marks are whether Kevin Stenlund and Ville Heinola return from illness. Also whether Connor Hellebuyck or David Rittich starts in net.

Skate news:

As per Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun all are present and accounted for at skate. He indicated that Kevin Stenlund will replace David Gustafsson but that Ville Heinola will not play. Kyle Capobianco is a healthy scratch. He has Connor Hellebuyck starting and the lines and D pairs listed below are courtesy of Scott.

Lineup news:

As per Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet via the media availability with Jets head coach Rick Bowness centre David Gustafsson is dealing with an upper-body injury and Ville Heinola is still not fully healthy after an illness kept him out of the last game in Detroit. However, Saku Maenalanen could come off IR tomorrow although that would necessitate a corresponding roster move.

Warm-up news:

Some late news as the Jets have activated Saku Maenalanen and placed David Gustafsson on IR.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Perfetti-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Dubois-Ehlers
Maenalanen-Lowry-Kuhlman
Jonsson-Fjallby-Stenlund-Gagner

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Rittich

Sabres projected lines & D pairs:

Skinner-Thompson-Tuch
Asplund-Cozens-Hinostroza
Mittelstadt-Jost-Olofsson
Girgensons-Krebs-Okposo

Samuelsson-Dahlin
Power-Jokiharju
Bryson-Lyubushkin

Luukkonen
Comrie

As per Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News.

Betway Odds:

The Sabres are sitting 4th in the Atlantic having gone 7-3-0 in their last ten while the Jets are 6-4-0. The Sabres have an impressive goal differential of +17 but are just 9-10-2 at home. Jets come in as favourites in the match. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Status of David Gustafsson/Ville Heinola?
2) Update on Saku Maenalanen? (:32)
3) Is the roster decision an easy one? (:52)
4) What is he looking for tonight? (1:09)
5) Is he perplexed by the Jets starts? (1:47)
6) Challenges to defending vs the Sabres (2:20)
7) What Tage Thompson is doing (3:05)
8) What impresses him about Kyle Connor (3:27)
9) Overpassing by the Perfetti/Scheifele/Wheeler line (4:22)
10) Are guys being too unselfish? (5:00)
11) Are defenders just too good at defending odd man rushes (5:23)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6:00 pm CST.  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 Rick Bowness.

You can also join us afterwards for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button). This season you’ll have a chance to win great schwag including authentic Jets jerseys, hats, etc after every single game (For a variety of ways to enter click here).