Game 43: Jets vs Wild pre-game report

The Jets are gonna need to put their best skate forward against a Wild team that is sitting 16 points ahead of them in the standings. Minnesota has a +41 goal differential and Winnipeg comes into the game at -8.

The local NHL club was dealt a big blow on Monday when the team PR account announced that Pierre-Luc Dubois, Neal Pionk and Austin Poganski were placed into covid protocol which means none of the three are available for the game tonight.

Instead it looks like Evgeny Svechnikov will be liberated from purgatory, Kristian Reichel who was recalled yesterday will get into his sixth NHL game and prospect defencemen Johnny Kovacevic and Declan Chisholm are also likely additions. Ville Heinola, who was also recalled, was rotating in at practice so it could be him instead of Chisholm. Stay tuned for morning skate to find out.

Skate news:

As per Ken Wiebe of Sportnet no changes to the forward lines from what we saw at practice. He adds that Logan Stanley remains in yellow, non-contact while Nate Beaulieu who was similarly dressed yesterday at practice (although he left practice early according to reports) isn’t skating this morning with the team.

Wieber notes that Ville Heinola was taking part in power play drills and expects him to be paired up with Kovacevic, which means Declan Chisholm would be a scratch.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Stastny-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Copp-Perfetti
Svechnikov-Lowry-Reichel
Harkins-Toninato-Vesalainen

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Schmidt
Heinola-Kovacevic

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) What has made the Wild such a handful this season?
2) Minnesota adjusting their style of play.
3) Players having an impact for the Wild.
4) Identity that they play with.
5) Importance of Mark Scheifele even more so without Pierre-Luc Dubois.
6) How can he know when guys are energized? What does he look for?
7) How would he describe Scheifele’s first half of the season?
8) Do players like/need consistency with linemates?  Has that impacted 55?
9) Has Scheifele’s effort level been where it needs to be this season?
10) Was there a set back with Nathan Beaulieu?
11) Updates on Ehlers/Gustafsson/Samberg
12) Update on players in covid protocol.

Health news:

If you want to read the comments from interim head coach Dave Lowry on his injured players or those in protocol you can do so here.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7 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 interim head coach Dave Lowry.

You can also join us afterwards for the  Illegal Curve Post-Game Show. (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).