Game 44: Jets vs Stars pre-game report

The Jets are in Dallas to kick off this short two-game road trip against a pair of division rivals starting with the Stars this evening. They are currently five points back of Dallas (although they have one game in hand) as they try to change the narrative and string some wins together after a solid victory over Minnesota on Tuesday.

For now the projected lines and D pairs are based on yesterday’s practice in Winnipeg. Presumption is that Pierre-Luc Dubois will be playing but will have to wait to see what happens at morning skate.

Skate news:

As per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press forward David Gustafsson is skating in a regular uniform while Nathan Beaulieu is in a non-contact jersey. He said Pierre-Luc Dubois is skating but not in a top-six white uniform.

And based on the line rushes Mike tweeted out it looks like they’ll ease Dubois back into the lineup on the third line. Kristian Vesalainen will come out of the lineup.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Schmidt
Heinola-Pionk

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) How they plan on using Pierre-Luc Dubois tonight?
2) Having the flexibility to change up the lines.
3) David Gustafsson back in a normal uniform, update?
4) Internal competition with players getting healthy.
5) What stands out to him about the Stars?
6) The dropping of restrictions in Manitoba.
7) The energy they get from the crowd.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:30 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).