Game 44: Winnipeg Jets vs Colorado Avalanche pre-game report

The Jets made the decision to hold out Connor Hellebuyck for the first game of a back-to-back for the first time this season in order to get him into tonight’s divisional game against the Avs as they look to secure points against a Colorado team that are 8-1-1 in their last ten games. They’ve narrowed the gap to five points back of Winnipeg.

You’ll notice that this Avalanche team have gotten their goal differential back to the positive side of the ledger which is in large part due to the play of Mackenzie Blackwood who they acquired from the Sharks and then subsequently signed to a five-year contract extension. He is 8-1-1 with the Avs boating an incredible .940 save % and a 1.61 GAA.

Skate news:

Optional morning skate. Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press indicated that Ville Heinola was skating which makes it seem unlikely he plays tonight.

Warm-up news:

As per those in attendance at CLC no Vlad Namestnikov on the ice but Moose captain Dominic Toninato is taking part.

So the lines get juggled as a result which we’ve got as follows as per Connor Hrabchak although that’s not how they started the game which is how they are below.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Ehlers-Lowry-Iafallo
Niederreiter-Kupari-Perfetti
Toninato-Gustafsson-Barron

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Stanley-Coghlan

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Avalanche projected lines & D pairs:

Drouin – MacKinnon – Rantanen
Colton – Parssinen – Lehkonen
Kiviranta – Mittelstadt – O’Connor
Felhaber – Kelly – Innala

Toews – Makar
De Haan – Manson
Middleton – Malinski

Blackwood
Miner

These are the lines and D pairs from last game. Wieber reported that Avs head coach Jared Bednar indicated defenceman Sam Girard remains out of lineup. Ken said expectation is same roster as their 6-2 win over the Wild.

Coach’s comments:

Head coach Scott Arniel in his morning media availability indicated, in response to Ken’s question whether Vlad Namestnikov was good for tonight after blocking a shot in last night’s game, “we’ll see, we’re not sure yet”.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6 PM CST. Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. You can join us on our YouTube channel for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 8:40 PM CST as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.