Game 44: Winnipeg Jets vs Ottawa Senators pre-game report

Before leaving for Ottawa on Friday the Jets hit the ice for a practice which was the first formal skate after a few days off. There was some thought that Mark Scheifele might be ready to return from IR but he isn’t even skating yet and is set to be re-evaluated on Monday according to Rick Bowness who ruled him out for the game this afternoon against the Senators. Missing key pieces hasn’t been much of an impediment for Winnipeg who have been without Gabriel Vilardi, Kyle Connor and now Mark Scheifele for the last three games and yet they keep picking up win after win after win.

Despite winning their last game the Senators are just 3-7-0 in their last ten games as they sit right at the bottom of the Atlantic division. The team did announce they signed Shane Pinto to a one-year deal after he returned from his suspension for gambling.

Morning Skate:

No morning skate with it being an early afternoon start time. The lines and D pairs are based on yesterday’s practice.

Warm-up Skate:

Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press confirms Connor Hellebuyck gets the start this afternoon.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Lowry-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Toninato-Appleton
Barron-Kupari-Iafallo

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Betway Odds:

While the Senators haven’t been a very good team this season they have been much better at home (12-11-0) than they have been on the road (4-13-0). Unfortunately for the home team they are dealing with a Jets club that is good at home (16-6-2) and on the road (13-4-2). They have also been excellent against the East this season going 12-1-3 scoring 62 goals for vs giving up 31 against. Given this and how well the Jets are playing it isn’t a surprise that the oddsmakers are giving the edge to the visitors for this contest. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 2:00 pm CST.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. You can also join us afterwards for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show. (Please be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).