Game 46: Jets vs Blackhawks pre-game report

The Jets are back in Winnipeg after collecting three of four points on the road this past weekend against the Stars and Predators. Tonight they kick off four straight at home starting with a Blackhawks team that sit seven points back of the Jets (who have three games in hand). Of course they cannot afford to take Chicago lightly as these two points are critical if they want to keep their momentum moving in the right direction.

Skate news:

As per Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet no Neal Pionk this morning. He did indicate that Connor Hellebuyck is going through his starting rotation, while David Gustafsson and Logan Stanley are in regular jerseys while Nathan Beaulieu is in a yellow, non-contact uniform. Wieber also provides the lines below.

Worth noting he added that Logan Stanley didn’t stay on for extra work so he could be an option for the game this evening.

Lineup update:

As per interim head coach Dave Lowry it is day 10 today for Neil Pionk in terms of cross border travel so he will not be available tonight. He can return tomorrow. Logan Stanley draws back in for the Jets which will be his first game since January 20th.

Warm-up skate:

The D pairs were mixed up with Logan Stanley coming into the lineup. So Heinola and Stanley play left side with Brenden Dillon switching over to the right.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Heinola-Schmidt
Stanley-Dillon

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Player media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) The good old days.
2) Status of Neal Pionk? (:52)
3) Need to play at same pace/intensity as they have last few games (1:35)
4) The emotion he is seeing from his team these days (2:06)
5) How much does the team draw from guys going to battle for each other (3:14)
6) Not needing to “answer the bell” after a clean hit (4:08)
7) Do players see it differently? (4:46)
8) Can the power play success help them find scoring 5 on 5? (5:13)
9) How has he liked the defensive play since the All-Star break? (5:57)
10) Is there more buy-in of late from the team? (6:51)
11) How much does it help with buy-in when guys are scoring? (7:22)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 8 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).