Game 48: Winnipeg Jets vs Pittsburgh Penguins pre-game report

The band is almost officially back together. We await word that Mark Scheifele is off IR but that seems like a formality at this point for the Jets top centre who missed the last six games. In fact despite this being the 48th game for Winnipeg this will be just the fourth time this season that Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi have played in a game together. Kyle Connor spoke about that yesterday before they left for Pittsburgh.

The excitement isn’t limited to seeing that trio as folks who follow the Jets are eager to see what newly acquired Sean Monahan can bring to the second line of Winnipeg alongside Cole Perfetti and Nikolaj Ehlers.

The Jets will be facing a hungry Penguins team who sit seven points back of a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference (with four games in hand on Detroit) although they are just five points back of the Flyers for third spot in the Metro (again with four games in hand on Philadelphia). They are 4-3-3 in their last ten games and have a 12-8-3 record at home with a +12 goal differential. If the Pens lines stay the same as they were yesterday then folks will see former Jets prospect Jansen Harkins who is on the Pittsburgh 4th line and played 154 games in a Winnipeg uniform as well as 200 in a Manitoba jersey.

The lines and D pairs have been the same the last two days of practice in Winnipeg so no changes are expected.

Morning Skate:

As per Mitchell Clinton of the Jets no changes today except Rasmus Kupari is skating in place of Sean Monahan although according to Mitch he is in the light blue jersey of the scratches which tells you he is likely just a placeholder. We shall see.

As per voice of the Jets on TSN Dan Robertson it was an optional and head coach Rick Bowness excepts Sean Monahan to play. Said he was surprised so many guys skated in the optional.

Waivers:

We expected the Jets to activate Mark Scheifele and the only real question was who would they place on waivers? Now we’ve got the answer as the team announced they had placed Axel Jonsson-Fjällby on waivers.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Ehlers-Kupari (Monahan)-Perfetti
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Namestnikov-Iafallo

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Coach media:

Tips:

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Topics:

1) Absence of Sean Monahan
2) Waiver move? (:34)
3) Tough decision to be made? (:46)
4) What about the game gets tougher after All-Star game? (:57)
5) What Kyle Connor means to the Jets (1:54)
6) Happy to see Jansen Harkins landing on his feet in Pittsburgh (2:33)
7) Mike Sullivan coaching in his 800th NHL game tonight (3:13)
8) Any good stories on Sullivan when Sullivan was a player? (3:52)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6:00 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).