Game 49: Jets vs. Flyers pre-game report

The Jets and Flyers get set to do battle tonight in the City of Brotherly Love for the second and final time this season.  The two teams met back on December 9th in Winnipeg which saw the Jets pump the Flyers by a score of 7-1.  Philadelphia comes in having won three straight games as they try to fight their way out of the basement of the Eastern Conference.  The Jets on the other hand have won six of their last eight games.

Coach Maurice confirmed on Sunday that he plans to use the exact same lineup as he did in the last game in Dallas before the break with the exception that Laurent Brossoit will get the start in net.

AM Skate:

According to Jason Bell of the Winnipeg Free Press all players are present and accounted for in Philly this morning at Wells Fargo for morning skate.

Jets projected lines, D pairs and starting goalie:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Laine-Little-Roslovic
Perreault-Lowry-Tanev
Lemieux-Copp-Appleton

Morrissey-Trouba
Kulikov-Myers
Morrow-Niku

Brossoit
Hellebuyck

Audio:

Blake Wheeler

Mark Scheifele

Coach Maurice:  On 1st period expectations.  On both teams coming off the same length of break.  Having a loose group.  On players dealing with the grind of the schedule.  Any chance Chiarot plays tomorrow?   On the standings.  On whether Wheeler’s attitude permeates the room.  On the Jets depth allowing them to keep winning.  On avoiding the disappointment of playoffs impacting the regular season.  On giving Niku opportunity.  Has he changed how he tolerates mistakes with a younger league?

All audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Health News:

Coach Maurice was asked whether Ben Chairot will be ready for tomorrow.  “He felt really good today after yesterday’s skate.  If he comes back tomorrow and he feels that good, we’ll watch the game tonight and see how we feel about it, everyday that we get a bit more rest with him it’s a positive but he’s in the window now that we’d have no problem playing him.  I just didn’t want that break off an injury and back-to-back.”

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6:00 pm CT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game audio from the Jets room as well as from coach Maurice