Game 5: Winnipeg Jets vs Pittsburgh Penguins pre-game report

The Jets will look to close out their four-game homestand with a perfect 4-0-0 record when they welcome the Penguins to town this afternoon for a matinee. This club has already done something no other NHL team in Winnipeg (1.0 or 2.0) has ever achieved winning their first four games to start a season (they began it on road in Edmonton) so can they make it 5-0-0 after today’s contest with Pittsburgh?

It is also a special day as the team will sign long-time centre Bryan Little to a one-day contact so he can retire as a Jet. We will hear from him before the game.

Even though former Jets prospect Rutger McGroarty won’t be present, as he is in the AHL, you can likely still expect some Jets fans to have some creative chants for him during the game.

Skate news:

With it being a matinee there is no morning skate. Expectation, based on yesterday’s practice, no changes are expected with the only mystery being whether they give Eric Comrie his first start of the season

Update:

Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press reported that there actually will be three changes. Gustafsson in, Kupari out. Stanley off IR and in, Fleury out. Comrie starts.

Warm-up news:

Starts at 1:30 PM CDT.

Lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Gustafsson-Iafallo

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Stanley-Miller

Comrie
Hellebuyck

Little media availability:

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 2 PM CDT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. Reminder to join us on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 4:40 PM CDT as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.