Game 51: Jets vs. Blue Jackets pre-game report

The Jets will kick off the first of three games at home when they take on the Blue Jackets this evening at Bell MTS Place.  Columbus sits third in the Metropolitan Division but come into the game having lost their last three games.  Off the ice they are dealing with the distraction that two of their UFAs (forward Artemi Panarin and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky) could be moved before the trade deadline at the end of February.

For now the projected lines and D pairs are simply based on the last game.

AM Skate:

According to Scott Billeck before skate began Dustin Byfuglien and Nikolaj Ehlers were on the ice and he also indicated all other players were present and accounted for once skate began.  As per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun reports that Connor Hellebuyck will start in net for the Jets tonight.

Jets projected lines, D pairs and goalie:

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

Morrissey-Trouba
Chiarot-Myers
Morrow-Kulikov

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Jets Audio:

Bryan Little

Josh Morrissey

Coach Maurice:  What are the conversations like with Patrik Laine these days?  On Laine’s frustration.  Measuring positive reinforcement vs. hammer of ice time.  On Laine’s diminished ice time last game.  On the play of the 2nd line.  How does he balance Patrik needing to find his game vs putting him with guys like 85 or 26/55.  What has he seen from Kyle Connor during this stretch?  What are the benefits to Connor going between the first and second lines.  What is the latest with Byfuglien and Ehlers?  What does he expect from the Blue Jackets?

Blue Jackets Audio:

Coach Tortorella

All audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:00 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