Game 53: Jets vs. Sharks pre-game report

The Jets will conclude this three game homestand with a date against the Sharks this evening at Bell MTS Place.  Both teams are coming in hot and it should be a good tilt between these two Western Conference powerhouses.

While Dustin Byfuglien did practice in a regular jersey on Monday his coach wasn’t prepared to signal whether he would be ready to go and if anything sounded like the Jets big man could be out for one more game.  For now the projected lines and D pairs are simply based on the last game.

AM Skate:

As per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun defeceman Dustin Byfuglien is taking part this morning.  Bryan Little isn’t on the ice.  Ken later confirms that Byfuglien stayed on later than usual so he suspects 33 isn’t returning tonight, Nic Petan came off with the other regulars so perhaps he is a possible for an absent Bryan Little and he did confirm that Connor Hellebuyck will get the start in net.

Jets projected lines, D pairs and starting goalie:

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

Morrissey-Trouba
Chiarot-Myers
Morrow-Kulikov

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

**Little is game time decision.  If he doesn’t play then Nic Petan will jump into the lineup.

Audio:

Mark Scheifele

Ben Chiarot

Coach Maurice:  Little status?  Update on Byfuglien?  Update on Ehlers.  Coaching in 1500th NHL game against his good friend Peter DeBoer.  Who was the more dominate guy when they coached together?  What did he draw from his experience in the AHL?  On having his AHL team close by.  On what a playoff series would like like between him and DeBoer.  What has he seen from the fourth line to give him the confidence to use them in tough situations?

All audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Health News:

Bryan Little is a game-time decision according to coach Maurice who indicated that Nic Petan would play if his Little isn’t able to.

Once again defenceman Dustin Byfuglien was back skating like a regular but his coach is going to hold him out for another game.  “He’s ready to play.  He’d like to play.  I just want to hold him out one more.  He’s had almost a block of five weeks off.  He did skate during the All-Star break but yesterday was his first practice.  We’re not concerned about the injury or where it’s at.  It’s all the other things, groins, hip flexors, that when you don’t get to push at a high level for a long period of time, cause he’s not coming back in at 12 minutes, he’s coming back in at 20 plus minutes and he’s gotta be ready to go.  So we wanted to get him another skate today, get him a skate tomorrow and then he’ll go in Montreal.”

Last up coach Maurice was asked how close Nikolaj Ehlers is to taking part in a practice with the team.  “I think we are seven days away from that possibly.  He’s coming on the trip.  So he’s back in the part where the conditioning and some of the ice works gets handed over to the coaches.  He’s got more of a defined window.  He’s not playing until a certain date and we are kinda moving toward that now.”

Sharks projected lines, D pairs and starting goalie:

Meier-Couture-Pavelski
Kane-Hertl-Donskoi
Sorensen-Thornton-Labanc
Goodrow-Gambrell-Karlsson

Simek-Burns
Dillon-Braun
Vlasic-Heed

Jones

Via Brian Munz 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