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pre-game report

Game 53: Winnipeg Jets vs Boston Bruins pre-game report

A look at the projected lineup with all the latest game info.

After the Jets set a historic pace of 15-1-0 to start the season they hit a bit of a speed bump with some folks fearing another swoon was set to derail them. They did hit a rough patch from November 14th to December 3rd which saw them go 3-7-0 in ten games. Since December 4th they’ve gone 17-6-3 which our IC colleague Connor Hrabchak points out is the second best record in the NHL since that time. This included absorbing the loss of their captain Adam Lowry five games ago and reeling off four straight wins. They’ll look to make it five straight when they take on a Bruins team that they demolished 8-1 back on December 10th. That game got heated as it was the game where Trent Frederic knocked out David Gustafsson (concussed), then Logan Stanley fought Mark Kastelic. On the subsequent faceoff Adam Lowry and Nikita Zadorov squared off and it wasn’t limited to guys on the ice. Winnipeg bench boss Scott Arniel wasn’t pleased with Boston counterpart Joe Saaco.

Of course the Bruins have bigger fish to fry as they sit in the first wild card spot right now with 56 points with six teams either right behind them or not that far back. They’ve gone 5-4-1 in their last ten including a bad 7-2 loss to the Sabres on Tuesday night. They’ve been a much better home team (16-7-3) than a road one (9-14-3). When it comes to special teams they sit with the 30th ranked power play and the 25th ranked penalty kill.

Recall news:

We did get some info yesterday as Parker Ford didn’t dress for Manitoba last night in Chicago and then some sleuthing revealed that Morgan Barron had been placed on IR. Given Ford had seven goals in the last nine games for the Moose I thought he had earned himself a recall. The team made it official this morning.

Skate news:

As per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press it will be the NHL debut tonight for Parker Ford who is taking part in line rushes. As well Colin Miller back in for Haydn Fleury.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi
Ehlers – Namestnikov – Perfetti
Niederreiter – Kupari – Appleton
Iafallo – Gustafsson – Ford

Morrissey – DeMelo
Samberg – Pionk
Stanley – Miller

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Bruins projected lines & D pairs:

Marchand-Poitras-Coyle
Geekie-Zacha-Pastrnak
Frederic-Lindholm-Lettieri
Koepke-Beecher-Brazeau

Zadorov-Peeke
Callahan-Oesterle
Lohrei-Wotherspoon

Swayman
Korpisalo

Coach’s comments:

Scott Arniel confirmed that Morgan Barron is out week to week after he sustained an injury in that hit on Kirby Dach.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6 PM CST. Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. You can join us on our YouTube channel for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 8:40 PM CST as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.