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Categories: pre-game reportWinnipeg Jets

Game 54: Jets vs Canucks pre-game report

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)

The Jets attempt to return to form took a hit on Saturday night to start this final regular season homestand against a red-hot Senators team. They practiced on Sunday which left a few lineup question marks ahead of tonight’s game against the Canucks.

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)

Morning skate:

About an hour before morning skate Nikolaj Ehlers was skating and doing some light shooting drills according to Mitchell Clinton of JetsTV. He also indicated that Tucker Poolman, who didn’t practice with the team on Sunday, is taking part in the optional skate this morning at Bell MTS Place with 11 other players. For now the projected lines and D pairs are simply based on the skate on Sunday (with a question mark surrounding the D) and we know that Laurent Brossoit starts although whether it is Eric Comrie or Connor Hellebuyck backing him up isn’t yet known.

Coach lineup news:

Jets coach Paul Maurice provided this lineup insight:

Brossoit starts, Comrie backs up
Poolman and Pionk are both out.
Harkins remains in.

And he listed his D pairs below.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Copp-Dubois-Perreault
Stastny-Lowry-Appleton
Harkins-Thompson-Lewis

Morrissey-Heinola
Forbort-DeMelo
Stanley-Benn

Brossoit
Comrie

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Lineup news
2) His thoughts on Eric Comrie as the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy nominee.
3) How hard is motivation these last few games?
4) Can the emotional aspect of games be “flipped with a switch”?
5) How does he judge a line beyond goals?
6) What has he thought of the Scheifele line the last few games?
7) Changes to the lines.
8) Poolman, Pionk and Hellebuyck status updates.
9) Advantage to getting Heinola, Stanley and Benn in a game together?

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:00 pm CDT. Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game interviews from Jets players as well as from head coach Paul Maurice. You can also join us afterwards for our post-game show here (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).

David Minuk

Working hard on a daily basis to provide the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news for our readers and listeners. I also appear on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show every Saturday on our YouTube channel as well as the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show after every single Jets game. And I occasionally jump in the play-by-play booth at Canada Life to provide colour analysis during Manitoba Moose games.