Game 54: Winnipeg Jets vs Minnesota Wild pre-game report

Just when it looked like Winnipeg had turned a corner and were back on track they were brought back to earth by a much hungrier Flames team on Monday that shocked them by scoring five straight to waste a natural hat trick by Sean Monahan in just his second trip back to Calgary, the team that drafted him 6th overall back in 2013. Turns out that was the sixth time in the history of the Jets 2.0 that there has been a natural hat trick. But it was all for naught as the Jets dropped it 6-3 to the Flames.

No time to lament the loss however as they flew back to Manitoba for a game this evening against Minnesota. The last time these two teams played there was much bad blood stemming from the game before (which was literally the day before) when Brenden Dillon took out Kirill Kaprizov which led to retaliation by Ryan Hartman who targeted (and admitted to doing so) Cole Perfetti the next game. After those two games the Wild, who had been trending up went on a nose dive and looked like they were out of contention while the Jets went on their big run to a spot in the top three of the Central.

However, Minnesota has gotten back on track going 7-2-1 in their last ten games and courtesy of a shocking 10-7 comeback win over the Canucks yesterday in St. Paul find themselves only two points back of the Blues for 4th in Central which means they need these points.

It will also be the first visit by former Winnipeg prospect Declan Chisholm who was claimed off waivers by the Wild back on January 29th. He scored his first NHL goal in his first game with his new team.

Given the statement by Jets head coach Rick Bowness after the game about his team the lines and D pairs remain to be seen. It will be an optional this morning so we may have to wait until warm-up this evening to know if there will be any substantive changes.

Optional Morning Skate:

It was very lightly attended morning skate with just Logan Stanley, Rasmus Kupari and Laurent Brossoit were on the ice.

Warm-up news:

No Nate Schmidt for the Jets as warm-up starts. Logan Stanley is on the ice. Rasmus Kupari is warming up as are the 12 forwards who played yesterday. Turns out it was Morgan Barron who didn’t take line rushes.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Monahan-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Iafallo-Namestnikov-Kupari

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Stanley

Brossoit
Hellebuyck

Coach media:

Topics:

1) Did the win vs Van take them off their game vs Cgy?
2) Were there communications issues amongst the players? (:37)
3) Getting up to play the Wild (:57)
4) Does a rivalry game narrow the focus? (1:24)
5) What are his plans for the lineup? Any changes? (1:44)
6) What’s it like to see Declan Chisholm getting a chance with the Wild? (2:02)
7) The numbers when Nikolaj Ehlers is with Mark Scheifele, why reluctance to return to that/disconnect? (2:29)
8) Is it a trust issue with Nikolaj Ehlers that keeps him off top line? (3:29)
9) What’s the message to Cole Perfetti and Nikolaj Ehlers? (4:14)
10) Given the back-to-back games vs Wild, does he anticipate any carryover? (5:02)
11) Has he discussed the dynamic with his team? (5:42)
11) Do they circle Ryan Hartman as a player to watch? (6:07)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7 pm CST.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. You can also join us afterwards for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show. (Please be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).