Game 55: Jets vs. Blues pre-game report

The Blues were home to the Avalanche last night and pummeled them 6-1 in St Louis so while they may be tired they are also pretty euphoric with such a big win.

The Jets have had a rare two straight days of practice as they prepare for the upcoming games this weekend at Bell MTS Place.  Plenty happened yesterday at practice so while we wait for morning skate to get underway check out the latest news.

Morning skate notes:

According to Brian Munz of TSN 1290 Winnipeg the Jets are holding an optional this morning.  On the ice for Winnipeg “Comrie, Poolman, Chiarot, Copp, Petan, Ehlers, Laine, Armia, Morrissey, Roslovic, Scheifele, Dano, Myers, Connor”.

Projected Jets lines, D pairs and goalies:

Laine-Scheifele-Wheeler
Perreault-Little-Ehlers
Connor-Copp-Armia
Dano-Petan-Roslovic

Morrissey-Myers
Enstrom-Byfuglien
Chiarot-Kulikov

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Extra: Poolman, Lemieux
Injuries: Tanev (IR), Hendricks (IR), Trouba (IR), Hutchinson, Mason (IR), Lowry (IR) and Matthias (IR).

Health Update:

Coach Maurice indicated that nothing has changed for Michael Hutchinson who is dealing with a concussion he suffered earlier this week.   He did say that Steve Mason “Skated again today.  So that’s a positive, that he goes back to back.  That’s all we are looking for now is that once he starts something if he can feel good for the rest of the day, then we’ll do it again tomorrow and tomorrow, until we get enough time in on that and then you just gradually raise the intensity level of that practice but back to back is a good sign.”

Jets have officially taken Mark Scheifele off IR.

Audio:

Dmitry Kulikov

Coach Maurice:  Is he looking to ease Scheifele back into the lineup?  How long does he expect it to take Scheifele to get back into form?  Update on Mason/Hutchinson.  How will he know when Scheifele is back to a game rhythm?  What will he be looking for to see if 29 fits with 55 & 26?  How does Schwartz change the dynamic for tonight’s game?  What did he like about the chemistry between Dano and Petan?  What did he learn about his team when Scheifele was out 16 games?  How has he avoided ruining a players rhythm when their ice time gets reduced?  Is there a physical aspect to this?

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.