Illegal Curve Hockey

Categories: pre-game reportWinnipeg Jets

Game 55: Jets vs. Blues projected lines

The Jets are in Missouri today for a date with the Blues on this one-game road trip. It will be a tall task picking up a critical win for the visitors as the home team has gone 18-4-4 this season at Enterprise Center.

We do know courtesy of the Practice Report that Nathan Beaulieu will draw back into the lineup although we do not yet know for whom. Will recently recalled Andrei Chibisov be inserted into the lineup? Stay tuned to find out. For now the lines and D pairs are based on yesterday’s practice.

Morning Skate:

An optional for the Jets as per usual. According to Mitchell Clinton of Jets TV the guys taking the off the optional skate are Niku, Pionk, Kulikov, Shore, Ehlers, Appleton and Hellebuyck. He adds that Bryan Little continues to skate in the non-contact jersey.

Lineup Changes:

Only change will be Nathan Beaulieu draws in and Anthony Bitetto comes out.

Jets Projected Lines & D Pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Laine
Ehlers-Wheeler-Appleton
Harkins-Copp-Roslovic
Bourque-Shore-Shaw

Morrissey-Pionk
Kulikov-Niku
Beaulieu-Sbisa

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Blues Projected Lines & D Pairs:

Schwartz-Schenn-Thomas
Sanford-O’Reilly-Perron
Steen-Bozak-Kyrou
Blais-Barbashev-Brouwer

Gunnarsson-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Dunn-Faulk

Binnington
Allen

Via Brian Munz of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Audio:

Jets captain Blake Wheeler spoke but it was entirely focused on Dustin Byfuglien. You can listen to it here.

Coach Maurice: Why wasn’t he out on the ice? Where will Nathan Beaulieu go in the lineup? Was it a tough conversation with Bitetto? How does he preview tonight’s game? Need to play the classic road game? Is Beaulieu the only lineup change? The depth of the Blues to do this well without Tarasenko. What is the biggest challenge for Scheifele when he goes up against O’Reilly.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:00 PM CST. 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.

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.