The Jets took off for Calgary on Sunday riding a four game win streak after they defeated the Predators on Saturday night by a final score of 4-1. The special teams continue to be very special through five games of the season for the NHL club of Winnipeg with a top 5 power play and a top 5 penalty kill. The latter to me is more impressive given the absence of Adam Lowry and Dylan Samberg due to injury although the former also doing their thing given Nikolaj Ehlers departure over the summer and the injury to Cole Perfetti who was set to take his spot on PP1.
Ahead of the last game Winnipeg recalled prospect Brad Lambert from the Moose. It will be interesting to see if Nikita Chibrikov, who has been a healthy scratch the last few games, will remain up with the big club or potentially get sent down to play in some games. Since Manitoba doesn’t play until the weekend I wouldn’t expect any movement until later in the week (if there is any).
They face a Flames team that has lost five straight games and sit in the basement of the Western Conference. They’ve only scored 11 goals though six games and have given up 25. From a special teams perspective they are 19th on the PP and 22nd on the PK.
Back in Winnipeg news:
Good sign for Cole Perfetti as he joined the IR skate along with Adam Lowry & Dylan Samberg.
Skate news:
As per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press there will be a change as Gustav Nyquist jumps back to the second line, Tanner Pearson back to the fourth and Brad Lambert draws in to make his season debut.
Jets projected lines & D pairs:
Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Niederreiter-Toews-Nyquist
Iafallo-Namestnikov-Lambert
Koepke-Barron-Pearson
Morrissey-DeMelo
Stanley-Pionk
Fleury-Schenn
Hellebuyck
Comrie
Flames projected lines & D pairs:
Huberdeau-Kadri-Farabee
Coleman-Backlund-Coronato
Honzek-Frost-Zary
Lomberg-Kirkland-Klapka
Bahl-Andersson
Bean-Weegar
Hanley-Parekh
Wolf
Cooley
Via Pat Steinberg who covers the Flames for Sportsnet.
Players media availability:
Coach media availability:
Up Next:
Puck drop is at 8:30 PM CDT. 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 11:10 PM CDT as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.
