Game 60: Winnipeg Jets vs Nashville Predators pre-game report

The Jets left Ottawa with their 11th straight victory and sitting atop the NHL as the number one team sporting a 42-14-2 record which puts them three points clear of the Capitals (who have played one less game). While Connor Hellebuyck only faced 13 shots in the final 40 minutes of the game last night (three of which were considered high danger) there is no need to play him in back-to-back situations. The expectation is Eric Comrie will get the start for Winnipeg and the backup has been red-hot of late going 3-0-0 during this win streak with a .933 save% and a 1.62 GAA.

The only other obvious lineup question mark is the status of Morgan Barron who has been out of the lineup since January 28th in a game against Montreal. Before the Jets left on this trip head coach Scott Arniel said number 36 was a possibility for one of the two games on the road. The team also has Jaret Anderson-Dolan with them after he was recalled on Wednesday.

Since the last time Winnipeg faced Nashville things haven’t really improved much in Music City. They sit third last in the Western Conference just ahead of Chicago and San Jose which is not where anyone would have predicted the team that was seen as having won free agency would be this season. They have lost two straight games and are 2-8-0 in their last 10. They’ve scored the least amount of goals in the entire league (conversely Winnipeg has the most, a differential of 65). About the only solace is they’ve been much better at home (14-12-3) than they have been on the road (6-18-4). When these two teams played back in game 42 (January 7th) the PP ranked 20th overall for the Preds (it remains in 20th today) but the PK which had been 1st in late December but slid to 3rd on January 7th is now ranked 10th overall.

The biggest factor though is Nashville might be without captain Roman Josi who was injured in the game against the Panthers on Tuesday according to Alex Daughtery of The Tennessean. Not having the mobile defender is a huge loss as he is such a huge factor for Nashville.

Warm-up news:

As per Mitchell Clinton no Colin Miller on the ice ahead of puck drop. Instead it’s Haydn Fleury who will be playing on the left and Logan Stanley on the right.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Pionk
Fleury-Stanley

Comrie

Predators projected lines & D pairs:

Forsberg – O’Reilly – Marchessault
Stamkos – Svechkov– Nyqvist
Bellows – Novak – Evangelista
Smith – McCarron – Sissons

Skjei– Barron
Blankenburg – Livingstone
Englund – Schenn

Saros/Annunen

Coach’s comments:

To follow.

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 join us on our YouTube channel for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 9:40 PM CST as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.