The Jets will look to have their first successful Duck hunt of the season having lost to Anaheim back in November and then almost a few weeks back when they dropped a game in California in overtime. Of course that OTL following the Olympic break has seen Winnipeg roll to a 4-0-2 record including three straight wins at home as they have seen their playoff deficit cut from 11 points down to five. While that is impressive given how hard it can be to gain ground in the NHL this team has no margin for error. They cannot afford to lose points with just 20 games remaining.
They face a Ducks team that sits atop the Pacific although there are two notable things that stand out when looking at Anaheim in the standings. They have a negative goal differential of -10, as they are one of the highest scoring teams in the west but they also give up the second most goals in this conference. They are also Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to home vs road records boasting a 22-10-1 record in sunny Cali but a pedestrian 13-15-2 elsewhere.
On the injury front neither Neal Pionk (week-to-week) nor Vlad Namestnikov (week-to-week) skated on Monday with the Jets at practice so we may get updates on those two but no changes are expected to the lineup for Winnipeg.
Skate news:
Starts at 10:30 AM CDT
Jets projected lines & D pairs:
Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Perfetti-Lowry-Vilardi
Nyquist-Toews-Rosén
Koepke-Barron-Lambert
Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Salomonsson
Fleury-Bryson
Hellebuyck/Comrie
Ducks projected lines & D pairs:
Kreider-Carlsson-Gauthier
Killorn-Granlund-Sennecke
McTavish-Poehling-Vatrano
Johnston-Washe-Viel
LaCombe-Trouba
Zellweger-Gudas
Mintyukov-Moore
Husso
As per Derek Lee who covers the team this is how they lined up in their last game against the Blues.
Players media availability:
To follow.
Coach media availability:
To follow.
Odds:
Winnipeg has found some momentum as they continue pushing to close the gap in the playoff race, while Anaheim arrives with a strong record but far less consistency away from home. The Jets have been playing with urgency lately and will try to carry that into another important night on home ice. The matchup leans slightly toward Winnipeg, though only by a narrow margin. For the latest Winnipeg Jets hockey odds, visit NHL betting site Betway.
Up Next:
Puck drop is at 7:30 PM CT. 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 10:10 PM CT as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.
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