Game 64: Jets vs. Red Wings pre-game report

The Jets are coming off a distasteful 6-5 regulation loss to the Predators on Tuesday and after a couple of days of practice are ready to play the final game of this two-game home stand before departing on a six-game road trip out east.  Tonight they face the Red Wings who played the Blues on Wednesday in St. Louis.

Lines below based on yesterday’s practice.

Morning skate notes:

According to Jaime Thomas of Jets TV “Optional skate this morning for #NHLJets so no Hellebuyck, Stastny, Byfuglien, Myers, Little, Hendricks and Enstrom.”.

Jets lines, D pairs and goalies:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Perreault-Little-Roslovic
Ehlers-Stastny-Laine
Hendricks-Copp-Armia

Morrissey-Byfuglien
Kulikov-Myers
Morrow-Chiarot

Hellebuyck
Hutchinson

Extras: Dano.
Injured: Mason, Tanev, Matthias, Lowry, Trouba and Enstrom.

Audio:

Steve Mason

Nikolaj Ehlers

Coach Maurice:  Keeping the Stastny line intact?  What does he call the Stastny line (i.e. not really a third line)?  How does he see using that line and how does he expect other teams to play them?  Is he not married to this combo?  Is his philosophy that he needs to settle on a line before playoffs or is it fluid?  What has he liked from Joe Morrow?  On being able to have the depth of a Joe Morrow.  Is he surprised that they went back to get Joe Morrow considering he said no to the club.  What are the attributes of Stastny’s game that he would like Ehlers and Laine to learn?

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Conditioning:

Jets goalie Steve Mason is ready to get back into game action and said he will play tomorrow night for the Manitoba Moose as they face the Iowa Wild at Bell MTS Place.  Depending on how he feels he will have option to play Sunday and then he will meet the team in New York.