Game 64: Winnipeg Jets vs New Jersey Devils pre-game report

The Jets left Philadelphia on Thursday with a fresh win in their pocket which propelled them to being the first NHL club to 90 points. The power play was back on track after an 0/17 stretch going 4/4 in the last four opportunities (including twice last night). They did leave behind Kevin Cheveldayoff and company as the brain trust spend Trade Deadline day holed up in the hotel working the phones. (Keep up-to-date via the Trade Tracker).

Meanwhile the NHL club of Winnipeg will be looking for another victory against a Devils team that is desperately trying to hold onto third spot in the Metropolitan Division. They lost their captain Jack Hughes to a season ending shoulder injury, have lost two straight and are 4-6-0 in their last ten games. They are only four points up on the Blue Jackets who hold a game in hand.

While New Jersey doesn’t score as often as Winnipeg they are a similarly stingy team in terms of giving up goals. While the Jets are top in the NHL with just 147 against the Devils are second overall with just 158 allowed.

Skate news:

No morning skate since they played last night.

Trade Deadline:

The Jets made two moves today acquiring Luke Schenn from the Penguins (more here) and Brandon Tanev from the Kraken (more here) and are now done. We’ve got all the moves in our Trade Tracker here. According to Murat Ates of The Athletic Winnipeg there could be a lineup change as Brandon Tanev was in Philly and could be a player this evening.

Warm-up news:

Brandon Tanev makes his season debut with the Winnipeg Jets on the fourth line alongside Morgan Barron and Alex Iafallo. David Gustafsson comes out of the lineup.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Ehlers-Namestnikov-Perfetti
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Tanev-Barron-Iafallo

Morrissey-DeMelo
Sambergy-Pionk
Stanley-Miller

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Devils projected lines & D pairs:

Meier – Hischier – Bratt
Palat – Mercer – Tatar
Dowling – Haula – Noesen
Cotter – Lazar – Bastian

Hughes – Pesce
Dillon – Nemec
Casey – Kovacevic

Markstrom

Coach’s comments:

To follow.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6 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 8:40 PM CST as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.