Game 64: Winnipeg Jets vs Washington Capitals pre-game report

The Jets earned themselves a split this past weekend on the west coast which began with a complete 60-minute effort against the Kraken and resulted in a 3-0 win. The next night they didn’t have quite that same level of compete and as a result the Canucks cruised to a 5-0 win. They will kick off this three-game homestand against the Caps a bit snarly after the Hockey Night in Canada defeat and looking to take advantage of the games in hand they have on the Stars and Avalanche.

Plenty of lineup questions heading into today’s game. We heard from Jets brass that Gabriel Vilardi is working out and expected to take to the ice today but it didn’t sound like he’s all that close to being a player. The team does have two new players in Tyler Toffoli and Colin Miller who got to Winnipeg on Sunday and are expected to potentially draw in tonight.

This is an important two points for the Jets opponent as the Capitals are currently three points back of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Despite being sellers at the deadline they’ve been playing well of late going 7-2-1 in their last ten games including two straight wins. They’ve been an average road team (13-13-4) but they go up against a home team in Winnipeg that has been excellent at Canada Life (21-8-2).

For now we go based on last game but will amend once morning skate gets underway.

Morning Skate:

Was wrong with my guess for a number for Colin Miller. He’s wearing number 6 for the Jets. He and Tyler Toffoli (wearing 73) were on the ice.

No Gabriel Vilardi this morning.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Ehlers
Iaffalo-Monahan-Toffoli
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Namestnikov-Perfetti

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Miller

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Health news:

No real update on Gabriel Vilardi from coach other than he didn’t skate today and he didn’t have a timeline as to when he’d be back on the ice.

Players media:

Coach media:

Topics:

1) Plans for Tyler Toffoli.
2) Easier to absorb Toffoli & Miller b/c they are veterans (:27)
3) Looking for a response from his group after Canucks game (1:00)
4) Colin Miller getting a PP2 look  (1:24)
5) Miller’s big shot from the blueline (1:45)
6) Update on Gabriel Vilardi? (2:15)
7) Internal competition at forward/defence (2:52)
8) Bringing in someone like Toffoli who is familiar with his group (3:39)
9) Facing the Capitals for first time this season (4:15)

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6:30 PM CDT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. Reminder to join us on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show following the final buzzer between the Jets and Capitals.