Game 67: Jets vs. Devils pre-game report

The Jets are looking to continue their recent run of success having won three straight games.  Tonight they kick off their third game of this six-game road trip against a Devils team that is looking to maintain their hold on a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

The Jets lineup has some question marks ahead of today’s morning skate as Tobias Enstrom is possible for tonight’s game according to what coach Maurice said on Tuesday and all eyes will be focused on whether Mark Scheifele takes today’s morning skate.  Darren Dreger of TSN indicated last night that Scheifele is not likely for tonight’s game against the Devils but that the initial indications are that the injury is not serious.

Morning skate notes:

Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun had this from the Prudential Center “Jacob Trouba is in a regular jersey, same for Shawn Matthias. Adam Lowry in non-contact, no sign of Mark Scheifele”.  Ken also indicated that Tobias Enstrom is on the ice but that Tyler Myers (expected that it is maintenance) is not.

Apparently Jets goalie Steve Mason left the ice a bit early says Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Wieber also has Mathieu Perreault as missing from morning skate.  Neither Brandon Tanev or Marko Dano spent extra time on the ice following skate so they could be drawing back into the lineup.

Audio:

Coach Maurice:  Update on Scheifele.  Update on Myers/Perreault.  Steve Mason status?  Tobias Enstrom status?  Who comes out?  Does Wheeler move to centre?  More on Scheifele.  Does Brandon Tanev come back into the lineup?  Dano comes in if Perreault cannot play?  What’s it like having so many moving parts to the roster?  Facing Taylor Hall.  More on Scheifele.  Update on Trouba.  Any progress report on Adam Lowry?  Could Scheifele play Saturday?

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Recalled:

Steve Mason left practice early and coach Maurice indicated it was “Lower-body.  We’re not 100% sure the significance of it so he’s out and we’ll recall Michael Hutchinson today”.  Hutchinson was with the Moose in Milwaukee.  Update:  According to Jets PR Michael Hutchinson’s flight was delayed heading to NYC so the team “have signed goalie Zane Kalemba to a PTO. Kalemba played with captain Blake Wheeler with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL in 04-05”.

Health Updates:

The big question heading into this morning was the status of Jets top centre Mark Scheifele.  Jets bench boss Paul Maurice said “Good as news as we could hope for.  There is nothing structural, he’s a little banged up.  We’ll list him as day-to-day, he may play on this trip but we won’t know that till we get probably another 24 hours out, 48 hours out, so good news on that front.”  When asked if they have to wait for the swelling to go down coach Maurice said “not really any swelling, just spasming that is there.”

Both Tyler Myers and Mathieu Perreault didn’t skate today.  “Both we expect tonight.  One maintenance and one battling a bug but we’ve had that go through our team over the course of the last month.  Tyler’s playing.  We expect Matty to be able to play.”

Couple of players skating today but not close are Jacob Trouba who was wearing a regular uniform but coach said “I still think our plan was probably when we get back off this trip.  We’ll look at it there.” and Adam Lowry who wore a non-contact jersey “Each day we try to push him a little bit harder in the grind but until he gets out of that sweater we won’t talk about him being close.”

Back in the lineup:

Coach Maurice also confirmed that Brandon Tanev and Tobias Enstrom both draw back in tonight against the Devils.

Lineup questions:

With some questions still surrounding the team (i.e. Perreault) we won’t know until tonight’s pre-game skate what the Jets lines and D pairs will look like exactly although we do know that Connor Hellebuyck will get the start.

Lines & D Pairs:

Connor-Little-Wheeler
Ehles-Stastny-Laine
Perreault-Copp-Roslovic
Tanev-Hendricks-Armia

Morrissey-Myers
Enstrom-Byfuglien
Chiarot-Kulikov

Hellebuyck
Kalemba