Game 67: Winnipeg Jets vs Columbus Blue Jackets pre-game report

The Jets concluded their three games at home with a big 6-0 win over the Ducks on Friday as the 2-1-0 record allowed them to maintain pace with the top dogs in the Central Division. After both the Avs and Stars won on Saturday night the Jets find themselves two points back in 3rd spot with the hard-charging Predators just seven points back as they too won yesterday which was their 14th straight game with a point (12-0-2). Although it’s worth noting that Winnipeg has games in hand on all three of these teams.

We learned last week that Gabriel Vilardi would not be making the trip as he deals with an enlarged spleen which has him out of the lineup indefinitely.

In the game against Anaheim we saw a wholesale swap of four players (Scheifele, Gustafsson, Stanley & Schmidt) come  into the lineup with four (Kupari, Perfetti, Miller & Samberg) come out as the coaching staff tries to ensure the team stays fresh and that guys aren’t sitting in the pressbox for too long. (Of course that applies to all of the above except Mark Scheifele who was simply dealing with an illness which kept him out of the game against Nashville on Wednesday). Big question is what changes will be made today?

Today they face a Blue Jackets team who are currently sitting in last place in the East. They did add two points to their standings bank as they defeated the Sharks last night by a final score of 4-2 at home. Columbus has actually scored around the same number of goals as Winnipeg but they fall off significantly when it comes to goals allowed. They have allowed 83 more goals against.

Morning Skate:

As per radio colour analyst Mitchell Clinton of 680 CJOB no changes for the lines or D pairs. Connor Hellebuyck starts.

Lineup news:

Rick Bowness advised during his media availability from Nationwide Arena that using same lineup wasn’t the original plan but “we were pleased with everyone in the 6-0 win. The shutout was important to us. The defensive play was important to us. The structure was much better all over the ice so we’re going to give it another go with the same lineup.”

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Ehlers-Monahan-Toffoli
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Gustafsson-Namestnikov

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Stanley-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 5 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 Blue Jackets.