Game 69: Winnipeg Jets vs New Jersey Devils pre-game report

The Jets have picked up wins in three straight games including a big battle of 1st place teams on Tuesday night in NYC. Tonight they take their act across the river to New Jersey where they will look for their fourth straight victory as they look to put some space between themselves and the Avalanche/Stars who all have 93 points.

On the same night Winnipeg defeated New York, the Devils were hosting the Penguins and rolled to a 5-2 win over their Metro rivals. They are 3-7-0 in their last ten games and sit six points back of the Red Wings who hold the final wild card spot. They have roughly similar home and away records although they do have a losing record at home (16-17-2). While they’ve scored a few more goals than the Jets (+11) they have also given up way more goals against (+78). Not exactly a recipe for success.

For the Jets the expectation from associate coach Scott Arniel is that Laurent Brossoit will get the start in net. He said the status of Neal Pionk, who missed practice on Wednesday, will be known today. He also indicated that they’d be keeping guys fresh by rotating players in one of whom is likely to be Colin Miller.

Morning Skate:

Looks like Jets have chosen to skip AM skate today.

Warm-up news:

As per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press no Nate Schmidt with Colin Miller drawing back in. He also said Neal Pionk was on the ice after dealing with illness.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Miller

Brossoit
Hellebuyck

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6 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 Devils.