Game 70: Winnipeg Jets vs Edmonton Oilers pre-game report

It took almost 70 games for these two teams to meet again as the Jets faced (and defeated) the Oilers in Edmonton back in game 1 of the regular season on October 9th and today the two teams meet for the second time (with one more game to be played in Winnipeg on April 13th).  There have been some suggestions that these two teams “remember” the 6-0 spanking by Winnipeg  over Edmonton but I find it hard to believe.

The home team have quieted their critics with three straight wins which puts them just two points back of the Golden Knights who are in top spot in the Pacific. Despite the loss to the visitors five months prior they have been excellent at home going 21-11-2 on the year. From the sounds of it via Oilers media there are some definite lineup question marks as per Jason Gregor who covers the team who indicated McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman and Ekholm all missed practice on Wednesday. He added that Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch indicated these four “are banged up and might not play” when asked about Edmonton’s lines against Winnipeg.

The visitors aren’t too pleased after a lackluster game against the Canucks on Tuesday night which saw them lose 6-2 which included Vezina favourite Connor Hellebuyck giving up five goals. Worth noting that this team had entered that game having won four of five games with a nice cushion on the Stars (and the rest of the West) for top spot in the division.

This game features two top 10 power plays with Winnipeg clocking in at 1st and Edmonton at 7th. Both teams penalty kills are in the middle with the Jets at 15th overall and the Oilers at 20th.

Skate news:

No changes to the lines or D pairs as per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey – DeMelo
Samberg – Schenn
Fleury – Miller

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Oilers projected lines & D pairs:

Skinner – McDavid – Hyman
Perry – Draisaitl – Brown
Podkolzin – RNH – Arvidsson
Janmark – Henrique – Kapanen

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Walman
Stecher – Kulak

Skinner
Pickard

Coach’s comments:

To follow.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 8 PM CDT. 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 10:40 PM CDT as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.