Game 71: Winnipeg Jets vs Washington Capitals pre-game report

If the Jets flushed the game on Thursday then they were gonna need some sort of industrial strength flush to rid themselves of the stench from the first 40 minutes of the game they played yesterday in Elmont, New York against the Islanders. Fans watched as the home team built a 6-1 lead through two periods before going into prevent defence mode for final 20 minutes. The final score of 6-3 was more kind than the visitors deserved for the effort in the game. The game also saw Connor Hellebuyck pulled for the first time this season after he gave up five goals on 26 shots (.808 save%) after playing 29 minutes and 11 seconds.

The expectation was Laurent Brossoit, who ended up playing 30 minutes and 49 seconds in the loss but only faced 13 shots (made 12 saves) in relief, would be the starter in today’s game but that may be more in doubt given how things went yesterday. After the game associate coach Scott Arniel didn’t give any indication if the loss changed their plans for their lineup. For now we will leave the forward lines and D pairs how they began the 3rd period and will wait until warm-up skate at 11 AM CDT to see if there have been any changes.

The Jets have found an inopportune time to go on a mini-slide as all the teams around them are winning. The Avs have won eight straight, Stars three straight and the Preds are just five points back after winning five straight (and are riding a 17 game points streak).

One of the words used to describe the last three opponents on the Jets road trip, including today’s club in the Capitals has been desperation. The Devils and Islanders as are the Caps are all chasing the Red Wings for the final wild card spot and also potentially the Flyers for the third spot in the Metro division. Which makes this game for Washington, who sit just one point back of Detroit with two games in hand, a critical one. The Capitals have been a good team at home at 18-11-5.

Morning Skate:

No morning skate.

Pre-game news:

As per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press no changes to the lineup. He didn’t know who starts in net.

Warm-up skate:

As per Mike it’s Connor Hellebuyck who gets the start.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck/Brossoit

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 11:30 AM 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.