Game 72: Winnipeg Jets vs Edmonton Oilers pre-game report

Lots of question marks heading into this homestand for the Jets as they look to turn the page on a disappointing road trip out east which saw them go 2-3-0. With the Avs/Stars winning consistently they are pulling away from the Jets leaving them in the dust with the Preds hard-charging from the rear.

The three big questions for Winnipeg right now are:

1) What is the status of head coach Rick Bowness who left the team during the road trip to return to Winnipeg for a minor medical procedure?

2) Is there an update on Gabriel Vilardi who was declared out indefinitely with an enlarged spleen?

3) Will there be a roster shakeup?

Like the home team, the visiting Oilers have hit a bit of a slide of late losing to the Leafs on Saturday night and then following that up with a loss to the Senators, which means they too will be looking to get their game back on track this evening as they try to fend off a late charge by the Kings who now only trail Edmonton by one point (although the Alberta based team has two games in hand). Both the Jets and Oilers have similar goal differentials although as you might expect for Edmonton they’ve scored 30 more goals and Winnipeg has allowed 28 less goals.

Morning Skate:

Couple of answers to the above questions as Rick Bowness is on the ice with his team this morning. Gabriel Vilardi also on the ice in a regular uniform although he won’t be a player this evening.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Stanley-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Player interviews:

Coach interview:

Topics:

1) How is he feeling?
2) Watching his team during slide from sidelines (:28)
3) What are the solutions? (1:12)
4) Would a younger him have had a hard time holding back? (1:54)
5) How does he account for the wild swings? (2:11)
6) Has complacency set in? (2:21)
7) What’s wrong with notion they can just “flip switch” at playoff time? (2:43)
8) Seeing Gabriel Vilardi back on the ice/his progress (3:20)
9) How did he like the team’s mindset? (3:50)
10) Is Vilardi’s spleen back to normal? (4:35)
11) How they will push Vilardi (4:57)
12) When they got away from playing their defensive structure? (5:23)
13) What are things that break down the good habits? (7:03)
14) Is will, effort & worth ethic first and foremost? (8:32)

Health Update:

With Gabriel Vilardi back on the ice we got an update on his status from head coach Rick Bowness.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7 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 Oilers.