Game 75: Jets vs Sharks pre-game report

The Jets will conclude their three-game trip to California this evening in San Jose as they take on the Sharks. They face a team in San Jose that sits dead last in the Western Conference and a team that haven’t won a game since….you guessed it….they were in Winnipeg back on March 6th when they tied the game late and won in OT. That’s nine straight losses (three of which were in extra time). In fact they have just that one win in the entire month of March.

We learned at practice that Connor Hellebuyck would be getting the start and that Nikolaj Ehlers would be flipping spots with Vladislav Namestnikov.

Morning Skate news:

As per Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet it was indeed an optional today for Winnipeg. He indicated he doesn’t expect any departures from what we learned on Monday.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Dubois-Niederreiter
Namestnikov-Scheifele-Wheeler
Ehlers-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Stenlund-Maenalanen

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Rittich

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Any lineup changes? (Answer: no).
2) Thoughts on Dylan Samberg’s game overall? (:07)
3) Ability to go in & out of lineup but not change game (:36)
4) What has stood out about the 4th line? (1:05)
5) Thoughts on the Sharks (1:25)
6) Expecting better faceoff performance (1:56)
7) Describing his feelings during stretch drive (2:33)

Betway Odds:

Not sure much more needs to be said after what you read in the intro above. This is a bad Sharks team. They are 6-20-10 at home with a -77 goal differential, have lost two straight games and are 1-6-3 in their last ten games. With all of the this in mind the oddsmakers are favouring the visitors in this contest. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 9:30 pm CDT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game interviews from Jets players as well as from head coach Rick Bowness.

You can also join us afterwards for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button). This season you’ll have a chance to win great schwag including authentic Jets jerseys, hats, etc after every single game (For a variety of ways to enter click here).