Game 76: Jets vs. Stars pre-game report

The Jets took Sunday off following their big 5-0 playoff clinching victory over the Predators on Saturday night which kicked off the final homestand of the regular season.  Today they face a Dallas team that has lost their last two games and will be desperate for points. Despite the fact the Stars remain in the first wild card spot they are just one point up on Colorado and three up on Arizona and Minnesota.

For now the projected lineup is simply based on last game and will be updated (if need be) when morning skate gets underway.

Morning Skate:

No changes to the Jets lineup as per Scott Billeck who also indicates that Dustin Byfuglien is skating in a non-contact uniform.

Jets projected lineup:

Ehlers – Scheifele – Wheeler
Connor – Hayes – Laine
Tanev-Lowry-Little
Hendricks – Copp – Perreault

Beaulieu – Trouba
Kulikov – Myers
Chiarot – Niku

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Audio:

Blake Wheeler

Andrew Copp

Kyle Connor

Coach Maurice:  Thoughts on the play of Kyle Connor.  What caught his attention with how his forward group worked and keeping them together.  Would like to bottle Saturday’s game.  Tonight’s game after Saturday’s game.  Not getting to “where they want to go” without Byfuglien.  Teams taking liberties with the Jets without Byfuglien in the lineup.  Update on Byfuglien?  What are the challenges for a smaller player going to dirty areas.  Is it a big challenge for players to go to those spots?  How does a coach qualify the physical element in Brandon Tanev’s game?  Anything new on Morrissey/Brossoit?  What has he learned about Kevin Hayes?  Was there a hope that Hayes would develop a chemistry with Laine similar to Stastny?  What is it that the Stars power play is doing well?  Speed of the decision making.  More freedom to pressure on the PK.  How much extra prep/how much extra review considering this team could be a first round matchup?

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Health News:

Dustin Byfuglien was wearing a yellow non-contact uniform at today’s skate and coach Maurice was asked about his big D man “This is the first big step, put on the non-contact and skate with the guys.  We’ll get him into a full practice on Wednesday and then kinda move forward from there.  He’s been able to do quite a bit off ice, which has been good, so he doesn’t feel far off it.  Dustin is one of those guys, for the most part, that could miss a couple of weeks, throw his gear on and you can’t tell.  So that’s positive.  There is a certain timeline for the doctors to say OK there is the proper amount of healing, if he feels good he can go, and this is the week, this past week, where he’s starting to come into the rink saying, ya I’m feel pretty darn good.”.

He was also asked about Josh Morrissey and Laurent Brossoit the Jets bench boss indicated “Josh has a window.  He’s right where he’s supposed to be.  We’ll consider Laurent for the full skate in a couple of days.  So he’s not far off getting back into the full rhythm.  Whether we have him back up for the Island I’m not sure yet.”

Stars projected lineup:

Benn-Seguin-Dickinson
Janmark-Hintz-Radulov
Cogliano-Faksa-Comeau
Nichushkin-Dowling-Ritchie

Lindell-Klingberg
Heiskanen-Polak
Fedun-Lovejoy

Bishop

As per Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:00 pm CDT.  Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action which includes post-game audio from the Jets room as well as from coach Maurice.