Game 76: Winnipeg Jets vs Calgary Flames pre-game report

We learned quite a bit on Wednesday at Jets practice with four players (Niederreiter, Lowry, Monahan and Stanley) missing from skate. Nino Niederreiter is out for approximately a week after getting cut in the game on Monday against the Kings, Logan Stanley is dealing with illness while Adam Lowry and Sean Monahan took maintenance days.

While the Jets weren’t exactly chugging along in their quest to clinch a playoff spot the good news is they had some of the pressure taken off of them with the Predators going on a three-game slide and now they are basically battling for the first or second wild card spot.

They face a Flames team that has had an incredibly disappointing season sitting 16 points back of the final playoff spot in the West with just eight games remaining. They’ve got 3-7-0 in their last ten games and are not a particularly good road team (15-17-4).

Morning Skate:

Logan Stanley back on the ice after missing skate with some illness. It’s an optional today. About 15 or 16 guys are skating. No Connor Hellebuyck so practice goalie Jason Kasdorf taking part.

Lineup news:

Jets head coach Rick Bowness confirms that Colin Miller will draw back in for Nate Schmidt. He will be paired with Dylan Samberg.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-Pionk
Dillon-DeMelo
Samberg-Miller

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Player interviews:

Coach interview:

Topics:

1.  Getting Colin Miller back into the lineup.
2. Top D pairs being back to normal configuration (:34)
3. Status of Adam Lowry (:48)
4. Overall depth of the Jets (1:07)
5. What makes the Flames so dangerous? (2:01)
6. Cole Perfetti’s growth (2:36)
7. What does Perfetti need to do to continue to stay on 2nd line? (3:39)
8. Connor Hellebuyck taking his option? (4:35)
9. PK willing to give up certain types of shots. (4:40)
10. Needing a full four man commitment on PK  (5:46)

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 Flames.