Game 77: Winnipeg Jets vs Minnesota Wild pre-game report

The Jets hit the ice on Friday for a quick practice in Winnipeg before they took off for St. Paul, Minnesota to play the Wild this afternoon to kick off four games on the road. However, this road trip will be a bit unusual in that the team will fly back to Manitoba after the game, have a day off on Sunday and then likely practice in Winnipeg on Monday before taking off for Nashville where they will resume the trip against the Predators on Tuesday.

Not surprisingly Nino Niederreiter, who was expected to miss approximately one week after suffering a cut in the game against the Kings on Monday, will not be on the trip with the team (at least to Minnesota).

With all the shenanigans between these two clubs and with Winnipeg having clinched nobody will be upset that Ryan Hartman, who knocked Nikolaj Ehlers out of most of the playoffs last season and went after Cole Perfetti earlier this season, won’t be playing as he serves a suspension for tossing his stick at an official.

While Minnesota are not yet mathematically eliminated the odds are stacked against them. They have been a good home team this season going 20-14-5 at the rink in St. Paul.

Warm-up skate:

As per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press just a few changes with Colin Miller coming out for Logan Stanley and Connor Hellebuyck returning to the net.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-Pionk
Dillon-DeMelo
Stanley-Samberg

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 3 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 Wild.