Game 77: Winnipeg Jets vs Utah Hockey Club pre-game report

The Jets were back on the ice on Friday following an impressive outing Thursday night in Vegas where they picked up their first victory there since New Year’s Day in 2022. On Friday we learned that Nikolaj Ehlers is considered a game-time decision after taking some friendly fire in the game against the Golden Knights. Since he didn’t skate on Thursday the projected lineup is based with him not skating and will be amended as necessary.

While everyone is contemplating whether or not the Flames can overtake the Wild for the final playoff spot at this point most folks seem to be focused on potential first round playoff matchups. Don’t count Utah coach André Tourigny who said this after practice on Friday “We’re not dead until they pull the plug… You wake up in the morning, you do the best you can and you fight to stay alive”. Of course it does remind me of the Black Knight scene in The Quest for the Holy Grail when the knight has no arms and no legs and feels he still has a chance. Utah are nine points back of Minnesota for the final wild card spot with one game in hand (they’d also have to leapfrog Vancouver and Calgary). Despite what they did to the Jets back on January 21st when Winnipeg failed to play up to their usual standard (and heard it from their coach) the home team has a slightly above .500 record at the Delta Center going 16-15-7.

Skate news:

No skate.

Warm-up news:

As per Mitchell Clinton no Nikolaj Ehlers so David Gustafsson draws back in.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Niederreiter-Namestnikov-Perfetti
Tanev-Lowry-Appleton
Gustafsson-Barron-Anderson Dolan

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Schenn
Stanley-Miller

Hellebuyck

Utah projected lines & D pairs:

Keller -Cooley – Guenther
Schmaltz – Hayton – Yamamoto
Crouse – McBain – Doan
Kerfoot – Stenlund – Bjugstad

Sergachev – Marino
Cole – Durzi
Maatta – Kesselring

Ingram
Vejmelka

Based on how they lined up last game against the Kings.

Coach’s comments:

To follow.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6 PM CDT. Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. You can join us on our YouTube channel for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 8:40 PM CDT as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.