Game 78: Jets vs Flames pre-game report

The Jets had a good practice on Tuesday as they prepared to go for their third win in a row in the most important game of the season against a Flames team that lost to the Hawks last night. This means Calgary remains two points back of Winnipeg (effectively three back since the Jets hold the tiebreaker) and having played one more game. That was a significant loss by Calgary to Chicago.

The only expected change to the lineup is that Saku Maenalanen draws back in for his penalty killing ability and Karson Kuhlman comes out.

Morning Skate news:

As per Mitchell Clinton of JetsTV the guys skating at this morning’s optional are “Morrissey, Samberg, Stanley, DeMelo, Schmidt, Capobianco Wheeler, Scheifele, Connor, Niederreiter, Appleton, Namestnikov, Stenlund, Jonsson-Fjallby, Gustafsson, Maenalanen, Kuhlman and Rittich”.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

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

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck
Rittich

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) What is he expecting from Flames after they lost last night?
2) Can he sense when his team “has it” and trying to sustain it? (1:12)
3) How important is it to deliver a knockout punch to the Flames? (1:39)
4) Morgan Barron maintain despite ice time reduction (2:32)
5) Barron’s ability to adapt (3:30)
6) How important would it be for Barron to get to double digits in goals? (4:12)
7) Does he have to change defensive structure when facing Calgary? (5:05)

Betway Odds:

Given that this will be the third game for the Flames in four days it isn’t a surprise that the Jets are seen as the favourites in this contest which was billed as a game 7 type of contest although that may have been downgraded to a game 6 with the Calgary loss last night. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 6:30 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).