Game 81: Jets vs. Avalanche pre-game report

After a player only meeting following their 5-1 loss to the Wild and then cancelling a practice on Wednesday to instead hold a meeting at the hotel, the joy in joyland (as former Jets coach Claude Noel used to say) seems to be evaporating around the team.  Of course they remain tied for 1st spot with Nashville, with both teams sitting one point up on St. Louis, but Winnipeg has the best ROW (Regulation plus Overtime Wins), so they still have control of their destiny.

We still don’t know the status of Brandon Tanev who left the last game against the Wild in the 1st period after he was slashed by Staal.

Morning Skate Notes:

As per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun no sign of Brandon Tanev at morning skate.  He did indicate that Laurent Brossoit is skating with the main group today while Josh Morrissey remains in a non-contact uniform.

No line rushes according to Ken but he did have the forwards split as follows:

Forwards in blue: Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler, Lindholm-Lowry-Roslovic.
Forwards in white: Copp and Hayes at C, wingers are Laine, Little, Perreault and Ehlers.

Update Jets projected lineup:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Perreault-Hayes-Ehlers
Copp-Little-Laine
Lindholm-Lowry-Roslovic

Beaulieu Trouba
Chiarot Byfuglien
Kulikov Myers

Hellebuyck
Comrie

Audio:

Jacob Trouba

Mathieu Perreault

Coach Maurice:  Update on Brandon Tanev?  Timeline.  What would the loss of Tanev mean?  Par Lindholm’s game.  Would they consider a recall of Mason Appleton?  Why was it important not to skate on Thursday?  Does he get the sense that there is a clean slate tonight?  Is Brossoit possible to backing up tonight?  Any insight into the lineup for tonight?

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.

Health News:

Asked about Brandon Tanev coach Maurice indicated “Brandon will go back today and we’ll get an assessment in the early part of next week as to the direction we’re going to go with it.”  Asked about whether that meant Tanev would not be eligible for game 1 of the first round Maurice added “No. Early part of next week. We wouldn’t play until Wednesday or Thursday.  I’ll have something for you Monday or Tuesday.”.  About about what direction meant and if that means surgery or not the Jets bench boss said “That’s I’m not a doctor so we’re going to let a doctor look at it and say what’s the best way to deal with it.”

With goalie Laurent Brossoit skating with the regular group coach Maurice was asked if it was possible he backs up Connor Hellebuyck this evening in Denver “I won’t have him backup tonight.  We’ll talk about that for Arizona.  See where we are at.”

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 8:00 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.