Game 81: Jets vs Wild pre-game report

The final regular season battle between Friendly Manitoba and Minnesota Nice goes tonight in St. Paul as the Jets look to secure two points against the Wild (although they need just one to clinch a playoff spot). With both Winnipeg and Minnesota in action last night (Jets defeated the Sharks 6-2 in Winnipeg while the Wild defeated the Hawks 4-2 in Chicago) so neither team will have the advantage of being the fresher team in tonight’s contest.

Morning Skate news:

Having played last night the Jets will not skate this morning in St. Paul with exception that some of the healthy scratches might end up skating this morning.  However, provided everyone (including the game-time decision which was either Kyle Connor or Nikolaj Ehlers) went through the game unscathed the expectation is that the lineup remains the same.

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

Betway Odds:

The season series has not been kind to the visitors as the Wild have gone 3-0 against the Jets this season, outscoring them 14-4 in the process. Minnesota has been excellent at Xcel Energy Center with a 25-11-4 record while Winnipeg has been a middling road team with a pedantic 19-19-1 record. However, despite these disparities the oddsmakers only favour the home team with a slight advantage. Be sure to check out the latest game day odds from Betway.

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 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).