Game 81: Winnipeg Jets vs Edmonton Oilers pre-game report

The Jets are coming off a rather unusual 3rd period which saw them take the lead, give it up and then fight back to tie the game and secure the Central Division title by virtue of earning a single point. It was an excellent OT and then Cole Perfetti used a move we’ve seen him use before to win it for Winnipeg in the shootout to earn them a 5-4 victory over the Hawks. This team is now just two points away from securing the Presidents’ Trophy. It wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops however as Nikolaj Ehlers did leave the game after colliding with the linesman.

Which leads me to thinking tonight’s game might be more Manitoba Moose vs Bakersfield Condors than Winnipeg Jets vs Edmonton Oilers. The Jets old Smythe Division opponent is locked into playing the Kings in the first round for the fourth straight year and they trail them by four points with each team having three games left. Given some of the injuries they’ve dealt with of late you wonder if they leave some of their key guys in Alberta rather than playing them.

I’d expect guys like Ville Heinola and David Gustafsson to play. Rasmus Kupari as well if he’s out of concussion protocol. And you can probably expect some recalls from the Moose although I wouldn’t expect Brad Lambert to be one of them as he was injured in the Moose game last night. Perhaps Elias Salomonsson makes his NHL debut (although this would be three-in-three for him since Manitoba played Friday and Saturday) so perhaps team waits till Wednesday’s regular season finale.

Skate news:

As per Kelly Moore of 680 CJOB a very small group skating including Luke Schenn, Neal Pionk, and Ville Heinola as well as tonight’s starter Eric Comrie.

Recall news:

Jets have recalled Dominic Toninato from the Moose.

Lineup news:

As per radio colour analyst “Eric Comrie leads the Jets out for warm-up. Dominic Toninato on the ice, as is Ville Heinola, Colin Miller, David Gustafsson, and Haydn Fleury.

No Morrissey, Ehlers, Lowry, Pionk, or Schenn.”

And Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press gives us the lines and D pairs.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Niederreiter-Namestnikov-Perfetti
Tanev-Barron-Appleton
Gustafsson-Toninato-JAD

Samberg-DeMelo
Stanley-Miller
Heinola-Fleury

Comrie

Oilers projected lines & D pairs:

Skinner – McDavid – Brown
Podkolzin – Henrique – Arvidsson
Jones – Janmark – Perry
Philp – Ryan – Kapanen

Nurse – Bouchard
Kulak – Stecher
Dineen – Emberson

Skinner

Laundry list of guys missing (29, 93, 18, 14, 96, 36, 21 out) as per Tony Brar who covers the team for Oilers TV who also indicated that Skinner starts in net.

Coach’s comments:

“Everybody’s day-to-day which you’ll pretty much hear from me for the rest of the year. Still finalizing some stuff here. Just wait and show up tonight and you’ll see what you’ll see.” That’s from head coach Scott Arniel today after the optional meaning you’ll have to wait for warm-up for any lineup insight.

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.