Game 81: Winnipeg Jets vs Utah Mammoth pre-game report

The Jets playoff aspirations came to a crashing halt on Monday night even before their disastrous 6-2 loss to the Golden Knights in Vegas had concluded. By virtue of the Kings winning they became just the fifth Presidents’ Trophy winning team to fail to make the playoffs the following season.

About the only positives to come out of last night’s game was Mark Scheifele becoming the first ever Jets 2.0 player to get to 100 points and prospect Brayden Yager making his NHL debut.

If you missed the news yesterday the reason Alex Iafallo, Vlad Namestnikov and Neal Pionk aren’t playing is because they got banged up in the last few games and according to head coach Scott Arniel they are “not even at 50/60 percent”.

About the only expected change tonight for the visitors is in net as Eric Comrie, who has won six straight games, is expected to get the net.

The Mammoth still have something to play for in their final couple of games of the regular season as they sit a single point ahead of the Kings for the first wild card spot in the west. L.A. has won five straight while Utah has lost their last two games. Gives the home team incentive to win tonight in order to avoid the Avs and face instead whomever finishes atop the Pacific.

Skate news:

No morning skate.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Scheifele-Vilardi
Perfetti-Lowry-Lambert
Koepke-Toews-Rosén
Niederreiter-Yager-Chibrikov

Morrissey-DeMelo
Samberg-Miller
Fleury-Bryson

Comrie

Mammoth projected lines & D pairs:

Keller – Schmaltz – Crouse
Yamamoto – Cooley – Guenther
Peterka – Kerfoot – Carcone
Tanev – Stenlund – O’Brien

Sergachev – Weegar
Schmidt – Simashev
Cole – Durzi

Vejmelka/Vanecek

Odds:

The Jets close out a back-to-back against the Mammoth, a side still jockeying to hold their wild card position despite a couple of recent setbacks. Winnipeg, officially out of the playoff picture, skates with nothing to lose, while Utah, favored on home ice, faces a different kind of pressure to steady themselves.  For the latest Winnipeg Jets hockey odds, visit NHL betting site Betway.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 8 PM CT. Be sure to head over to illegalcurve.com following the game for a recap of the action. We hope you can join us at Boston Pizza on Taylor for an IC Watch Party and if not you can still join us on our YouTube channel for the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show around 10:40 PM CT as we discuss and analyze the results of the game.

David Minuk

Working hard on a daily basis to provide the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news for our readers and listeners. I also appear on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show every Saturday on our YouTube channel as well as the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show after every single Jets game. And I occasionally jump in the play-by-play booth at Canada Life to provide colour analysis during Manitoba Moose games.

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