Game 82: Jets vs Avalanche pre-game report

With this game having absolutely no value for the Winnipeg Jets the expectation is they will give some guys rest now that they punched their tickets to the playoffs on Tuesday night in St. Paul. After starting 13 straight games you’d have to think that Connor Hellebuyck gets the night off.  And you’d also be inclined to believe that David Gustafsson, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Karson Kuhlman, Logan Stanley and Kyle Capobianco will all return to give some veteran/injured guys a night off.

That isn’t insignificant with playoffs getting underway on Monday to give guys five days without a game at this point in the season and right ahead of the post-season. Of course we will have to watch morning skate to get confirmation.

We will also keep our eyes/ears peeled for Nikolaj Ehlers who left the game against the Wild in the 3rd period after a brutal hit by Ryan Hartman and didn’t play for the remainder of the game, although the good news for him/the team was that he was on the bench and celebrated the win with his teammates.

Morning Skate news:

As per Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet a few guys missing from the optional skate including Nikolaj Ehlers, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Adam Lowry. He also indicated Cole Perfetti is skating at practice in a red, non-contact uniform. The most recent update on him came five days ago where Rick Bowness indicated they were going to give him a couple of weeks to continue to work his way back.

Wieber confirms that David Rittich will start the game to the surprise of nobody. He also indicated that Josh Morrissey, Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Nate Schmidt stayed on for extra work so they combined potentially with one of the three missing are likely your healthy scratches tonight.

Lineup news:

Wieber confirmed that the Jets will rest Pierre-Luc Dubois, Nikolaj Ehlers (UBI), Josh Morrissey, Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Nate Schmidt.

Recall news:

Veteran forward Dominic Toninato will be recalled and will play tonight against his former club.

Injury news:

The team will hold Nikolaj Ehlers out due to an upper-body injury according to Ken.

Warm-up:

As per Jamie Thomas of Jets/CJOB the lines are listed below.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Namestnikov-Kuhlman
Barron-Toninato-Maenalanen
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Gustafsson-Stenlund-Jonsson-Fjallby

Samberg-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Stanley-Capobianco

Rittich
Hellebuyck

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

Topics:

1) Lineup decisions.
2) What’s the latest with Ehlers? (:22)
3) What made Toninato the right selection from Moose? (:42)
4) Does this resurgence the last six weeks happen without the play of Adam Lowry? (1:11)
5) Lowry’s leadership skills (2:14)
6) Does he have any concerns for Ehlers playing game 1? (2:56)
7) His thoughts on the Pionk fine and the one-game suspension for Hartman? (3:08)
8) The Minny game feeling like a playoff game. (3:32)
9) Does how they got win help leading into playoffs? (4:16)
10) Did his players enjoy his exchange with Wild coach Dean Evason? (4:48)
11) Toninato’s attitude since being assigned (5:30)
12) Guys wanting to play 82 games (6:14)

Betway Odds:

Given that the Jets are likely to be rolling without a lot of regulars and the Avalanche are pushing to regain top spot in the Central (they are a point back of the Stars with a game in hand) this contest is balanced heavily in favour of the home team. Also helps that they have a 21-13-6 record at home. 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).