Game 9: Jets vs. Islanders projected lines

Doesn’t look like the Jets will skate today as they have a media availability at 10:30 AM.  We heard from Jets coach Paul Maurice yesterday that David Gustafsson and Ville Heinola will both be in the lineup tonight.  Bryan Little seems likely to make his regular season debut after missing the last eight games due to a concussion he sustained in the pre-season finale.  If he does, then it looks like the only question mark is who they will scratch from the 4th line.

AM Skate notes:

As per Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun a few players on the ice for today’s optional including:  Laine, Brossoit, Heinola and Gustafsson along with Little.  He also indicated that he expects Connor Hellebuyck gets the start.

With coach Maurice indicating that Bryan Little isn’t yet ready to return to the lineup the expectation is the team will run the same lines as last game.  We will have to see the pre-game warm up line rushes to be certain about 30 minutes before puck drop.

Projected Lines, D Pairs & starting goalie:

Laine-Scheifele-Wheeler
Connor-Copp-Ehlers
Perreault-Lowry-Roslovic
Bourque-Gustafsson-Appleton

Morrissey-Poolman
Heinola-Pionk
Dahlstrom-Kulikov

Hellebuyck
Brossoit

Audio:

Adam Lowry

Josh Morrissey

David Gustafsson

Coach Maurice:  Status of Bryan Little?  Defensive focus of training camp.  The adjustment the team has had to make with the changes to the backend.  How big a piece will it go towards team identity when he can reunite Copp and Lowry?  How has Ville Heinola handled the last few games?  What did he see from the Islanders game on Long Island?  What have they gotten away from the last couple of games?  Getting back to playing as a five man defensive unit.

Health News:

No Bryan Little tonight according to coach Maurice.  Said they are being cautious.

Quoteable:

David Gustafsson on when it had sunk in that he made it to the NHL:

“Ya. It was almost the day after actually. I got the game jersey. I looked at it back home and I thought ‘Ya I made it to the NHL’, that was a really cool feeling.”

The Jets game him his first game jersey.

Up Next:

Puck drop is at 7:00 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.