Game 9: Jets vs Stars pre-game report

It has been a newsy few days on and off the ice for the Jets but keeping the focus here on the game tonight the big news on Monday was the return of Mark Scheifele who is coming off covid-19 protocols. He was actually skating in a blue uniform at practice yesterday which would convey a third or fourth line role which saw him up the middle with Adam Lowry and Blake Wheeler on either side.  Whether they are the 1st, 2nd or 3rd line will be judged based on their usage and ice time at the conclusion of the game.

The status of Connor Hellebuyck is unknown as he didn’t participate in practice on Monday as he and his wife are expecting the birth of their first child.

For now the projected lines and D pairs are based on practice yesterday and will be updated when skate gets going including who will be sitting from the fourth line.

Pre-skate news:

Seems Hellebuyck’s status came a bit more into focus this morning when Jets PR tweeted out that the team had recalled Mikhail Berdin from the Moose on an emergency basis while also reassigning Kristian Vesalainen, who is waiver exempt.  This also would seem to solidify the configuration of the 4th line which had four players on it yesterday.

Morning skate:

Unrelated to the game but worth noting that Jamie Thomas of JetsTV indicated that prospect Dylan Samberg is on the ice in a yellow non-contact uniform as he recovers from high ankle sprain which he sustained on the first day of training camp.

According to Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet forward Riley Nash stayed out for extra work with Samberg which means it looks like the Jets will go 11/7 this evening.

Lineup update:

Here was the update on Hellebuyck via Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press who tweeted “Connor Hellebuyck is a proud new father. His fiancée gave birth early this morning. All is well with the family of three per coach Paul Maurice. Hellebuyck won’t play tonight.” Mike later clarified that it is his wife not fiancée.

Jets projected lines & D pairs:

Connor-Dubois-Svechnikov
Stastny-Copp-Ehlers
Lowry-Scheifele-Wheeler
Harkins-Toninato

Morrissey-Schmidt
Dillon-Pionk
Stanley-DeMelo
Beaulieu

Comrie
Berdin

Players media availability:

Coach media availability:

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 Paul Maurice.  You can also join us afterwards for our post-game show here (be sure to smash that like/subscribe button).