Game Day Set-Up: Jets @ Lightning

When: Saturday, March 14, 2015

Time: 6:00 p.m. CST

Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa Bay, Florida

Records: Winnipeg Jets (33-23-12, 78 points, 9th in West), Tampa Bay Lightning (42-20-7, 91 points, 3rd in East)

Television/Radio: SN, SUN/ TSN 1290 Radio

On the Horizon: Tuesday, March 17th at home against the San Jose Sharks (7:00 p.m. CST)

Last Game: 4-2 loss to the Florida Panthers

Top Scorers:

Winnipeg Jets: Andrew Ladd (23 goals, 32 assists, 55 points), Bryan Little (24 goals, 27 assists, 51 points), Blake Wheeler (19 goals, 32 assists, 51 points), Dustin Byfuglien (15 goals, 27 assists, 42 points), Mark Scheifele (11 goals, 28 assists, 39 points)

Tampa Bay Lightning: Tyler Johnson (25 goals, 40 assists, 65 points), Steven Stamkos (37 goals, 25 assists, 62 points), Nikita Kucherov (25 goals, 31 assists, 56 points), Ondrej Palat (15 goals, 37 assists, 52 points), Ryan Callahan (21 goals, 26 assists, 47 points)

Game Day Notes:

– Tonight is the last game of a four game road trip for Winnipeg. The Jets lost to Florida 4-2 on Thursday night and are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games.

– Jets Season Road Record: 16-12-7

– The Jets have a record of 7-5-2 against teams in the Atlantic Division this year

– The Jets have a record of 23-1-6 when leading after two periods.

– The Jets have a record of 0-19-4 when trailing after two periods.

– The Jets have a record of 20-12-6 when they outshoot their opponent.

– Tampa Bay’s Season Home Record: 26-6-1

– The Lightning lost their last game 3-2 to the Boston Bruins and are 7-2-1 in their last 10.

– The last time these two teams played was way back on October 24th at MTS Centre with the Lightning defeating the Jets by a score of 4-2.

– Ondrej Pavelec is expected to start in goal for the Jets tonight. In 38 games this season, Pavelec has a record of 13-14-7 with a .910 save percentage, one shutout and 2.56 Goals Against Average. This will be Pavelec’s first start in 9 games.

– Bryan Little (upper body) has been ruled out for tonight’s game.

– On Friday, Jets forward Matt Halischuk was activated off Injured Reserve. Halischuk will play for the Jets tonight. Halischuk last played in a game on January 29th. Halischuk has two goals and five assists in 38 games this season.

– Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to start in goal for the Lightning tonight. In 12 games this season, Vasilevskiy has a record of 6-3-1 with a 2.37 goals against average and .917 save percentage.

– Jets defenseman Tyler Myers will not play tonight and is out indefinitely with an upper body injury. Myers injured himself during the second period of Thursday night’s game against Florida.

– Due to the Tyler Myers injury, Paul Postma will get back into the line-up tonight for the Jets. Postma has not played in a game since January 8th. Based on the game day skate, Postma will play on a pair with Mark Stuart.

– On Friday the Jets re-called Keaton Ellerby from the St. John’s IceCaps of the American Hockey League.

– According to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times, defenseman Matt Carle will return to the line-up for the Lightning tonight. Carle has not played in a game since mid- January following abdominal surgery

– According to Joe Smith, defenseman Braydon Coburn will be out of the line-up for four to six weeks with a lower body injury. The Lightning acquired Coburn from the Philadelphia Flyers prior to the NHL Trade Deadline in exchange for Radko Gudas and a 2015 1st round pick and 2015 3rd round pick.

– Red Hot for the Jets: Mark Scheifele has three goals and five assists in the last eight games.

– Red Hot for the Lightning: Steven Stamkos has nine goals and five assists in the last 15 games

– Ice Cold: Jim Slater has no points in the last 13 games.

– Milestone Watch: Bryan Little needs four more assists to reach 200 career assists.

– Milestone Watch Part 2: Michael Frolik needs to play two more games to reach 500 career regular season games played.

– The Lightning average 3.23 goals for/game, 1st in the NHL. The Jets average 2.69 goals for/game, 18th in the NHL.

– The Lightning average 2.54 goals against/game, 13th in the NHL. The Jets average 2.65 goals against/game, 16th in the NHL.

– Defenseman Victor Hedman leads all Lightning in ice time, averaging 22:40 of ice time per game.

– Lightning Top Face-off Guy: Valtteri Filppula (52.9%)

– Jets Top Face-off Guy: Jim Slater (57.8%)

Special Teams Breakdown:

– Tampa Bay PP (18.0%, 15th in NHL), Tampa Bay PK (83.5%, 8th in NHL)

– Winnipeg PP (17.9%, 18th in NHL), Winnipeg PK (80.8%, 20th in NHL)

Projected Winnipeg Jets Line Combinations:

Andrew Ladd- Adam Lowry- Michael Frolik
Blake Wheeler- Mark Scheifele- Drew Stafford
Jiri Tlusty- Jim Slater- Lee Stempniak
Chris Thorburn- Eric O’Dell- Matt Halischuk

Tobias Enstrom- Jacob Trouba
Mark Stuart- Paul Postma
Jay Harrison- Adam Pardy

Ondrej Pavelec
Michael Hutchinson

Healthy Scratches: TJ Galiardi, Anthony Peluso

Projected Tampa Bay Lightning Line Combinations:

Alex Killorn- Steven Stamkos- Ryan Callahan
Vladislav Namestnikov- Tyler Johnson- Nikita Kucherov
Jonathan Drouin- Brian Boyle –  Valtteri Filppula
J.T. Brown- Mike Angelidis- Brenden Morrow

Victor Hedman- Anton Stralman
Matt Carle- Jason Garrison
Mark Barberio-Andrej Sustr

Andrei Vasilevskiy
Ben Bishop

Healthy Scratches:

Injury Report:

Tampa Bay Lightning: Braydon Coburn (lower body), Ondrej Palat (foot), Cedric Paquette (upper body)

Winnipeg Jets: Grant Clitsome (back surgery, indefinitely), Mathieu Perreault (IR, lower body), Ben Chiarot (surgery, IR), Dustin Byfuglien (upper body), Bryan Little (undisclosed), Tyler Myers (upper body)