Stanley Cup Playoffs – Round 1 Game 1: Jets vs. Wild pre-game report

After 82 regular season games which saw the Jets go 52-20-10 ending the most successful regular season for a Jets team the playoffs are finally here.  Today the Jets and Wild will bring some acrimony to the Friendly Manitoba vs Minnesota Nice relationship and turn these two overly friendly regions into bitter (but still pleasant) rivals.

The Jets had a busy day of practice and the projected lines and D pairs listed below are based on it.  If they change this morning at Bell MTS Place we will update.

Pre-skate news:

Jets recalled goalie Jamie Phillips from the Moose.  Suspect this is to give Winnipeg another goalie option for days when Hellebuyck wants to rest.

Morning skate:

According to Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun a few guys skipped today’s optional including “Dustin Byfuglien and F’s Bryan Little, Mathieu Perreault and Paul Stastny” and he indicated these guys stayed on for extra work after skate ended “Jamie Philips include D Tucker Poolman and F’s Jack Roslovic, Shawn Matthias, Marko Dano and Matt Hendricks (who is in a non-contact jersey)”.

Projected lines, D pairs and starting goalie:

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler
Ehlers-Stastny-Laine
Perreault-Little-Armia
Copp-Lowry-Tanev

Extras: Matthias, Hendricks, Roslovic and Dano.

Morrissey-Trouba
Morrow-Byfuglien
Chiarot-Myers

Extra: Poolman

Hellebuyck
Mason

Audio:

Blake Wheeler

Patrik Laine

Coach Maurice:  What is his message to the healthy scratches?  What does he say to Jaime Phillips who comes up in an emergency role?  How does dynamic change for Wild without Suter?  On Eric Staal’s resurgent season.  How would he describe Winnipeg as a hockey town?  What is the responsibility to the fans who have high expectations?  How would he describe Josh Morrissey’s development this season?  Is it overstated the jump from regular season to the playoffs?  On managing players minutes.  What can they do to get to the middle of the ice against a Wild team that is good at protecting the middle.  How does his defence adjust to the Wild attack?  What does he think of the Jets slogan?  On folks who may misinterpret the message.  How close are they to playing the game they need to be playing?  What is Bruce Boudreau like to coach against?

Audio courtesy of TSN 1290 Winnipeg.